JUNE 4TH MASSACRE
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The Tian'an'men Massacre on 4 June 1989 may not be the
sole atrocity that had occurred on the square. Zheng Nian, i.e., the
author of "Life And Death In Shanghai", had mentioned that the
ultra-leftist militia under Peking Mayor Wu De had inflicted a bloody crackdown
on the mourners on the TAM Square on April 5th, 1976. http://museums.cnd.org/China89/ stated a commonly perceived mythical fallacy that "Mao Zedong
labeled the April 5 [1976] event a 'counter-revolutionary riot' and ordered to
'use military force if necessary, but do not open fire'." Zhang Liang, the alias
name author of "Truth About Tian'an'men" [i.e., THE TIANANMEN PAPERS, reviewed by Andrew J. Nathan, Perry Link &
Orville Schell], claimed that on April 5th, 1976, 13 years earlier, the CCP
mobilized 10,000 militia, 3,000 police and 5 battalions of garrison troops,
arrested 388 people, but killed nobody [??? a myth or a
continuous cover-up while Zhang Liang, per Jin Zhong, could very well be Wu Jiaxiang]. Throughout the summer evenings of 1976, I had heard, from the
neighboring people, about numerous horrific stories to the effect that the
Peking militia pierced the mourners with spears, dumped the passed-out victims
to the crematorium, or spared death some woman victim who climbed out of the
dead corpses. Most of the stories had come from the "business clerks of working
units" who travelled out of town, incidentally. Over 20
years ago, Qian Jiaju wrote that hundreds of Peking citizens were killed by the
Peking militia in 1976, and some 50 bodies were shipped to Shanghai for
cremation.
While the April 5th, 1976 crackdown was related to
mourning late premier Zhou Enlai, the Tian'an'men Massacre on 4 June 1989
[massacre of the Peking city to be exact] would be related to mourning late CCP
general secretary Hu Yaobang. The significant difference of the 4 June 1989
Massacre from that on April 5th, 1976 would be the fact that reporters from
the news media all over the world, who had converged upon Peking for the
Gorbachev visitation and the World Bank meeting, had witnessed the communist
killing machines, i.e., tanks, machine guns, bayonets and dumdum bullets. By
daybreak of 4 June 1989, following advice from some wise ass at the CCP Central,
the people's liberation army, which had prohibited the medical staff from
rescuing the wounded people or retrieving the dead corpses overnight, had
cleaned up the streets and the Tian'an'men Square for sake of preventing the
satellites from taking snapshots of atrocious scenes.
Note the
communist slaughter on the Tian'an'men Square was not its first act of terror in
history, and it won't be the last. China and the Chinese lived in terrors since
Peng Pai and Mao Tse-tung launched the rascal-proletariat peasant movements in
1927. Peng Pai had at one time claimed that the communist law would be simply
the execution of landlords once they were caught. Mao Tse-tung, who could
have murdered his New Citizen Society co-founder Peng Huang over 20,000 silver
dollars and were directly responsible for the rascal movement in
Hunan Province in 1927, would be the red-handed culprits in the Purge of
Anti-Bolshevik League during 1930-1931, the Purge of
Trotskyists during 1937-1941, and the Rectification
Movement during 1942-1945.
After obtaining power in 1949, the
Chinese Communists (CCP) launched the "Suppression of Reactionaries Movement" in
addition to the "Land Reform" that would see 2 million landlords and relatively
wealthy peasants executed, not to mention the raging banditry-quelling wars in
the early 1950s that saw millions of anti-communism guerrillas killed by the
communists. (The CCP Bloody Land Reform, however, already started in 1947. See
Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in
a Chinese Village that was first
recorded by William Hinton [Han Ding] whose daughter, Carma Hinton, made the
documentary The Gate Of Heavenly Peace with Richard Gordon.) The "Elimination of Counterrevolutionaries" was further launched in 1955
with the advent of 'Hu Feng Reactionary
Clique'. In between, the CCP never stopped its terror campaign as exhibited by
the execution death of the 1911 Xin Hai Revolution veteran Xia Zhishi together
with elder brother, junior brother [4th son in order] and a nephew in the spring
of 1951 in Hetongxian county of Sichuan Province. The communists launched separate movements of "Three Anti & Five Anti"
in 1951 and 1952, respectively. With the changes in the international arena, i.e., Stalinism being negated
in the USSR in 1956 and the horrors of the Purge being exposed by Nikita Khrushchov, Mao
launched the 'Rectification Movement' on April 27th, 1957. Mao said he had
successfully induced the snakes out of their hibernation and officially launched
the 'Anti-Rightist Movement' in June 1957. The Lushan Meeting of July 2-Aug 16 1959 declared the 'Peng Dehuai
Anti-Party Clique'. After 1959 Lushan Meeting, Mao went on to launch a movement
against the Anti-Rightist Trend to rout another 3,800,000 people. Mao Tse-tung's
terror reached its climax during the Cultural Revolution. only the death of Mao in 1976 would see China enjoy a short respite
from the political persecutions conducted by the Cult, i.e., the CCP. The evil
nature of communism and its Chinese practitioners never changed, ending in the
horrendous massacre in the city of Peking on June 4th, 1989. Following will be links to websites with a vault of pictures about the 4
June 1989 Massacre:
- http://www.freechina.net/Tiananmen/
- http://www.christusrex.org/www1/sdc/tiananmen.html
- http://museums.cnd.org/China89/
Hu Yaobang, Reform & Death
1989 was a turbulent
year for China. In Jan 1989, Fang Lizhi, the former university vice president of
China Science & Technology University in Anhui Prov, wrote an open letter to
Deng Xiaoping in
demand of the release of Wei Jingsheng [i.e., a Democracy Wall activist]. In the
following months, more intellectuals joined Fang Lizhi, demanding the political
reform. In the section on the "Enlightened Intelligentsia" below, we will cover
the parallel thread to the student movement.
on April 15th,
1989, deposed CCP Party General Secretary Hu Yaobang passed away. on the campus
of Peking University, big character posters showed up with the calls for
political reform. on April 17th, ten thousand students swarmed onto Tian'an'men
Square to show respect for the late leader. The next day, tens of thousands of
students converged upon the square and in front of the "People's Great Wall" for
a demonstration against the CCP Central's deliberate low-tone mourning
arrangement. The students raised "seven demands". This would be what I termed
here as the Second Students' Movement in the communist era, not counting
the "red guards" movements that were officially sanctioned and launched by the
CCP. The intellectuals, students and ordinary people across China began to show
respect for this open-minded rectifier of communist faults and torts with
various articles or publications. Newspaper across the country, including the
"World Economic Herald", began to publish series of articles extolling Hu
Yaobang's feats for which he was sacked by "paramount" leader Deng Xiaoping in
early 1987 in the aftermath of the First Students' Movement of Dec 1986.
Hu Yaobang [1915-1989] was a veteran communist cadre who joined the Red
Army Long March as a Hunan
Province teenager in 1934. By 1952, Hu Yaobang was apparently serving the PLA's
Second Field Army in Sichuan Province as some kind of propagandist whom writer
Bai Hua likened to the short statured instigator, Lenin. (I had at one time
thought short statured Deng Xiaoping might have picked Hu Yaobang for the same
physique.) Some writer pointed out that Hu Yaobang differed from most other
communists on the matter of "hiding or revealing the emotions", e.g., crying
sadly upon the news of his father's death, something that was a deviation from
the communist iron-fist style. Bai Hua's article at http://www.secretchina.com/news/articles/4/4/2/62703.html, however, showed that Hu Yaobang was not much different
from the General Heh Long gang who were notorious for monopolizing the detached
houses and villas as well as holding twice-weekly dancing parties with the
skillfull women dancers [i.e., those women who were purportedly selected by KMT
spy chief Dai Li for serving the American military observers and American
officers of "Sino-American Cooperation
Office" which was a collaboration project with the US navy information bureau.]
Bai Hua, i.e., the party organizer and dancer picker in Sichuan
Province in 1952, stated that only Deng Xiaoping did not like to dance with the
women but play bridge card game. (Though, Deng was ascertained to be a womanizer
as well among the communist ruling clique, and said to have an affair with a
nurse in a hospital.) Not long time ago, in 1945, the CCP was accusing the KMT
of taking custody of five 'zi' suffixed commodities including fang-zi [houses],
nuu-zi [women] and jin-zi [gold] from the collaborators with the Japanese
invaders. General Heh Long was commonly known as a monster of lust, by the way.
And, first CCP Sichuan provincial secretary Li Jingquan or his pal Yan Hongyan
could possibly be the executor who decapitated Wang Shiwei on the bank of the
Yellow River in 1947. In Sichuan Province, Gao Wenjun witnessed the execution of
two classmates as a warning to 3000 KMT Whampoa 23rd Session cadets who were
sold out to the PLA by the schoolmaster. Throughout the early 50s, the People's
Liberation Army had engaged in banditry quelling, often slaughtering the KMT
[more precisely anti-communism resistance fighters] captives in hordes.
http://www.secretchina.com/news/articles/4/5/14/65096.html carried an eyewitness recollection of the PLA officers
[from Qin Jiwei's unit] eating livers from the KMT captives.
Hu Yaobang, who was sent to Sichuan Province, hence bonded his
relations with the communist leaders of Sichuan Province nativity, including
Deng Xiaoping. After Deng Xiaoping re-asserted his control over the CCP by
toppling Mao-designated heir Hua Guofeng in 1981, both Zhao Ziyang and Hu
Yaobang were selected as the right-hand and left-hand men. [To gain a historical
review of Zhao Ziyang, check Li Dali's comment on Zhao Ziyang's implication in
the "each and every village must have
blood-letting" movement in Guangdong
Province in the early 1950s. Also check Jin Zhong's writing on the execution death of Zhao Ziyang's father [Zhao
Wenbin] while Zhao Ziyang was the CCP deputy regional secretary for Puyang of
Henan Prov.)
In 1977, Wang Juntao was set free after spending nine
months in prison for participating in the April 5th, 1976 movement. Also in
1977, Ba Hua first drafted a drama entitled "The Twilight" to criticise the
leftist catastrophe of the 1930s, and paralyzed CCP former public security
minister Luo Ruiqing, for his red-handed role in the 1930 persecution as well as
his victim role in the cultural revolution, had doubts about exposing the
communist darkness. In late 1970s, after the fall of the Gang of Four
(ultra-leftists), the CCP's 3rd Plenary of the 11th Central Committee proposed
liberalization of thoughts in late 1978. Hu Yaobang, acting as deputy
schoolmaster of the CCP Party Academy, advocated for "practice being the sole
measure for validating the truth". By 1979, Hu Yaobang, as the CCP Propaganda
Department chief / CCP Secretariat secretary-in-chief, rectified hundreds of
thousands of communist persecutions dating to the 1955 Hu Feng Clique. Hu
Yaobang had been responsible for rehabilitation and rectifying the CCP faults
and torts beyond the cultural revolution. Bai Hua stated that initially Hu
Yaobang was furious over one scholar when the said scholar gave an inverse
question: "Don't you think there exists one case that should not be
rehabilitated since the founding of the country?" The 'Wounds Literature' popped
out, describing various persecutions and tortures that the communist leaders and
their families had endured during the CR. The movie 'Bitter Love' described two
lovers and their stories during the CR. Some movies ("Legends Of Tianyunshan
Mountains", e.g.) carried the 'Wounds Literature' further, beyond the CR, to the
Anti-Rightists Movement of late 1950s.
The Democracy Wall movement,
which was built on top of a public poster area near the 38th Route Bus stop,
would erupt in 1978. Deng Xiaoping, for the poster's targeting Huan Guofeng's
observing "two whatever Mao Tse-tung said or did", would alert the foreign
reporters to the presence of the "Xidan Democracy Wall". Soon, Wei Jingsheng
publicly criticised Deng Xiaoping as someone who would become the second
dictator and called for democracy [i.e., the 5th modernization] in addition to
the "four modernizations". Inside of Beijing University, Wang Juntao & Zhou
Weimin launched the "Beijing Spring" magazine, while Wei Jingsheng participated
in the "Search" magazine. Hou Xiaotian mentioned that Wang Juntao, during a
visit to secretariat-secretary Hu Yaobang in July 1979, was told: "Old brother,
as to playing politics, the skillset of you guys was not up to par yet." (Hu
Yaobang, in reference to Song Dynasty reformer Wang Anshi's failure, mentioned
to Wang Juntao that he and 14000 soldiers could not defeat 3000 government army
commanded by General Fu Zuoyi [see first shot of communist civil war for Fu Zuoyi's feats].) Liberal criticisms of the CCP,
heralded by the "Xidan Democracy Wall" activists, would end as an episode called
the 'Beijing Spring' by
late 1979. Wang Juntao stopped publishing the "Beijing Spring" magazine in 1980.
Political control was tightened after Deng successfully overthrew Mao-designated
heir (Hua Guofeng) on Jan 29th, 1981. A woman worker, by the name of Fu Yuehua,
was arrested for carrying a poster on the Square in protest of 15-year sentence
that Wei Jingsheng received.
In 1980, Wang Juntao, Hu Ping and Chen
Ziming participated in the first wave of "free elections" on the university
campuses for the Peking district representatives of the National People's
Congress. (For the active role in the grassroot democracy movement, they were
almost kicked out of the Peking city at graduation in 1982.) Also in 1980, the
"bodily-system [i.e., structure] reform institute" was established, with members
being mostly young scholars who were influenced by the Western economic
theories. Nicknamed the "peasant party", young scholars, from 1980 to 1986,
first proposed the "contractual system" for peasants to develop agriculture.
As a reward for Hu Yaobang's proactive role in blasting Hua Guofeng
[for the "leftist" mistakes, including attempts at making himself an icon
similar to Mao], Deng Xiaoping made Hu Yaobang into general secretary of the
Communist party in 1980 and party chairman in 1981. Zhao Ziyang tacked on the
premier post in 1980. At the 6th Plenary of the CCP 11th Central Committee in
June 1981, Deng Xiaoping himself changed seat to the CCP Military Committee
chair in lieu of the rubber-stamp post at the People's Political Consultative
Conference.
Deng Xiao-ping, to justify his crackdown on the 'Xidan Democracy Wall', would launch the theory of 'Four Insistencies',
namely, Insisting on the Communist Dictatorship [i.e., the People's Democratic
Dictatorship]. A warning, related to the criticism of the Movie 'Bitter Love',
was issued to the entertainment industries and the propaganda ministry. Bai Hua
said that Hu Yaobang had protected him on the matter of "Bitter Love" though Hu
Yaobang refused to watch the movie himself in Jan 1981. on April 20th, 1981, the
"People's Liberation Army Newspaper" issued a commentary stating that "four
insistencies should not be violated". (The "People's Liberation Army Newspaper",
the "Peking Daily" and the "Peking TV Station" were said to be controlled by the
most conservative faction of the CCP.)
Throughout 1981, Hu Yaobang, on
numerous occasions and during several meetings, tried to compromise between the
"enlightened" writers [i.e., Bai Hua and Ba Jin etc] and the conservative [i.e.,
reactionary] communists. In late 1983, a short term movement called 'the
Anti-Bourgeois Liberalization & Anti-Westernization' was launched, but it
lasted 27 days due to lack of support. The CCP devised a term called the
"spiritual contamination" for the Westernized thoughts. on Dec 29th, 1985, the
Chinese Writers' Association, per Bai Hua, held a liberalized meeting to which
senior CCP leaders, like Hu Yaobang, Wan Li, Xi Zhongxun, Hu Qili and Bo Yibo
etc attended.
In 1984, Wang Juntao and Chen Ziming both courageously
resigned their jobs at the government agencies for launching non-governmental
research institutes, respectively. Societies and associations flourished both in
societies across the country and on the campuses. Various science &
technology development companies were established across the country, leading to
formation of the so-called "China-Silicon Valley" in Zhongguancun of Beijing
where the Sitong [Stone] Computer Company would be labeled a 'black hand' after
the massacre for its sympathy with and donations to the student movement. German
"superman philosopher" Friedrich Nietzsche writings revived as happened during
the "new culture movement" of 1910s, and young students, like me, nevertheless
felt lofty after reading a few pages about the "superman". (Incidentally, at
about this time, entering China's market would be Christopher Reeve's 1978 3-D
movie "Superman" which college students watched as part of so-called "communist
youth league" entertainment activity.) Coinciding events would be the
publication of Bai Yang's "The Ugly Chinaman" in 1985. Also prevalent
among the college students would be ideas of the "futurologist school of
thought", Alvin Tofler, and "The Third Wave" that were propagated by Wen
Yuankai. Su Xiaokang, i.e., a then cultural-national nihilist in my present
opinion, presided over a six-part anti-tradition/anti-culture TV serial entitled
the "River Elegy" ("He [Yellow River] Shang [mourning]). (What Su
Xiaokang did not know, by embracing the wholesale Westernized "blue sea
civilization", would be something more disturbing: Su Xiaokang may never realize
a racial weakness among the Chinese people.) In the summer of 1986, Deng
Xiaoping proposed "hastening up political reform". Fang Lizhi toured the
colleges and universities with preaching of democracy. With Zhao Ziyang and the
"bodily-system [i.e., structure] research institute" in charge of economic
reform, Hu Yaobang sought the assistance of Chen Ziming and Min Qi in
establishing a separate "China Politics & Administration Research
Institute". Wang Juntao was hired over from the Wuhan city by Chen Ziming.
After Hu Yaobang's loss of job, the "China Politics &
Administration Research Institute" was renamed to the "Social, Economical &
Scientific Research Institute of Peking". (Chen Ziming, Min Qi & Wang Juntao
claimed to herald "economic positivism" in China beginning from 1987.) Zhao
Ziyang was to become the "interim CCP General Secretary" while Li Peng tacked on
the premier post. Another 'Anti-Bourgeois Liberalization Movement' followed in
early 1987. Three prominent intellectuals, i.e., Fang Lizhi, Liu Binyan and Wang
Ruowang, were singled out by the CCP Central, to be stripped of party
membership. Soon, Zhao Ziyang himself began to act in a "liberal" [or
bourgeoisie] way, wearing the Western suits and sun-glasses, playing golf, and
executing on sensitive politics without consultation with the "paramount"
leader. (Lin Mu cited Li Honglin's May 17th, 1989 conversation in pointing out
that Zhao Ziyang disbanded Deng Liqun & Xiong Fu's conservative CCP organs
right after assumption of the CCP general secretary's post, and further
protected Bao Tong, Li Honglin & Yu Haocheng etc from being put on Deng
Liqun's blacklist.)
The First Students' Movement
In December of 1986,
the First Students' Movement erupted in major cities of China, demanding
democracy as well as punishment of corrupt officials. Li Bei pointed out, at
http://www.secretchina.com/news/articles/4/6/2/66074.html, that it was the result of Fang Lizhi rotating
visitation to major universities that led to the 1986 student movement across
the country in 1986. Fang Lizhi visited the Shanghai campuses around Nov.
Several newspapers, including the 'World Economic Herald' reported on the
speeches. (However, I had also heard from my highschool classmate that Fang
Lizhi might have tried to stop the students from going out of the campus of the
China Science & Technology University, which impressed me as something
similar in behavior to Fang Lizhi's seeking asulym inside of the U.S. embassy in
Peking after the 1989 massacre. Zeng Huiyan's 1988 book, "Records Of Student
Movements In Mainland China" [Jan 1989 edition, Globe Publishing House, HK],
pointed out that deputy schoolmaster Fang Lizhi pleaded with 2000 students for
'rationality' in front of the library of the Chinese Science & Technology
University [CSTU] on Dec 5th, 1986.)
2500 students left the library for
the streets at about 1:15 pm on Dec 5th, with slogans such as "Long Live The
Republic!", "Reform The Election System", "We Want Democracy, Not Cracy-demo".
The First Student Movement's trigger started with Dec 1st campus poster in
regards to the communist party branch secretary's secretive internal assignment
of regional candidates for the western Hefei city district of the National
People's Congress [NPC]. Days later, on Dec 4th, inside of the CSTU
auditorium where student leaders proposed their NPC regional candidacy, Fang
Lizhi made a speech about democracy; however, the second day, Fang Lizhi
cautioned against going to the streets. Wen Yuankai, at the auditorium, also
made an encouraging speech, and mentioned NPC chief Wan Li's comment as to the
"democratic administration of CSTU" [a comment made in Wan Li's Nov 30th visit
to the campus]. Anhui University heard about the commotion inside of CSTU, and
coordinated for the second day parade with students of CSTU. on Dec 5th, the
CSTU students converged with Anhui U & Hefei Industrial U in front the
municipality building, causing a firestorm across the nation when the students
in Wuhan, Kunming, Nanking, Shanghai, Jinan, Tianjin, Haerbin, Hangzou, Suzhou,
Shenzhen, Guangzhou & Beijing echoed their support.
On Dec 9th, in
commemoration of the 12-9-1935 student movement, CSTU launched another protest.
The Wuhan students in Wuchang of Hubei Province went on the street on the same
day. Two days later, the CSTU poster appeared on the campus of Beijing
University.
In Shanghai, then mayor Jiang Zemin [i.e., later CCP
secretary-general after 1989 masacre], was hush-hushed off the stage of
auditorium of Shanghai Jiaotong University when he tried to rein in the student
protesters. Before leaving the stage, Jiang Zemin exhibited his ugly 'mouth
& face" by threatening a student: "Dare you tell me your name and your
department?" Note that Jiaotong University did not participate in the protest
movement till one of their students was hit by the gymnasium picketing staff on
the night of Dec 9th: The gymnasium workers hated to see those Chinese,
especially the Chinese girls, jump onto the stage to dance with the American
"Jan & Dean" rock'n roll team. (The Chinese populace were not used to the
kind of racial "openness" in the old days, whereas today it could be said to be
an ironic and ludicrous fad.) After the newspapers refused to report on the
violence, the Jiaotong U students wrote a public poster on campus on the 15th
[which was not related to the Dec 10th poster in regards to CSTU student
movement]. After the campus security staff tore apart the poster, students came
up with a new batch of posters on the 16th, this time, talking about the
political agenda in lieu of punishment of the gymnasium culprits. Students
representatives held an unsuccessful dialogue with the city police. After the
"Youth Newspaper" scrapped 40,000 pieces of printouts with the "reader's
response" covering the gym matter, Jiaotong U, together with Tongji U, decided
on a demonstration on the night of Dec 17th. on the morning of Dec 18th, the
Jiaotong U students were said to engaged in zigzag wars with the campus security
in re-posting the notices after being torn apart. Jiang Zemin suddenly made a
decision to see the students for the "dialogue"; however, the students refused
to go to the 400 person hall inside of the Bao-zaolong Library. Surprised that
the library was quiet but bragging that he feared nothing as a 'senior student
leader of the 1940s', Jiang Zemin was then steered to the auditorium. Dialogue
ended up to be held inside of the 4000 person auditorium where Jiang Zemin
rushed to the stage, received a round of applause at the introduction of
schoolmaster Weng Shilie, talked about three notable figures [like him] who
graduated from Jiaotong, and hoped that a 4th person would derive from the ranks
of 'listening [to communist party]' students. When Jiang rebuked liberty as
something first proposed in the West 200 years ago, the students were offended.
Jiang's order to stop hush-hush was ignored. 25 students and one teacher came up
to the stage to raise questions. Jiang ultimately lost his face after
entanglement for 4 hours.
While Jiang Zemin rushed to Jiaotong,
municipal party secretary Rui Xinwen went to CENU where he failed to see any
student activity. 2000 students from Tongji started the parade after noon
without advance knowledge of the Jiaotong University dialogue with the mayor.
After wrestling with 300 teachers for one hour, about 1000 students, with
banners, broke out of the campus gate. The Tongji U students, however, changed
course towards Fudan U, scaring the gatekeepers into a closure. The students
marched through the campus of Fudan, but failed to rally any support. The Tongji
students were steered back to the campus after i) college-sanctioned "student
society" leader took control of the banner and ii) 500 students were persuaded
off the parade by the teachers.
After checking out the 'treachery' of
Jiaotong U, the college students of Shanghai coordinated for the Dec 19th
massive demonstration. on Dec 19th, the Shanghai students mounted a massive
protest, with impact seen near the municipality building on the Bund as well as
the NPC building at the People's Square. 2000 police were deployed against the
sitting-in students in front of the municipality under Jiang Zemin's order. Yang
Wei, a student who returned from U.S., was arrested. Both Tongji U and Fudan U
held banners claiming to be supportive of i) Deng Xiaoping and ii) the reform.
China Eastern Normal University [CENU] also joined in after the initial student
activity was repressed by the campus party secretaries in mid-Oct. Some radicals
climbed over the fence of the NPC building on Dec 19th.
The police
bureau of the Shanghai Municipality put up "six rules as to public security" at
the square as a detente on Dec 23rd. Rumors of the police barbarity against a
Tongji student in Shanghai spread to Hefei, leading to a 3rd wave of protests
among the CSTU students on Dec 23rd. The CSTU students demanded a dialogue with
the city, ending in a petition letter submitted to the city by the CSTU leaders.
The students dispersed at night when the city agreed to make a response to the
student demands within 3 days. The Hefei Municipality backed down by delaying
the voting to Dec 29th and allocating an extra four quotas for CSTU. The CSTU
students then organized the 'NPC election campaign speech corps" for propaganda
both on campus and on the streets. Both Fang Lizhi and Wen Yuankai, plus a
student called Sha Ma, were elected. The world media descended upon Fang Lizhi
for reporting on the NPC election and the student protest. Voice of America
poured gas onto the fire by alerting the communist conservatives to the
democracy activities.
On Dec 29th, 1986, the People's Daily published
an editorial, with a claim that "talking democracy does not mean departing from
the path of four insistencies", and hinted "a handful of conspirators..." By
late Dec, there were rumors in Peking stating that Hu Yaobang would be sacked.
on New Year Day 1987, the students again swamped onto the Peking streets. Two
weeks later, in Jan 1987, CCP General Secretary Hu Yao-bang was forced to resign
by Deng and the Politiburo. Numerous memoirs pointed to Hu Yaobang walking out
of the politburo meeting with tears, still unconvinced that some of his
politburo allies had lodged untrue accusations against him for the soft stance
on the students and intellectuals. (Per Wu Jiaxing's writing, Zhao Ziyang had nothing to do with Hu Yaobang's
sacking, and later took in the followers of Hu Yaobang.)
The CCP's Economic Crimes
During the
ensuing two years, the political liberalization enhanced the economic corruption
among the "prince and princess gang", with Zhao Dajun [i.e., Zhao Ziyang's son]
and Deng Pufang [Deng Xiaoping's son] becoming the prime targets of the
students. Hu's death in 1989 would trigger the Second Students' Movement
which ended in the June 4th Massacre of 1989. During the Second Students'
Movement, the students mounted attacks at the phenomenon of "guan dao" [i.e.,
the commodity resale by governmentally sponsored organizations] and blamed it on
the princeling party. Complicating the corruption issue would be price hike of
major consumer products around the turn of the year. Yuan Mu, i.e., some speaker
of CCP Central, would become the most hated communist cadre for his
TV-broadcasted message of "price adjustment".
http://www.secretchina.com/news/articles/4/5/29/65847.html carried an article in regards to the nature of "guan
dao", stating that it was the CCP Central's evil "two track system" that led to
"guan dao", not the princeling party. The CCP Central, at the time of economic
reform in mid-1980s, distributed the "production & consumption materials" to
the "state enterprises" at planned-economy price and to the "non state
enterprises" at market-determined price. The category of the "non state
enterprises" would include mostly sub-regional factories or working units, like
the shire-township enterprises [i.e., "xiang-zhen"]. (In section on the
'All-People Registers' vs 'Collective
Registers', we used Ma Hong's Economic
Annals to define the "inferior" Collective Register Enterprises as those that
did not enjoy the government subsidy.)
Similar to the
agri-industrial scissor differential that discriminated against the peasant
entity [non-privileged class] versus the city dweller entity [privileged class],
the CCP Central's "two track system" served the only purpose of differentiating
further between the privileged class and the lesser-privileged class. The
princeling party or the "prince and princess gang", with firm grip of the
Nation's "production & consumption materials", could easily make a living by
signing "referral letters" or selling the "surplus materials" for a market gain.
After the Tian'an'men Square Massacre, the communists found another
game, i.e., the land enclosure
movement that would see the peasants deprived of their fields at non-market rate
in the name of urbanization and industrialization as well as saw the city
dwellers forced to relocate on the pretext of "remodeling on the dilapidated
houses". The Communist leadership, in collaboration with world capitalists, had
been making windfall profits in selling land development permits or
sub-contracting construction projects like skyscrapers, so-called 'noble'
district for single-family residencies, high-rise luxury condominiums and
shopping centers.
Land, a resource owned by the State [i.e., CCP], was
always a taboo topic prior to Deng Xiaoping's post-massacre "relaunching
economic reform with a southern tour of the SEZs [special economic zones]".
Having brought to the U.S. the newspaper clips from the "World Economic
Journal" spanning multiple years, I finally threw them away. Nobody had
really been able to predict the massive "land enclosure movement" that occurred
in China after the 1989 massacre. Neither did Wang Juntao's "Economics
Weekly" make a good forecast on the subject.
Heralding "economic
positivism" since 1987, Chen Ziming, Wang Juntao and their "Social, Economical
& Scientific Research Institute of Peking" played two constructive roles, i)
calling attention to the social, economic & political crises, and ii)
transplanting the Western economic theories and concepts, including stagflation,
development economics, corporations as legal entity [i.e., "economic person"],
existence of economic cycle in socialist economies, welfare system, and income
distribution, government subsidy to city-dwellers. Wang Juntao, in 1988-1989,
was wrongly pointing to the "economic interests" as the barrier to internal
reform by the communists, not "political conservativism". 15 years later, at a
forum (http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/4/6/4/n558888.htm), Wu Renhua, with Wang Juntao & Wang Dan, would
have to agree on the fact that China's path to democracy and freedom could be
even more tenuous due to a mutant communist party built on top of the "economic
interests" rather than the "ideological perseverance". 15 years after the
massacre, against the context of world-wide rising price in copper, scrap
metals, oil and cement [pulled by the strong demand from China] would be the
following scenes: the state-owned enterprises had been dissipating into the
hands of a handful; young or middle-aged workers were terminated the employment
in exchange for one-time payout; peasant migrant workers succeeded the most
hazardous jobs in mines and factories; and hundreds of thousands of peasant
children swamped to coastal economic zones as slave labor or child labor. In the
background would be breaking-down families, a predatory and selfish human
character, and the morally degenerate society.
The Enlightened Intelligentsia & Petition
Movements
Bao Zunxin, author of "Insider Stories of June 4th: An
Unfinished Nirvana" [Wind & Cloud Publishing House, April 1997 edition,
Taipei, Taiwan], gave recollection of the parallel thread to the student
movement. (Bao Zunxin, similar to the majority Chinese folks, including the
communists, had been either shy or timid, i.e., omitting the word "massacre", in
giving name to his book.) "Insider Stories of June 4th" started with
his Jan 28th, 1989 attendance of the "New Enlightenment Salon" gathering inside
of the Dule Bookstore at the invitation of the female proprietary owner Yu
Yansha. Yu Yansha, who had a same name bookstore in the Shenzhen Special
Economic Zone, was a sociable woman capable of liaisoning with the
"distinguished" people both inside and outside of the "system" [i.e.,
government].
The Saturday gathering was originally intended for Wang
Yuanhua's "new enlightenment book series" which did not look solid in the eyes
of Bao Zunxin. Both Wang Yuanhua & Wang Ruoshui were the hosts. (Wang
Yuanhua & Bao Zunxin, in 1988, adopted the term "new enlightenment" on basis
of a term first proposed by the CCP propagandists, Chen Boda & Heh Ganzhi,
in the 1930s.) At the scene, Bao Zunxin encountered Jin Guanshou & Liu
Qingfeng couple who claimed that CCP leader Hu Qili had warned them in regards
to a speech by Jin Guanshou that "the failure of some socialist countries was
one of the two major events of the 20th century". Jin Guanshou was the organizer
of the "21st Century Research Institute" and brought along his members like
Zhang Gang and Jia Xinmin. Semi-retired communist theorists, like Li Rui, Dong
Dalin, Qin Chuan, Hu Jiwei & Li Chang, also came. Together with the people
"inside of the "system" would be those guys who had lost favor with the
communist leadership, including Su Shaozhi, Li Honglin, Yu Haocheng, & Wu
Mingyu. Representing Chen Ziming's "Social, Economical & Scientific Research
Institute of Peking" would be Min Qi, and representing Li Shengping's "Social
& Scientific Development Research Institute of Peking" would be Zhang
Xianyang, Li Ming & Yan Jiaqi.
To the surprise of Bao Zunxin, Fang
Lizhi, the former university vice president of China Science & Technology
University in Anhui Province, suddenly descended upon the salon, with almost
simultaneous photo sessions by a few foreign reporters who had been waiting at
the scene with advance knowledge, of course. Fang Lizhi stated that recently he
wrote an open letter to Deng Xiaoping demanding the release of Wei Jingsheng
[i.e., the Democracy Wall activist] in accordance with the U.N. "human rights
declaration" that China [R.O.C.] had signed in 1948. Fang Lizhi further stated
that in the past, he had adopted the approach of "fighting the communists inside
of system" by requiring that all staff members of his research institute at
China Science & Technology University enroll in the CCP. Fang Lizhi
claimed that he had now decided to "fight the communists from outside of
system". After Fang Lizhi dropped the bomb, silence reigned in the salon.
With the impasse, Wang Yuanhua announced the dismissal of the gathering shortly
afterward. Bao Zunxin was disappointed that nobody at the salon had mentioned
the term "new enlightenment".
Three days after the salon event, Bao
Zunxin received a call from a friend "inside of the system", i.e., a warning in
regards to Fang Lizhi's subversive activities. Bao Zunxin realized that he could
be on a blacklist by then. In Hubei Province, Long Yuequn of Hunan Education
Publishing House was interrogated by the public security bureau for attending
the salon event. In Shanghai, Wang Yuanhua received assurance from CCP deputy
branch secretary Rui Xinwen in regards to the salon gathering. (Rui Xinwen
belonged to the moderate CCP leadership, by the way.) After the massacre, Bao
Zunxin asked Wang Juntao repeatedly whether any "black hands" were behind the
student movement. Wang Juntao mentioned that some intellectuals did give
opinions and ideas to the students. However, Bao Zunxin stated that only Fang
Lizhi had made visits to Peking University while Wang Ruoshui, after the 1987
purge, had shunned himself from campuses.
Bao Zunxin likened Fang
Lizhi's inflamatory speech to writer Lun Xun's description of "the Chinese
populace who were sound asleep in a dark house with no windows". In the
following months, more intellectuals joined Fang Lizhi, demanding the political
reform. on Feb 12th, Sunday, poets Bei-dao [northern island] and Lao-mu [old
wood] visited Bao Zunxin at his house. (I am not sure whether it was Bao
Zunxin's new residency inside of "ti-zhi [bodily-system] gai-ge [reform]
yian-jiu [research] suo [institute]". Do note the communists played game with
terminology in differentiating between ti-zhi [bodily-system] and zhi-du
[system].) Bei-dao, who claimed he just returned to China but would leave for
Britain again soon, produced an open letter for Bao Zunxin to sign, which was a
followup to Fang Lizhi's call for the general amnesty on two occasions: i) the
40-year anniversary of the founding of the PRC on Oct 1st, and ii) the 70th
anniversary of the May 4th Student Movement. It turned out to be the
33-signature open letter, with the first signatory being Bai-dao and the last
one being Chen Jun. Bao Zunxin did not get to know the involvement of Chen Jun
till he heard about a denounciation by a judicial ministry official on radio on
Feb 22nd. In the following days, Bao Zunxin was shown a government-printed
bulletin by Zhang Gang as well as received a copy in the mail about the
33-signature open letter. Senior female writer Bing-xin [icey heart] published a
clarification letter on a HK newspaper on Feb 21st, claiming she did not know
who Chen Jun was. Also in HK, the CCP underground agents published an article
about Wei Jingsheng's crimes on "Da [grand] Gong [justice] Bao
[newspaper]". The CCP then transcribed the the two HK newspapers onto
semi-internal party newspaper "News For [Your] Reference" as a propaganda war,
ironically without carrying the contents of the original 33-signature open
letter. Jing Jun of Peking University asked whether Bao Zunxin would be willing
to be interviewed by the American Broadcasting Corp. Bao Zunxin suggested Wang
Ruoshui as a candidate for the interview.
Chen Jun, a contributor to
the U.S.-based "China Spring" magazine, had been engaged in
anti-government activities via following covers, i.e., possibly possessing a
U.S. permanent residency status, participating in the "Chinese Modern Arts
Exhibition" in Peking, and operating a "Jie Jie Bar" sort of business in Peking.
Chen Jun, often rebuking the Chinese intellectuals as "cowards", subsequently
organized the "work panel for general amnesty in 1989" by assembling a group of
artists and intellectuals inside of his bar for signatures. By early March, Bao
Zunxin was contacted by Taiwan's "xin xin wen" [i.e., New News] for comments on
Chen Jun's signature collection activity. It is clear that both the
communists and the activists were utilizing the same trick of "exporting for
sake of re-importing news reports". While some professor at Peking
University wrote a self-criticism, Bao Zunxin authored an article for a Taiwan
newspaper clarifying his standground on the open letter.
Synchronizing
with Bai-dao and Chen Jun's signature collection activities would be that by Xu
Liangying who took advantage of Hu Jiwei's "forum on democracy issues" held on
Feb 26th inside of "Research & Development Company of Capital Steel &
Iron Corporation [CSIC]". (The 60-participant "forum on democracy issues" was an
activity organized by the "democracy series" editorial committee and "Research
& Development Company of CSIC".) With Wu Jiwei absent from signature
activity due to the People's National Congress membership, Xu Liangying
assembled Li Honglin, Yu Haocheng, Zhang Xianyang, Wu Jiaxiang and Cao Siyuan
etc for drafting and revising a declaration that was attentioned to the top 4
CCP leadership, i.e., Zhao Ziyang, Wan Li, Li Xiannian & Li Peng. About 42
people, mostly scientists, signed the petition which was published on HK's "Jing
[mirror] Bao [newspaper]".
Thereafter, the CCP clamped down on dissent
by prohibiting the scheduled convention on "comparing the May 4th Movement &
the French Revolution" in Hubei Province. on March 14th, the opening ceremony of
Chen Kuide & Wang Yan's "Thinker" magazine was cancelled when Qianmen
[front citygate] Hotel and subsequently Nanhua [southern China] Hotel declined
them at the intervention of the state security ministry. At the lobby of Nanhua
Hotel, Dai Qing, i.e., some adopted daughter of senior CCP leader Ye Jianying,
took advantage of the stranded crowd in launching a new 43-signature petition
movement which Bao Zunxin declined. Dai Qing later claimed that she, Su Wei and
Chen Kuide signed their names out of the fury over the meeting cancellation. one
week later, Dai Qing, in the name of HK-Taiwan intellectuals, requested for Bao
Zunxin in launching another petition movement which both Bao Zunxin and Yan
Jiaqi did not concur with. Someone from HK, by the name of Zhang Langlang,
called Bao Zunxin as to the refusal. Bao Zunxin further mentioned that the New
China News Agency announced on March 28th that some HK visitor was banned from
entry into China at the Tianjin airport. (Never underestimate the communist
infiltration abilities !!!)
The
Second Students' Movement
Students at Peking University
seemed to be the propelling force behind the assembly of meetings and
demonstrations. They demanded the political reform and "democracy civilization".
Unlike Qinghua University, Peking University was noted for the democratic
spirits that went back as far as the "new culture movement" of the 1910s. In
contrast, Mao Tse-tung's communist regime had a tradition of trashing
"curriculum of arts" and emphasizing on "curriculum of sciences" [for sake of
Atomic Bomb Project, e.g.] since taking over power in 1949, yielding the
sarcastic result that majority of CCP Politburo members were graduates of
Qinghua University no matter their diplomas were real or faked.
After
the death of Hu Yaobang on April 15th, 1989, at Peking University, big character
posters showed up with calls for the political reform. Some memoirs pointed out
that the "big character posters" followed the first appearance of the "small
character posters" on campus. Top two issues raised by the students would be: i)
restoring the reputation of Hu Yaobang; and ii) reversing the CCP Central
Committe's decision in regards to the 1987 'Anti-Bourgeoisie Liberalization
Movement'. Inside of Peking University, student leader Wang Dan, who had
obtained a permission to establish the "democracy salon" at a corner near the
Cervantes Statute, was said to have constant contacts with the Fang Lizhi
couple. Graduate student Feng Congde, who claimed to have no interest in
politics, dropped off to read the big character posters in the "triangle area"
when his computer at the lab broke down. Feng Congde claimed that Chai Ling,
i.e., his ex-wife, was a woman interested in going to the U.S. via 'F-2 spouse
visa' for material pursuits but nevertheless got involved in the student
movement because of him.
On the 16th, Bao Zunxin received a call from
Sun Changjiang stating that Hu Yaobang's son, i.e., Hu Deping, had set up an
altar at the Hu residency. At the time Bao Zunxin planned to go to Hu Yaobang's
house, a Taiwan female reporter called him with information about the "big
character posters" inside of Peking University. (Bao Zunxin had a habit of often
riding in Wang Limei's car in exchange for tips and news to the Taiwan
newspaper.) Bao Zunxin rode on the reporter's car for the university, and
stopped by to express condolence to Hu Deping who allowed the public access to
his house where people lined up around the building already. Bao Zunxin managed
to go inside Peking University by claiming to visit an acquaintance, and
observed lots of big character posters, poems and eulogies at the San-jiao-di
[i.e., triangle area]. Bao Zunxin then visited the People's University where he
located an acquaintance called Yu Shuo for information. Yu Shuo pointed out that
the students had been going to dance parties and other entertainment activities
while writing the big character posters in commemoration of Hu Yaobang
simultaneously. Bao Zunxin later visited the two universities two more times, on
the 18th & the 24th, respectively.
On April 17th, in Shanghai,
students from Eastern China Normal University, per Shi Tao, also went
onto the streets. In Peking, ten thousand students swarmed onto the Tian'an'men
Square to show respect for the late leader. The next day, tens of thousands of
students converged upon the square and in front of the "People's Great Wall" for
a demonstration against the CCP Central's deliberate low-tone mourning
arrangement. Students raised the "seven demands". Bao Zunxin pointed out that
the students first proposed the "five demands" on April 17th, that Wang Dan of
Peking University proposed the "nine demands" on April 18th, that Qinghua
University proposed their demands on the 19th, that Wang Dan revised on top of
Politics & Law University's demands to derive the "seven demands" on the
19th, and that the People's University proposed the "ten demands" on the 18th.
(The CCP did authorize commemoration activity but did not offer the usual elegy
of calling Hu Yaobang "a great Marxist". Lin Mu, who wired a condolence message to Li Zhao, came back to
Peking on May 9th to join the 'Hu Yaobang Life' writing panel at the CCP Party
History Publishing House.)
Students First Beaten By the Police
During Confrontation
On April 19th, 1989, students from colleges and
universities of Peking were in confrontation with the police on the Tian'an'men
Square, near the Zhong-nan-hai [middle southern lake] CCP Party Apparatus. The
students briefly breached the police cordon and called the name of Li Peng,
i.e., China's premier. By the night, the police attempted to dispel the crowd by
force at the Xin-hua-men [New China] Gate. News soon spread, leading to the
widespread support from students across the country. Next day, escalated
confrontations were classified as the "April 20th Xinhuamen Incident".
On the campus of Beijing University, Xiong Yan claimed to
be the first student who jumped out of the crowd to make a public speech in
calling for formation of the "autonomous student union". Students organized a
"preparatory committee of the student movement of Peking University" when nobody
from the communist party or youth league organizations came out to assume the
leadership.
Bao Zunxin stated that he, like other intellectuals,
deliberately kept a low profile for avoidance of being "a handful of
conspirators" in the eyes of the CCP Central. Thus, during two initial visits,
Bao Zunxin could not locate the big character posters at the People's
University. on April 20th, Bao Zunxin declined the proposal from Wei Qun of the
"China Youth" magazine in lending support to the students who were beaten
up by the police the previous night. In the afternoon, Yuan Zhiming called Bao
Zunxin in regards to the student demonstration, and Bao Zunxin agreed to meet
with Yuan Zhiming at the People's University. Having called over his [Taiwan
female reporter] driver, Bao Zunxing went to the campus where they, together
with Wang Runsheng, Chen Xuanliang and Rong Jian, convened a meeting inside of
Xie Xianjun's house. They decided upon a draft calling for a dialogue between
the government and the students. (Here comes an important criticism of the
Chinese intellectuals as a whole: acting as "mediators", not leaders.) Then,
they made arrangement for the signature collection on the east side and west
side of Peking the next day. The next day, the 21st, on the east side of the
city, Bao Zunxin brought the letter into the "Academy of Social Sciences" and
obtained signatures from the History Institute, the Marxism Institute and etc,
including those of Yan Jiaqi and Yu Haocheng. (Cao Siyuan declined to sign.) Bao
Zunyin sent along the college student to the homes of Su Shaozhi and Wu Zuguang
for signatures. By 6:00 pm, on April 21st, the intellectuals with progressive
thoughts, i.e., Bao Zunxin and Yan Jiaqi etc, numbering 47, who were mostly
counsellors in Zhao Ziyang's "wise brain nucleus", published, on the poster area
of both Peking University and People's University, an open letter to the CCP
Central with a call for heeding the students' demands. In early morning of April
22nd, Zheng Yi brought the open letter to the Square and read it to over 10,000
sitting-in students.
Zhao Ziyang's "wise brain nucleus" would include
Wu Jiaxiang, i.e., the top representative of the school of thought on
"neo-authoritarianism": Wu Jiaxiang was bent on likening China's dictatorship to
the autocracy under Singapore's Li Guangyao. (Wu Jiaxia purportedly tendered his
resignation letter on the morning of June 4th.) Throughout the late 1980s,
numerous scholars and intellectuals published articles on the Shanghai-based
"World Economic Herald", touching on mostly economic reforms that would
include sub-contracting, stock-holder ownership, and reform measures on
salvaging the state enterprises. The death of Hu Yaobang would shift the focus
of those scholars and intellectuals to the taboo topic of "political reform"
instead of "economic reform".
The Dramatic Act of Students Kneeling
Down To Present a Petition To the CCP
On April 22nd, 1989, the CCP
Central held a funeral for late Hu Yaobang, with high remarks for his feats
albeit omitting the reason why he was sacked in Jan 1987. Millions of Pekingers
lined up on the boulevard to see the funeral van pass by. The funeral somehow
pacified the students.
However, a dramatic event kicked up again when
three students, including Guo Haifeng, knelt down on the steps in front of the
People's Hall with a petition. When the communist leadership refused to receive
the students, the students were in tears. on April 23rd, the students at Peking
University, who had overthrown the party-sanctioned student union, would convene
a "joint meeting" in the name of the "Peking Interim Consolidated Student Union"
[i.e., 'bei gao lian'] and called for a general strike on May 4th, 1989. Student
activist Zhou Yongjun tacked on the "chair" post of the "Consolidated Student
Union of Colleges & Universities in Peking" from April 23 to April 27th, to
be followed by Wu-er-kai-xi [i.e., on the April 28 & 29th] and Feng Conde
successively. Feng Congde claimed that he did not know Wang Dan nor heard about
the "democracy salon" at the beginning.
On April 23rd, the CCP Peking
Branch Commissar Committee convened a meeting for party branch secretaries of
colleges and universities in Peking. The CCP leaders, such as Li Tieying, Heh
Dongchang & Liu Zhongde attended the meeting. Later in the evening, an
expanded meeting was held by Li Ximing & Heh Dongchang for both principals
and branch secretaries of 67 colleges and universities. Also on April 23rd, Chen
Mingyuan stood out at the "Triangle Area" of Peking University by blasting at
the CCP Central's name-calling on radio on the 19th & 20th. Chen Mingyuan
denied that any "unidentified people with ulterior motives" were behind the
students.
On April 24th, 200 college teachers and professors called on
the CCP Central to conduct a dialogue with the students in the spirits of the
CCP Central's 13th Central Committee resolutions. Politics and Law University
cautioned against the crackdown by force. on the afternoon, the CCP Peking
Branch Commissar Committee conevened a meeting for standing committee members,
claiming to the CCP Central that they had the "methods" to solve the student
"turmoil" which was result of the 'Bourgeois Liberalization' flooding with
implication of reactionaries from both inside and outside of the party as well
as from both inside and outside of the country.
The Crackdown on the
"World Economic Herald", & the "People's Daily" Commentary
Meanwhile, the CCP General Secretary made a scheduled official visit to
North Korea, which turned out to be a bad decision at the time of turmoil: the
CCP Central issued the April 26th Commentary on the "People's Daily" in
the absence of Zhao Ziyang. Wu Jiaxiang disclosed that Zhao Ziyang, before leaving for N Korea on
April 21st, had instructed that no politburo meeting should be held in his
absence but Yang Shankun & Li Peng immediately convened a "CCP Expanded
Poliburo Meeting", then reported to Deng Xiaoping with meeting opinions, and
then borrowed Deng Xiaoping's mouth in stating that the CCP "should not fear
bloodshed". Zhao Zhiyang's self account, recorded by Yang Jisheng, claimed that
it was li Ximing & Chen Xitong who contacted Wan Li on the night of April
21st in request of convening a commissar meeting; that Wan Li relayed the info
to Li Peng. Hence, Li Peng convened the meeting on the night of the 24th,
reported it to Deng Xiaoping on the 25th, and was authorized to relay Deng's
opinions to the communist cadres; and that Li Peng took advantage of the
occasion to draft a newspaper commentary for publication on April 26th.
On April 25th, 1989, CCP's secretary in Shanghai, i.e., Jiang Zemin,
cracked down on the dissent by ordering a re-organization of Qin Benli's
"World Economic Herald". This independent herald action by Jiang Zemin
would later pave the way for him to assume the role as the CCP general secretary
in place of Zhao Ziyang after the massacre. Several writings exposed hatchetman
Jiang Zemin, a student of puppet Central University in Nanking in the early 1940s, had wavered between pro-Deng and
pro-Zhao camps during this interval. In deed, the communist bureaucrats all over
the country, who had observed the developments on the Square for discerning the
wind's direction, would pay for their wrongly choosing the side after the
massacre.
In Peking, "paramount" leader Deng Xiaoping listened to the
reports by Li Peng and Chen Xitong in regards to the student movements. (Bao
Zunxin cited Chen Xitong's reports in pointing out that it were Hu Qili & Li
Ximing who had reported to Deng Xiaoping on the morning of April 25th.) Deng
Xiaoping made a decision that this student movement, being a turmoil [i.e.,
rebellion], should be dealt with under the "conspicuous flags" [i.e., the
straightforward CCP guidelines].
On April 26th, the CCP's throat and
tongue, i.e., the "People's Daily", published an editorial [authored by
Hu Qili & Yang Shangkun] against the "student riots", claiming that the
riots should be dealt with under the "conspicuous flags". In Shanghai, Jiang
Zemin's CCP Shanghai Committee announced the dismissal of Qin Benli's
editor-in-chief post. (Qin Benli was renowned for his constant claim of playing
ping-pong ball by the edge of the table. It was said that Jiang Zemin, on the
New Year Day of 1989, had pretentiously assisted Qin Benli in passing the
scolding by the CCP Propaganda Department in regards to the publication of Su
Shaozhi's sensitive article that Zhang Weiguo had privately obtained for relay
to Shanghai's newspaper agency. Before the series of aricles in commemoration of
Hu Yaobang, Qin Benli had allied with Taiwan "United Newspaper" in publishing
Qian Jiaju's article. After the April 15th death of Hu Yaobang, Qin Benli
published scripts of a forum discussion that Zhang Weiguo had co-hosted with the
"Observer" panel against the objections from Wang1 Daohan & Jiang Zemin. It
was Zeng Qinghong & Chen Zhili who had raised the issues.)
The
Central TV Station first broadcast the "People's Daily" editorial on the
night, about 7:00 pm, accusing the student movement of being "anti-Party and
anti-socialism". (Bao Zunxin stated that it was Xu Weicheng who drafted the
editorial, for which Xu was promoted to the post of deputy minister for the
CCP's Propaganda Department after the massacre.) At about 9:00 pm, the students
from major universities called Bao Zunxin with their plan for a massive street
protest the next morning. Bao Zunxin immediately contacted Tao Siliang [i.e.,
daughter of Tao Zhu and a deputy bureau chief under the CCP's United Front
Ministry] for mediation. Bao Zunxin requested for Tao Siliang to relay a
"restraint" message to the CCP Central in the name of 100 intellectuals.
Meanwhile, the teachers and professors were trying to stop the students from
leaving campuses.
The Massive Demonstration on April 27th
On
April 27th, tens of thousands of students went on the street to protest against
the "People's Daily" editorial, claiming that the student movement was
patriotic. Students again breached the police cordon. The CCP-controlled State
Council, headed by premier Li Peng, promised to conduct a dialogue with the
students. (Government records, per Chen Xiaoya, stated that after the "April
26th Editorial", in the timeframe of April 27th to May 5th [per Zhang Liang],
for a second time, army units from the 38th group army, i.e., the 6th tank
division, the engineering regiment and the communications regiment, about 5100
soldiers, were sent to the Great Hall in Peking via 234 trucks in the name of a
"preparatory force for stopping the turmoil". The "preparatory force for
stopping the turmoil", later withdrawn, would apparently serve as the sweeping
force again on June 3rd, which clearly invalidated the claims that
blindfolded soldiers from the remote areas were employed for the bloody
crackdown.)
Later on April 29th, during a "Modern Culture Research
Society" meeting inside of the Academy of Social Sciences, Tao Siliang
claimed that everybody had passed April 27th peacefully, with "college students
behaving 'lovely' and the communist party successfully withstanding a test of
democracy". At the meeting, Dai Qing suggested that Bao Zunxin wrote a
letter to the CCP in appreciation of the restraint.
On April 29th, Feng
Congde succeeded from Wu-er-kai-xi the "chair" post of the "Consolidated Student
Union of Colleges & Universities in Peking". on April 30th, Zhao Ziyang
returned to Peking from North Korea. Bao Tong immediately conveyed the
"student reactions to the 4-26 Commentary" to Zhao Ziyang.
On this day, Bao Zunxin attended a "May 4th 1919
Movement" forum hosted by the Asian Pacific Times at the Lu Xun Museum.
At the meeting, Yuan Zhiming rebutted neo-authoritarianism, and pointed out the
lagging-behind of political reform versus economic reform. Xie Xianjun claimed
that this student movement did not have the behind-the-scene manipulators in
contrast with the KMT-era student movements in which the CCP played a role. Bao
Zunxin criticised the April 26th commentary as well as Yuan Mu's speech. Fei
Yuan of the "Economics Weekly" stated that the April 20th news report as
to police brutality on the night of the 19th by the Xinhua News Agency was
untrue. Chen Mingyuan displayed photos about the students' kneeling with
petition after the April 22nd funeral.
The Hunger
Strike & the Student-CCP Dialogue
On May 1st, the Peking students
issued a letter to the HK compatriots. on 2nd, the Shanghai students, numbering
hundreds of thousands, paraded on the streets and marched to the gate where the
CCP Shanghai Committee was located. Shanghai students demanded the freedom of
press and revocation of restrictions on demonstrations. on May 3rd, Ding Shisun,
i.e., the schoolmaster of Peking University, expressed sympathy for students but
advised against parading outside of campus.
Elsewhere in the country,
the college students had already taken advantage of the May 1st Labor Day for
liaison and travels. Some students travelled to Peking on their own accord,
while some students were dispatched to Peking as "relief". The May 4th Youth Day
was utilized as a rallying opportunity. At http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/4/5/31/n554809.htm, Pan Qiang of Shandong University stated that the
Shandong University students secretly made preparations for their May 4th
demonstration on the evening of May 3rd, 1989. (In the communist so-called
"sacred land", Yan'an University launched a demonstration on May 15th, 1989.)
On May 4th, CCP General Secretary Zhao Ziyang, during a meeting with
the Asian Bank board, expressed his opinion that the students, "still supportive
of the CCP and the reform", had their grounds in expressing dissatisfaction over
corruption and the CCP's mistakes and blunders. (Bao Tong authored the World
Bank speech for Zhao Ziyang.) The next day, at the same meeting, Premier Li Peng
stated that the government did not approve "some" actions of the students who
had caused disruption and havoc with strike and protests on the Chinese
continent.
Hunger Strike
After May 4th, 1989 parade, the
students returned to campuses, and classes resumed. Chai Ling claimed that it
was Zhou Yongjun who proclaimed a return to school by betraying the student
movement. Feng Congde claimed that he had hence resigned the "chair" post of the
"Consolidated Student Union of Colleges & Universities in Peking" on
May 6th and returned
to school for preparation of the graduation thesis. Feng Congde's professor was
happy to see him back in lab and commented that China, with so many patriotic
youth, again had hope now. However, the computer broke down again, and Feng
Congde returned to the Tian'an'men Square.
Li-zi-jing, at http://www.secretchina.com/news/articles/3/10/16/53075.html stated that it was Li Xiannian & Bo Yibo who
proposed to Deng Xiaoping on May 6th that the CCP Central must take "drastic
measures" against the student movement. Deng Xiaoping convened an interim
meeting the next day and demanded a concerted understanding within the
Politburo. Li-zi-jing further stated that Deng Xiaoping went to Wuhan of Hubei
Province on May 8th for rallying the army support, and had meetings with
commanders of various military disctricts from the 8th to the 12th. (Chen Xiaoya
concurred with the May 8th-12th timeframe.)
On May 9th, over 200
reporters and media workers walked to the "National Reporter Association" to
present a petition bearing 1000 reporters and representing over 30 agencies.
Zheng Yi & Su Xiaokang also participated, and later called Bao Zunxin for a
meeting on Dec 12th. Reporters requested for a dialogue with the CCP Propaganda
Department. Over thousand students rode bikes in accompaniment of the reporters.
Bao Zunxin claimed that the May 9th reporter petition movement rekindled the
student movement.
On May 12th, 1989, the People's National Congress
published a notice on newspaper stating their intent to discuss the issues
raised by the students. (Here is another communist compromise that was
ignored by the students.) Hating Zhou Yongjun of
the Peking Consolidated Student Union for aborting the student movement, Chai
Ling talked about a hunger strike at Peking University. When Wang Dan organized
the hunger strike, Chai Ling joined in immediately. Past 10:00 pm, Gao Shan
[i.e., deputy chief of the "political bodily-system reform bureau"] informed Bao
Tong that a comrade from the CCP branch commissar committee at Peking Normal
University had disclosed that the students were planning for hunger strike
beginning on the 13th. Bao Tong immediately instructed Qian Liren that the
notice from the People's National Congress must be re-printed in the most
conspicuous spot of major newspapers by the 13th. Bao Tong asked Gao Shan write
an article appealing for calmness on the part of the students.
On May
12th, Bao Zunxin made a speech at Wang Dan's democracy salon inside of Peking
University. Bao Zunxin met with Zheng Yi & Su Xiaokang at 6:00 pm as
scheduled at the "solidarity lake park". They, including Liu Zaifu and Li Tuo
etc, changed to a nearby hotel for the meeting. With over 40 participants, Zheng
Yi & Su Xiaokang drafted the "May 16th Declaration" in the name of the whole
intellectual arena. Initially, Bao Zunxin advised against a planned May 15th
demonstration by intellectuals, claiming that it might complicate the scheduled
student hunger strike or disrupt the coming Gorbachev state visitation.
Intellectuals set the time at 2:00 pm May 15th and the locality of Fuxing-qiao
Overpass area. They contacted Yan Jiaqi for revision of the declaration at the
end of the meeting.
On May 13th, 1989, at about 2:00 pm, three thousand
students began a hunger strike petition on the Tian'an'men Square. College
teachers and professors organized the "teacher corps to the relief of students".
At night, Yan Mingfu of the United Front Ministry somehow persuaded Wuer Kaixi
into relocating the hunger strike, which Chai Ling et al., declined. (Radical
student leader Li Lu proposed immolation, i.e., a self-burning, on a later
occasion for sake of being the first to die in lieu of the fellow students.)
On this day, per Li-zi-jing, Deng Xiaoping relayed the army commanders' allegiance to
about 15 senior CCP advisory committee members and bragged he was confident that
"nobody else [other than Deng Xiaoping] could mobilize a division, or a
regiment, or a garrison battalion". Deng Xiaoping ordered that the military
district of Jinan of Shandong Province dispatch troops to Peking.
Dai Qing Brokering Mediation Between the CCP & the Students
On the night of May 13th, Dai Qing called Bao Zunxin with an invitation to
the CCP's "Guangming [Shining] Daily" newspaper, claiming that CCP leader
Hu Qili had requested for assistance in mediating over the students' hunger
strike.
At 2:00 pm, May 14th, Bao Zunxin arrived at the newspaper
headquarter and found out major initiators of the "May 16th Declaration" were
all invited over by Dai Qing. Separately, on May 14th, Zheng Yefu of the Academy
of Social Sciences paid a visit to Wang Juntao & Chen Ziming at the
"Economics Weekly" agency, claiming that Yan Mingfu of the CCP United
Front Department had requested for mediation. Wang Juntao & Chen Ziming
hence got involved in the student movement.
At the meeting, student
leader Wang Chaohua was sent over by the CCP United Front Ministry, with an
urgent appeal to mediating over the students' hunger strike. After Dai Qing
talked over the phone with the United Front Ministry, Bao Zunxin and his gang
were given a meeting place inside of the Tao-ran-ting Park for a meeting with
the students. Wen Yuankai, Su Xiaokang and Yan Jiaqi drafted an appeal on behalf
of the CCP but added a clause stating the Chinese intellectual's determination
to be in the same trench as the students should the CCP eat their words. Bao
Zunxin, having failed to discern the political standground of the "Guangming
[Shining] Daily" editor-in-chief, left the scene with doubts about the
authority behind this mediation request. At the park, the folks pressured Dai
Qing into signing her name in the first spot, which would become something to
implicate her with a prison term after the massacre. Dai Qing, like many other
opportunists, merely used her imprisonment for gaining the international
prestige after the massacre.)
After a short meeting with about 20
students, the mediators were trucked away to the CCP United Front Ministry by
Dai Qing. Dai Qing claimed to the students that whatever the "intellectual
mediators" had talked about at the newspaper agency would be published by
tommorrow. After winning applauses from the students, the crowd went to the
Tian'an'men Square for sake of persuading students into stopping the hunger
strike. When they arrived at the scene, it was already darkness.
Wen
Yuankai, Li Honglin and Yan Jiaqi, went to the square to express support for the
hunger strike students. With Dai Qing's suggestion, Wen Yuankai requested that
the hunger students stop their action should the intellectuals successfully
obtain two conditions from the CCP, including the appearance of Zhao Ziyang
& Li Peng onto the Square. Students answered with a roar, demanding that
Zhao Ziyang & Li Peng must say something instead of just appearing at the
square. Dai Qing counter-offered by asking the students whether it would be OK
for Zhao Ziyang & Li Peng to state one sentence that the "students were
patriotic". Students answered 'Yes'. Having returned to the CCP United Front
Ministry [UFM], CCP UFM chief Yan Mingfu just stated, "Thank you folks. I will
find cars to send you guys home in a while." Bao Zunxin realized that the demand
that Zhao Ziyang & Li Peng say the "students were patriotic" did not pass.
Before they left, Li Tieying came in and commented that "history would have its
verdict" when Bao Zunxin questioned the reluctance of the CCP leadership in
meeting with the students. (Hou Xiaotian pointed out that on the night of May
14th, Wang Juntao & Chen Ziming, who did not know any student leader
personally, participated in the mediation that failed as a result of i) lack of
equipment for the direct broadcasting, & ii) refusal of the "hunger strike
corps" in having a dialogue with Yan Mingfu & Lie Tieying.)
About
the 13th-14th, Hu Qili told Bao Tong that he had responsibility in drafting the
April 26th Commentary with a harsh tone. The CCP media, like the Central TV
Station and the "People's Daily" carried large amount of footage about
the hunger strike.
Across the nation, college students organized into
the "hunger strike expedition teams" for Peking. Donation activities were held
throughout the country for sake of aiding the students on the Tian'an'men
Square.
On May 15th, over 100,000 intellectuals participated in the May
15th demonstration [per Zheng Yi's speech on May 16th]. Bao Zunxin, having
failed to abort the parade, joined in by taking the subway for the concentration
spot. one day earlier, Bao Zunxin had questioned the campus posters which
announced the parade in the names of Yan Jiaqi, Su Xiaokang and him. Bao Zunxin
stated that Zhao Yu was the general director of the parade, with Zheng Yi and
Zhang Boli acting as deputy directors. By the time the intellectuals arrived at
the Square, some 40,000 people had converged together. Yan Jiaqi, Bao Zunxin,
Zheng Yi and Xu Gang paid respect to the hunger strike students.
On
this day, per Li-zi-jing, over 40 senior CCP leaders contacted Deng Xiaoping for
expressing worries and demanding actions. Deng Xiaoping supposedly replied with
the "martial law enaction" after the scheduled Gorbachev visit.
The Russian & American Implication &
Complicity
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/4/6/3/n557562.htm provided an interesting point as to the Russian
Implication, i.e., the extraordinary visit by Gorbachev on May 15th, 6 hour long
secret talk between Deng Xiaoping & Gorbachev on the same day, and most
importantly, the acquiesce of the Russians as to the "June 4th Massacre". Quite
some people had speculation that Jiang Zemin, i.e., the handpicked CCP secretary
after the massacre, could be a KGB-hire agent. In deed, Jiang Zemin's politburo
cronies were mostly Russian-trained "technocrats".
On May 16th, Deng
Xiaoping had a meeting with Soviet leader Gorbachev. on the afternoon, at the
turn of Zhao Ziyang's meeting with the Russian, Zhao Ziyang made a public
comment in regards to a non-secret, i.e., the CCP Central had an agreement that
Deng Xiaoping should be the ultimate helmsman of the Chinese communist party, a
remark that was interpreted in different perspectives up to today. (The CCP
Central, after the massacre, accused Zhao Ziyang of "disclosing the state
secret".)
Now back to the American implication & complicity. James
Liley, the American ambassador to China, disclosed that he had first reported to
Washington D.C. on May 21st, 1989, that China's communist leaders would likely
crack down on the demonstrations. Liley, who had authorized his spies to lease a
hotel room at a hotel near the TAM Square, intended the U.S. Government to step
in to exert some pressure on the Chinese communist leadership so that no blood
would be shed. However, after his return to D.C., Liley would find out that
President George Bush had claimed that he never received the ambassador's
report. Embassy officials, Larry Wortzel & Bill McGiven, had firsthand
information on the death toll of the June 4th Massacre which the U.S. government
deliberately skipped the same as what it did to the John Birch Murder of 1945.
-- Like John Birch,
James Liley, whose brother Frank Liley committed suicide in Japan in 1946 over
the Atomic horrors in Hiroshima, appeared to be one of the very few Americans
who had sincere sympathy with the Chinese cause.
Fingers Pointing
Direct At the Paramount Leader
With Zhao Ziyang making the helsmanship
remark, students and teachers then pointed their finger direct at Deng Xiaoping
in a likening to the "dowager emperor". Per Bao Zunxin, some graduate student by
the name of Xing, who had part time studies under Chen Ziming's research
institute, had suggested on the night of May 16th that Bao Zunxin lead a new
campaign against Deng Xiaoping. Bao Zunxin and Xu Gang then went to the square
to have a discourse with the student leaders after passing four student cordon
lines. While some student leader agreed that Deng Xiaoping was the obstacle,
nobody really believed that "targeting Deng Xiaoping" was a good idea. After
returning home, Bao Zunxin received a note left by Chen Ziming, but did not get
to ask him again what the purpose of Chen Ziming's visit was.
Bao Tong claimed that
it was him who had suggested that Zhao Ziyang disclose to Gorbachev the matter
of helmsmanship. Apparently, Zhao Ziyang's "wise brain nucleus", whether
intentional or unintentional, fomented the student movement in the direction of
forcing Deng Xiaoping into a resignation. At about 5:25 pm, on May 16th, Yan
Minfu arrived at the Square for a dissuasion of the students, was allowed to go
to the student command center at the center of the Square alone, promised to the
students that he had been authorized to inform the students that no reprisal
would come from the government, obtained the concurrance from Wang Dan &
Wuer Kaixi, but was rebutted by the radical students. In another perspective,
the students did not have good understanding of nor coordination with the
"democratic elements" inside of the government per Su Shaozhi. At 6 pm, on May 16th, presidents of ten colleges and
universities issued a call for the student-government dialogue after seeing that
400 students were sent to the hospitals due to fatigue from the hunger strike
and that some Peking U teachers joined the ranks of hunger strike students.
On the same day, Bao Tong, i.e., Zhao Ziyang's secretary, convened a
"law specialist meeting" inside of the "Political Bodily-system [i.e.,
structure] Reform Institute" in regards to ten Peking municipality regulations
on demonstrations and rules as to explicit registration of societies and
associations. At the night, the CCP Central standing committee leadership held a
meeting that lasted 2 hours past midnight, with topics covering how they were to
respond to the hunger strike students in written form.
Millions of
Peking citizens echoed their support for the hunger strike by mounting protests
and demonstrations. All over the city, radios, both short wave and medium wave,
were tuned to broadcasts from the BBC, VOA and Taiwan stations. Songs like the
National Athem and the communist classics "Internationale" were in play. Vendors
gave out soft drinks to students and teachers for free, and parks around the
Tian'an'men Square were open for trepassing without the need of a ticket.
Thieves claimed to have stopped their action for the occasion. Motocyclists
organized a "flying tiger" band for relaying messages. Almost every single
government bureau, division, department or entity sent in their delegation of
protesters to the Tian'an'men Square. 200 professors and teachers of Peking
University made a visit to the hunger strike students on May 15th. Newspapers,
magazines, radio stations and TV had either softened their stance or expressed
sympathy with or support to the student movements.
Later, on the
morning of May 17th, Bao Zunxin noticed that a lot of people surrounded a truck
near the International Hotel. It turned out to be a truck from some college,
carrying a sign "Deng Xiaoping, Quit The Job". Also in the morning, Zhao Ziyang
had issued a written notice to the students in the name of "himself, Li Peng,
Qiao Shi, Hu Qili, and Yao Yilin", again emphasizing that the government would
not "settle the debts in the autumn".
The Intelligentsia's May 16th
Declaration
On May 16th, at about 4:00 pm, during the scheduled "news
conference" at the "triangle area" of Peking University, Zheng Yi read aloud the
"May 16th Declaration" of Chinese intellectuals. (One day earlier, on May 15th,
they already proclaimed the declaration on the Square.)
After Zheng
Yi's speech, Bao Zunxin protested against the "Shining Newspaper" appeal dated
May 15th, and Zhang Boli announced an appeal from top 10 professors from Peking
University. Bao Zunxin rebutted a HK report as to "toppling the Li Peng
government", and Li Tuo explained from the medical perspective how students had
agreed to taking milk for lengthening the hunger strike. After the massacre,
Chen Xitong, i.e., then Peking mayor, accused the intellectuals of conspiracy on
the 12th, 14th & 16th.
The "May 16th Declaration" cautioned the CCP
against the shame of various student movement crackdown in the 20th century,
admonished the CCP of its wrongdoings in various persecution movements,
criticised the CCP Shanghai's closure of "World Economic Herald" newspaper, and
promulgated the responsibility of Chinese intellectuals in the political
participation. 260 signatures collected included Li Zehou, Ji Xianlin, and Wen
Yuankai et al. (Lin Mu stated that he did not join the May 16th declaration by
distinguished leaders in theories [i.e., the CCP theory], news media and arts
arena inside of Peking University. However, Lin Mu called two top CCP theorists,
i.e., Hu Jiwei & Li Honglin, for updated news about the situations and
status quo. Lin Mu mentioned that he had heard the conflicting slogans, with
some people equating Zhao Ziyang and Li Peng together for a replacement of Deng
Xiaoping. Further, Lin Mu mentioned that during the May 17th visit to Li
Honglin's house, he was told that PLA 38th Corps Chief Xu Qinxian had
antagonized the CCP Central on the matter of refraing from military crackdown.
Xu Qinxian, wrongly said to be son of General Xu Haidong, was said
to have been arrested after massacre. Lin Mu then went to the square to give a
support declaration for which he would go through the investigation after
massacre.)
The CCP Politburo Decision on the Martial Law, & the
"May 17th Declaration"
On May 17th, the CCP Politburo held a meeting
inside of Deng Xiaoping's residency. Deng Xiaoping proposed the "Martial Law"
enaction in Peking; however, Zhao Ziyang opposed it by requesting for a
resignation. Zhao Ziyang, on this day, promised to the students that the CCP
would not launch a "post-autumnal persecution" should the students stop the
demonstration.
In post-massacre 'self-criticism' style confession, Bao
Tong stated that Zhao Ziyang called him over to the Zhao residency during
supper time and disclosed that they had a meeting inside Deng Xiaoping's
residency at noon [May 17th]. Zhao Ziyang mentioned that the decision made
at noon [i.e., the martial law] was a secret that he could not divulge but did
tell Bao Tong that he was criticised for the May 4th talk. Zhao Ziyang first
asked Bao Tong to draft a resignation letter, and admonished Bao Tong as to
"keeping secrets" because some people [i.e., Li Peng] already complained that
Bang Tong had a loose mouth. (Bao Tong stated that Li Peng had intentionally
excluded Bao Tong from auditing the CCP standing committee meetings on April
24th & May 16th, respectively. After return to his office, Bao Tong
assembled his 12 colleagues, claimed that this might be the last gathering
together, and advised them against being a Juda.)
On this day, in the
morning, Bao Zunxin already noticed a truck carrying a sign "Deng Xiaoping, Quit
The Job". When Bao Zunxin arrived at the "politics institute" at the invitation
of Yan Jiaqi, he was shown a so-called "May 17th Declaration" which was a
denounciation of Deng Xiaoping's old man politics in a likening to "Manchu
dowager empress Cixi". Seeing that the "May 17th Declaration" called Deng
Xiaoping a dictator, Bao Zunxin asked Yan Jiaqi what the opinions of the rest of
folks were like. Yan Jiaqi replied that Yu Haocheng, Li Honglin and Wang Shuren
et al., said they needed time to think it over. After Bao Zuxin signed the
declaration, the rest of people followed. Though two colleagues [Wang Yan &
Sun Yuesheng] expressed restraint, Bao Zunxin would take the declaration direct
to the students' broadcasting station on the Square, and subsequently accepted
an interview by the American Broadcasting Corp again at the referral of Jing
Jun. Thereafter, they observed the massive May 17th Demonstration, with
participants from workers from the "Capital Iron & Steel", peasants from the
Haidian District, students from the Police Academy, reporters from the New China
News Agency, and monks, elementary and middle school students. Slogans at the
parade, however, contained attacks at Deng Xiaoping from then onward. on two
campuses of Qinghua U & Peking U, big character posters from professors also
directly accused Deng Xiaoping of being above the 0.7 billion people, above the
40-million member communist party, and above the law. (After being released from
prison, Bao Zunxin did acknowledge that the name calling was against the
Confucian and Mencian ethics though he denied being a radical. Bao Zunxin cited
the simoulataneous "name calling" on May 17th as something not restricted to the
intelligentsia circle. Citing the fact that the army was first mobilized on May
16th, Bao Zunxin treated the excuse of the "May 17th Declaration" as merely a
blood-mopping cloth of the Li Peng clique. Bao Zunxin ascribed the aborted
movement as a contribution to Deng Xiaoping's resigning the CCP Military
Committee Chair post in Nov 1989 and rescinding the CCP Adviser Committee during
the CCP 14th Central Committee in 1992.)
On early morning of the 18th,
Zhao Ziyang, Li Peng, Hu Qili & Qiao Shi visited the hunger strike students
at the Xiehe [Peking Union Medical College] Hospital and Tongren [St Lukes]
Hospital respectively. Around noon, Li Peng, Li Tieying & Li Ximing went to
the Great Wall for meeting with representatives of the hunger strike students.
(Xiao He, also an "alias" [i.e., the right-hand and left hand of Han
Dynasty Emperor Gaozu], who claimed to
be one time "co-author" with alias Zhang Liang, rebuked Zhang Liang's
"Tiananmen Papers" by claiming that Zhao Ziyang & Li Peng, who
visited the students in hospitals, would not appear in a second place at about
the same time for the so-called "martial law" discussion meeting as covered in
next paragraph, not to mention the authenticity of scripts from the so-called
May 17th secret meeting inside of Deng Xiaoping residency.)
Also on May
18th, as disputed by "Xiao He", the CCP Politburo and the CCP senior leaders decided on
enacting the martial law beginning from midnight of May 19-20th. Zhao Ziyang
requested for a break to avoid concurrance. Hu Qili requested for a personal
appearance by Deng Xiaoping, while Rui Xinwen & Yan Mingfu expressed
reservation as to Deng Xiaoping's opinion per Li-zi-jing. Yang Shangkun relayed Deng Xiaoping's three points. on the
afternoon of May 18th, Deng Xiaoping accused Zhao Ziyang of splitting the party,
suggested that Zhao Ziyang be relieved of his duties, and mandated the "martial
law enaction" from the 19th onward. (Chen Xiaoya cited the government documents
in stating that Yang Shangkun hosted the CCP military commission meeting in the
afternoon, issued the deployment order and established the 'martial law office'.
The 77th Division of the 26th Group Army arrived in the outskirts of Peking at
10:00 pm on May 18th [???]. Check Chen Xiaoya's timeline of three stages of the
military deployment below, i.e., April 22-May 5th, May 19th-May 22nd, and June
3rd-June 4th, for details.)
However, per Bao Tong, Zhao Ziyang
retrieved the resignation letter as a result of Yang Shangkun's criticism: Yang
Shangkun cautioned Zhao Ziyang that the students might very well turn into
further turmoil should they find out about his resignation. Per Chen Xiaoya, on
the night of the 18th, Yang Shangkun dispatched Zhou Yibing to the Baoding city
for replacing 38th corps chief Xu Qinxian.
The CCP, in face of massive
protests across Peking and the Nation, would then adopt a conciliatory approach
by superficially agreeing to a dialogue with the students. In Shanghai, Chen
Zhili allowed the deposed editor-in-chief Qin Belin to appear in public again,
and later dispatched secret emissaries to beg for a "self-criticism" from Qin
Belin in exchange for restoring the editor-in-chief post. (Qin Belin refused to
do self-criticism and further participated in parades on May 22nd.)
In
Jinan the provincial capital of Shandong Province, the CCP provincial secretary,
Jiang Chunyun, held a dialogue with students inside of Shandong University on
May 18th. Pan Qiang of Shandong University claimed that the relationship between
the students and provincial leaders had improved hence. At the night, Pan Qiang and about 20
representatives departed for Peking under the escort of 2000 students. At Jinan
Train Station, 2000 students managed to board the train as well.
Also
on the 18th, Bao Zunxin attended a meeting at Jimen Hotel and discussed whether
it was appropriate to name Deng Xiaoping. one person pointed out that everybody
could tell who the dictator named was. The meeting attendants signed a new
declaration, but Bao Zunxin managed to destroy it after the massacre. Wang
Juntao & Chen Ziming also attended the Jimen Hotel Meeting, and Hou Xiaotian
mentioned that a "negotiation & liaison meeting for loving the country and
safeguarding the constitution" was established. Hou Xiaotian further said that
student leader Wang Dan attended the "negotiation & liaison meeting" on the
19th. on the 19th and later on the 22nd, at the "negotiation & liaison
meeting", Wang Juntao & Chen Ziming were said to have advocated for the
students to adopt the approach of rationality and restraint.
The Martial Law Enaction In Peking
Million people
in HK were in constant parades. on the Taiwan Island, Chinese compatriots were
in full swing to lend support to the students on the Tian'an'men Square.
Donations from around the world, especially those from Taiwan, came into the
Tian'an'men Square. on the square, tens of thousands of tents were set up during
the hunger strike week. Ambulances had been shuttling to and from hospitals,
carrying the students who need an IV once and a while. In the background, the
CIA agents, said to be supported by the U.S. ambassador, had been accused of
liaisoning with the Fang Lizhi couple and student activists for escalating the
student movement. (Should we examine the fact that Fang Lizhi refused to be
China's Sakhrov, then there is ground to believe that the Chinese communists
might actually hold evidence of such a collusion.)
on the early
morning of May 19th, at about 4:50 am, Zhao Ziyang, Li Peng, Qiao Shi, Hu Qili
and Yang Shangkun, riding in two vans and without bodyguards, went to the Square
for a visit to the hunger strike students. (Wen Jiabao, for his role of
accompanying Zhao Ziyang to the Square, had been mistaken as sympathetic to the
student movement.) Zhao Ziyang, with tears, asked the students to stop the
hunger strike, stating that the "students, who had gone into the 7th day of
hunger strike, should live on healthily" and emphasizing the "due process" for
answering the issues raised by the students rather than an immediate decision by
the government.
In the morning, Zhao Ziyang expressed a desire to see
Deng Xiaoping in person and requested for a vacation; however, office director
Wang Ruilin from Deng Xiaoping residency replied that "decision made could not
be reversed" per Li-zi-jing. on the same day, the CCP Central convened a meeting in
regards to the crackdown, and Yang Shangkun and Li Peng first renamed the
"turmoil" as a "pao [mobster] luan [rebellion]". on the night, Zhao Ziyang was
said to have tendered his resignation, which might not be true per Chen Xiaoya.
(Chen Xiaoya pointed out that when Zhao Ziyang returned to office 3 days later,
i.e., May 22nd, his power base was completely gone, only to become another
tragic victim like Qing Emperor Guangxu who was put under house arrest by
dowager empress Cixi.) Alternative recollection pointed out that Zhao Ziyang
had, in fact, merely requested for a three-day sick leave but refused to attend
the "CCP meeting of cadres from the party, administration and army" which, being
an occasion for declaration of the martial law, decided to pull ahead the curfew
to 10:00 am of May 20th from the scheduled midnight of May 21st for fear of
divulsion-related unpredictables. Li Peng, with a stern face, read aloud the
order on the CCTV. (Li Peng's declaration of the martial law could be seen at
http://www.tsquare.tv/chinese/archives/jieyan.html.)
The Student-CCP Dialogue
Female
student leader Wang Chaohua located, on the square, another 'radical' student
leader by the name of Wu'er kaixi [Uygur ethnic] who was said to have slipped
out of the hospital bed with patient gown. Wang Chaohua stated that the
government finally agreed to a dialogue. Across the Nation, the TV would broadcast alive the dialogue as demanded by
the students. (Here is an incredible back-down on the part of the communist
leadership who had butchered their way to power and never hesitated to butcher
more to maintain their power. FYI: Communist China mandated a delay by at least
one minute for all phone calls to the hotlines on TV and radio stations for sake
of censorship. It would be a suicide to think you could call in, shout a slogan,
and get away. Text of the dialogue is available at http://www.tsquare.tv/chinese/archives/jiejian.html.)
Around noon time of 11-12, the people of the
Nation watched the communist leaders stepping into the Hall for a meeting with
the students. Premier Li Peng blamed the traffic congestion for his late coming
by five minutes. (Feng Congde pointed out that the CCP Central deliberately
withdrew the traffic police during the student movement for creating havoc.)
Li Peng, having first stressed to the students that his son [i.e., Li
Xiaopeng] never was involved in "reselling the government-controlled
commodities, would get disrupted by Wuer Kaixi. Wu-e-kai-xi, after
checking with student leader Wang Dan, disrupted Li Peng by pointing out that Li
Peng was not late for five minutes, but one whole month, apparently referring to
the demand for meeting with Li Peng on April 17th. Further, Wu-er-kai-xi, still
wearing the patient gown from the hospital, demanded that it would be up to the
students who were to determine the topics, not Li Peng. Xiong Yan rebutted Li
Peng's claim as to the claim of social turmoil. Meeting was disrupted when Yan
Minfu passed on a note from the hunger strike committee as well as when Wuer
Kaixi had a passout. Wang Zhixin then emphasized to Yan Minfu that this
encounter was merely a face-to-face meeting, not an official dialogue. (Up to
today, the bullying attitude by Wu-er-kai-xi still rang fresh on my mind, while
the majority Chinese had simply concluded that Wu-er-kai-xi was a patriotic
student without a slight doubt for the possibility that a good Uygur was first
of all a "Zionist" who dreamt for an independent Eastern Turkestan nation.)
The breakdown of the Student-CCP Dialogue left no room for a compromise
between the two camps. However, people still held out hope that no bloodshed
would need to happen. Lin Mu, in his continuous liaisons with senior CCP cadres,
visited Wang[1] Feng who
assured him that the troops would not shoot at the students. Lin Mu mistook
Wang[1] Feng's words as representative of Yang Shangkun's stance. (Wang[1] Feng
and Yang Shangkun had been friends since after the Zhiluozhen Battle in 1935.)
At 9:00 pm, on May 19th, the students announced an end to the hunger
strike. At 10:00 pm, Li Peng convened a meeting, officially declaring the
student movement as a riot. The next day, May 20th, Li Peng issued the martial
law order, effective at 10:00 am. From May 20th to May 22nd, the Army failed to
get to the center of Peking. However, small groups of army troops sneaked into
the city or came in through the special underground tunnels by May 24th. on May
25th, the army took over TV and radio stations as well as newspapers.
Army Coming Into the Town
Per Chen Xiaoya, earlier, on the
morning of the 19th, for a third time, army units from the 38th group army at
Baoding, i.e., the 112 & 123th divisions, the 6th tank division, the cannons
brigade, the engineering regiment and the communications regiment, about 15099
soldiers, came towards Peking via 851 trucks, 213 APCs and 33 tanks. Other than
6700 soldiers who successfully entered the army barracks from Wukesong to the
Military Museum, the bulk of troops were impeded at Dajingcun, Bajiaocun,
Jiaojiakou & Liuliqiao. Meanwhile, the 27th Corps at Shijiazhuang departed
at about 8:00 am on a four route advance, to be impeded at Fengtai, Daxing &
Babaoshan. Except for small contingents sent to the train station, telegraph
building and TV stations, the rest of troops were impeded from May 22nd to June
2nd.
On May 20th, in the morning, Chen Yizi and his followers [from the
"bodily-system reform institute"] visited Bao Tong for half an hour to one hour
and mentioned that the army had been impeded by the Peking people. In an
outrage, Bao Tong exposed several "notorious events" about Li Peng's son and
wife, which the "bodily-system [i.e., structure] reform institute" disclosed to
outsiders shortly for printing on leaflets. on this day, the CCP ordered that
the military take control of TV stations, radio stations and newspapers.
Students across the country immediately blocked the railway tracks for
preventing the army from being dispatched to Peking. The Shandong Province
students lied down on tracks at the Baimashan Train Station of Ji'nan city on
May 20th.
The student command center on the Tian'an'men Square
announced the start of a new hunger strike. Over 200,000 students again
converged upon the Square, and millions of Peking citizens went on the streets
for sake of stopping the army from entry into the city. Student representatives
were sent to the major road intersections for assisting the Peking citizens. Pan
Qiang stated that the Shandong Province students, having left behind the wills,
participated in road blockade operations. Road blocks were set up, and buses and
trolley buses were aligned onto the streets. In HK, a mass parade was held to
echo support for the Peking students.
Chen Ping of Peking
University stated that he had been transporting water and food to the students
at various intersections, going as far as the Changxindian Train Station and
Lugouqiao Bridge [about 30 kilometers to the west of Peking] to check with
railway workers who were guarding against the trainloads of troops there. Chen
Xiaoya cited the government records in stating that an army corps under chief
Zang Wenqing and commissar Cao Heqing was impeded at Mt Xishan to the west of
Peking on May 20th; that the Peking railway bureau had 30 carriages of Train No.
1417 on May 21st for secret transport of the "Crack Force No. 24" to Peking
overnight; and that a battalion of soldiers from the mountain area in eastern
Liaoning Province was impeded at the Anqian Train Station of Hebei Province at
1:00 am of May 22nd morning.
On May 21st, eight senior CCP leadership,
i.e., Deng Xiaoping, Li Xiannian, Peng Zhen, Deng Yingchao, Yang Shangkun, Bo
Yibo, and Wang Zhen convened another meeting inside of Deng Xiaoping's house and
discussed the new candidacy for the CCP general secretary. Jiang Zemin, for his
henchman role in heralding the crackdown, was mentioned as a likely candidate.
(Zhang liang pointed out that on May 21st, Jiang Zemin received an
invitation call to go to Xishan of Peking. Chen Xiaoya pointed to May 28th as
the date when the communist seniors discussed candidacy.) Later, the CCP
leadership blamed Bao Tong for disclosing the "state secret", i.e., CCP
leadership's collective criticisms of Zhao Ziyang, and put Bao Tong into house
arrest status on May 28th.
On May 22nd, 1989, the troops came into
conflict with the demonstrators. At about the same time, retired or semi-retired
senior generals and marshals, such as Xu Xiangqian and Nie Rongzhen, assured the
visiting students that the people's liberation army would never shoot at the
students. (Back on the 18th, the students on the Square had read out a purported
support letter from the "young army officers", and 38th Corps Chief Xu Qinxian
was sacked on the night of the 18th. And on the 20th, seven retired senior
generals, including Zhang Aiping, Xiao Ke, Ye fei, Li Jukui, Yang Dezhi, Chen
Zaidao and Song Shilun, wrote a letter to the CCP Military Commission to express
opposition to military crackdown.)
Deng Xiaoping convened another "old
men & women" meeting on the 22nd per Li-zi-jing. Inside of Zhao Ziyang's compound, Bao Tong's protege, i.e.,
Gao Shan, acknowledged his mistake in joining the gang at the "bodily-system
[i.e., structure] reform institute" back on May 19th. Bao Tong rebuked Gao
Shan's individual action as something that might be construed to be representing
his "political reform research institute". (After the massacre, Bao Tong made
self-criticism in stating that he did not link Gao Shan's action to equivalent
like a "serious political issue" at the time.)
On May 23rd, over 2
million people held a massive demonstration inside of Peking, with participants
from almost all walks of life. At about 2:00 pm, three brave youths from Hunan
Province, i.e., Yu Zhijian, Yu Dongyue & Lu
Decheng, mixed up eggs with black ink,
and then threw them onto "Chairman Mao Tse-tung" Portrait on the Tian'an'men
Rostrum [Gate Tower]. The three came over from Hunan Province and joined the
"patrolling & picketing force for protecting the students" three days
before, with full readiness to sacrifice their lives for the nation. However,
the students from the "Peking Autonomous Consolidated Student Union of Peking
Colleges and Universities", who had conflicting agenda as well as maintained a
"non-violent" or "peaceful" appearance for the student movement, would arrest
the three as "reactionaries" for handover to the CCP Security Bureau. After the
massacre, Yu Zhijian, Yu Dongyue & Lu Decheng received life sentence, 20
year sentence and 16 year sentence, respectively.
On the night of May
23rd, the students voted to establish the "Command Center For Defending the
Tian'an'men Square", with Chai Ling [i.e., a leader of hunger strike team]
tacking on the "general director" post. The Peking Consolidated Student Union,
per Pan Qiang, hence yielded the leadership to the "Command Center". The
"Command Center" leadership consisted of Chai Ling, Feng Congde, Li Lu, Zhang
Boli, and Guo Haifeng et al. (Chai Ling, in her May 28th interview, repeatedly
blasted at the "Peking Consolidated Student Union" as well as
intellectual-organized "joint meeting" for causing havoc to the student
movement. The CCP, in its prosecution, erroneously accused Wang Juntao &
Chen Ziming of i) renaming the "Command Center" under the umbrella of the "joint
seat meeting" and ii) organizing four picket columns of students, workers,
citizens, and dare-to-die citizens.)
On 23rd & 24th, hundreds of
CCP leaders wrote to Deng Xiaoping to express allegiance by demanding a
restoration of the "socialist normal order" per Li-zi-jing. Yang Shangkun was said to have convened a CCP military
commission expanded meeting on the 24th on which occasion Yang Shangkun heavily
criticised Zhao Ziyang per Chen Xiaoya's citation of Zhang Liang's book.
On May 24th, Bao Tong was asked by Zhao Ziyang to write up a last
report covering the time period from Hu Yaobang's death to present. Wan li,
i.e., commissar-in-chief [i.e., speaker] of the National People's Congress, cut
short his visit to the U.S. and returned to China with first stop in Shanghai.
(Per Chen Xiaoya, Wan li returned home from Canada after Zhao Ziyang sent an
urgent request on May 21st; however, Deng Xiaoping subsequently wired to Wan li
for returning to Shanghai from U.S. and stopping over in Shanghai in lieu of
further trip to Peking.) The Shanghai students organized a massive protest in
the center of the city, i.e., the People's Square, with a call for Wan Li to
convene a National Congress for impeaching Li Peng. Rumor went that Wan Li was
restricted the "personal freedom" and prohibited from a trip to Peking.
(Zhang liang pointed out that because 57 members of the National People's
Congress discussed the martial law validity, the CCP Central had assigned Jiang
Zemin a special job of keeping Wan Li restricted to Shanghai for one week till
Wan Li agreeed to the "martial law" on May 27th.)
Also implicated would
be Shanghai Mayor Zhu Rongji who was said to have peacefully dealt with the
Shanghai student movement with a low profile, hence averting a possible military
entry into the city. (That's a fallacy since Canton, Xi'an, and Wuhan did not
see troops even though those cities were paralyzed by the student
demonstrators.) In Shanghai, the students and the CCP-organized Shanghai worker
patrolling force engaged in zigzag struggles, with students moving the traffic
separators to the center of the roads in early mornings and workers cleaning up
the road blocks shortly afterward.
Also on May 24th, intellectuals in
Peking established the "United Association of Peking Intellectuals" similar to 5
other autonomous organizations like the "student consolidated union" and the
"workers' autonomous union". Bao Zunxin claimed that the "United Association of
Peking Intellectuals" merely held one parade on May 25th.
On May 25th,
Li Peng gave the "martial law troops" a consolation letter, calling on the army
to fight against "a handful of conspirators". Li Peng hosted the politburo
meeting from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm per Li-zi-jing. Millions of Peking citizens continued to hold protests,
calling for Wan Li to return to Peking for impeaching Li Peng. on May 25th and
later on May 28th, the students held two city-wide demonstrations. Pan Qiang
stated that Shandong Province students, who dwelled inside of the "Square
University Village", participated in both actions.
On May 26th, Chen
Yun, in the name of the CCP Central Advisory Committee, expressed support for
Yang Shangkun & Li Peng's May 19th speech. Deng Xiaoping hosted a joint seat
meeting of the Politburo and the CCP Advisory Committee on the 26th per
Li-zi-jing and accused the CIA and other overseas organizations of
involvement in the student movement. The next day, on the 27th, in Shanghai, Li
Xiannian, i.e., chairman of the CCP's Chinese People's Political Consultatitive
Conference, and Wan li, also expressed support for the May 19th speech by Yang
Shangkun & Li Peng. on the 27th, Yang Shangkun announced i) that Zhao Ziyang
be relieved of all duties "within and outside the party" and ii) that Hu Qili be
relieved of duties as well per Li-zi-jing. From May 26th to May 27th, the Communist party had rallied
its base by invoking the two rubber-stamp governing bodies. Wavering
elements among the communist bureaucrats were also re-assessing the political
perils. (Zhang liang pointed out Jiang Zemin, having finished the assignment of
converting Wan Li, would fly to Peking on May 30th, this time, to stay till June
23-24 when the CCP Central's 4th Plenary of the 13th Central Committee declared
him the new general secretary.)
On May 27th, miscellaneous student and
democracy organizations held a "joint seat meeting" for a concerted fight.
The "joint seat meeting" denied the involvement of the CCP or government
factions and claimed that the movements were "purely spontaneous,
extraordinarily patriotic & democratic mass movement which is unprecedented
since the era of the 4 May 1919 Movement". Hou Xiaotian stated that at the
"negotiation & liaison meeting", student leaders like Chai Ling, Feng Congde
& Li Lu had agreed to withdrawal from the Square but did not make it happen.
(After the massacre, Hou Xiaotian, in defence of her husband, claimed that Wang
Juntao & Chen Ziming had no more contacts with the student leaders after the
May 27th meeting while the student leaders no longer attended the "joint seat
meeting" [i.e., the "negotiation & liaison meeting"] either.)
On
the Tian'an'men Square, the student leadership from the "Peking Consolidated
Student Union" and the "Square Command Center" had disagreement over withdrawal
or persistence. Moreover, the "Peking Consolidated Student Union" had conflicts
with the "Out-Of-Peking Consolidated Student Union". Bao Zunxin, having failed
to mediate between the two associations on the 28th, concluded that the students
from out-of-Peking had created more problems than "relief" for the Peking
students.
On May 28th, Chai Ling gave an interview to Philip
Cunningham, blasting the "negotiation & liaison meeting for loving the
country and safeguarding the constitution" for its call for a planned withdrawal
from the Square on the 30th, dreaming that a few survivors out of coming bloody
crackdown on the masses could push China's democracy fight to a new level after
awaking the people with blood-letting, and naivelly hinting that she might not
join the martyrs at all since she could be too important to the cause of China
to die on the Square. (See http://www.tsquare.tv/chinese/archives/chailin89528.html.) Also on the same day, the Hunger Strike Command
Center announced a continuance of "nonviolent sitting-in" till June 20th when
the Eighth Plenary of the People's Congress was supposed to be convened.
Heh Weiling made a speech inside of Peking University calling for
students' evacuation from the Square. (Per Bao Zunxin, Heh Weiling, who had
connection with Deng Xiaoping's son, had conducted an unsuccessful mediation
between the students and the army. Heh Weiling proposed to Bao Zunxin on May
29th that the students compromise with the army by holding a "joint celebration
party" on the Square.)
Overseas Chinese across the Globe expressed
support for the Peking students. on May 30th, the Peking students erected the
statute of the "Goddess of Freedom & Democracy" on the Square.
On
May 30th, 1989, Deng Xiaoping convened a second "joint seat meeting". on this
day, the CCP organized a peasant rally in support of Li Peng on the outskirts of
Peking. (This was a dirty trick first adopted by Mao Tse-tung in attacking the
intellectuals with workers during the 1957 Anti-Rightist Movement. Peasants in
the Fangshan area, per Bao Zunxin, had done their job in refusing to provide
supplies to the armies and hindering the march of the army. Note that
"revisionist" school of thoughts gloated at the miseries of peasants in past
decades by claiming that it was a punishment for not joining the workers and
students in the 1989 demonstration.)
On June 1st, Deng Xiaoping and
Yang Shangkun expressed consolation to the martial law troops. The student
movement came to another low tide by this time. Liu Xiaobo, who had teased Bao
Zunxin for a hunger strike on May 30th, made arrangement at the "joint seat
meeting" for a new round of hunger strike by the intellectuals. (Liu Xiaobo, who
just returned to China, must be kicking himself for missing the actions in the
previous 45 days.) on the afternoon of June 1st, Wang Juntao, Gan Yang and
Lao-mu visited Bao Zunxin, with the news that Liu Xiaobo, Hou Dejian, Zhou Tuo
and Gao Xin would start a hunger strike on June 2nd. on the next day, Wang
Juntao & Gan Yang instigated Bao Zunxin for participating in the 2nd or 3rd
round of the "intellectuall's hunger strikes". Bao Zunxin, who had advocated for
the student withdrawal earlier, would reluctantly agree to have his name added
to the second batch's list.
On the opposite side, on June 2nd, Deng
Xiaoping called upon the army to clear the Square within two days per Chen
Xiaoya. In the afternoon, Yang Shangkun was said to have issued order to the
troops on the outskirts in entering the city for pre-arranged targets beginning
at midnight of June 3rd. At 4:00 pm, on June 3rd, Yang Shangkun convened an
urgent meeting attended by army generals and commissars and adopted the
"whatever measures" to eliminate the obstacles. Chen Xiaoya stated that
political commissar Wang Fuyi of 38th Corps received the "whatever measures"
order around 5:00 pm on June 3rd.
June 3rd, 1989: The
Setup, Framing & Smear Campaign
On June 3rd, in early morning, the secret
police knocked on the doors of foreigners who stayed in hotels around the
Tian'anmen Square area. A. Christian Van Gorder recalled that he was roused from sleep by police at 5:00 am. Two hours
later, foreigners boarded a train for Ulaan Bataar, the capital of Outer
Mongolia. Van Gorder pointed out that the "train was jammed with foreigners.
There were some VIPs from the U.S. Embassy on board..." The Communist machine
never stopped functioning as it appeared on the surface. Bao Tong was put under
house arrest days ago, and numerous prominent intellectuals had disappeared from
the public as well.
In the following, I will
tentatively reconstruct the events on basis of relevant witness writings on the
June 3rd-4th Massacre:
- http://ss.uno.edu/SS/Bs/Chap4/Chap_4_Final08.html ("SS.UNO.EDU's Recollection")
- http://epochtimes.com/news/epochnews/big5/2002/1/31/167674.htm ("Lin Bin's Recollection")
- http://www.secretchina.com/news/articles/3/6/4/44029.html ("Wu Renhua's Recollection")
- http://www.secretchina.com/news/articles/4/6/5/66250.html ("Yi-da-qi's Recollection")
- http://www.secretchina.com/news/articles/4/6/6/66268.html ("Shi-jian's Recollection")
On June 2nd, 1989, the People's Liberation Army [PLA]
sent in a vehicle to Peking, and the vehicle bumped dead three people and
wounded one. Peking citizens were enraged by the incident without detecting that
it was part of unscrupulous setup. "SS.UNO.EDU's Recollection" stated that it
was a fast-running military jeep that killed four people at ten o'clock on the
night of June 2nd. "Yi-da-qi's Recollection" pointed out that government
announced that it was CCTV which had loaned the military vehicle that killed two
people and seriously one other at the Fuxing-men City Gate. People ridiculed the
government by saying that the police uniforms, batons and daggers must be the
"stage purpose items" loaned by the TV station.
On the early morning of
June 3rd, about 2:30 am, soldiers entered the city from the two directions of
east and west, but had to withdraw in face of the massive protests. "Yi-da-qi's
Recollection" wrongly assumed that the army dispatched soldiers from the east
while the weapons were shipped from the west. Both routes were apparent setup,
but not complimenting each other.
From the east, "SS.UNO.EDU's
Recollection" mentioned that "a very large contingent of soldiers ..., most of
them wearing the white shirts and military pants, jogged about eight miles to
just east of the Square..." At about 3:00 am [June 3rd], several thousands of
soldiers [6000-7000 ?], wearing miscellaneous shirts only, were stopped by the
people at the Dong-chang-an-jie [Eastern Forever Peace] Street, near the Beijing
Hotel. Soldiers deliberately left behind the iron rods, reinforcing bars,
daggers, nylon cords and kitchen knives. "Yi-da-qi's Recollection" ridiculously
stated that the soldiers could have dropped the weapons out of scare, not a
setup.
From the west, "SS.UNO.EDU's Recollection" pointed out that
three vehicles carrying the plain clothes soldiers were stopped at Xidan [about
one mile to the west of Square] by the people around midnight and that "machine
guns, military knives, and helmets" were found inside of three tourist buses.
"Yi-da-qi's Recollection" pointed to a 24-seat van that came to a stop near the
musical hall. "SS.UNO.EDU's Recollection" stated that at Liubukou, a van was
deliberately left (? stopped) with rifles and a machinegun, but no bullets. The
military vehicles and the van surrounded by the people at Muxidi had no license
plates. (Hei-ma stated that the vehicles, not the van, carried the 'military
police' plates.) "Yi-da-qi's Recollection" gave more detailed account of the
findings inside of van: about ten personnel, iron hooks, steel rings, daggers,
automatic rifles, machineguns, ammunition, and two civilian license plates.
Students and the Pekingers took over the weapons, and mounted a machinegun on
top of the van for a parade. Gao Wenqian observed
that the students were displaying helmets and bayonets. one young man slapped an
officer commanding the van, and the people did escort the soldiers to the toilet
inside the music hall nearby. "Yi-da-qi's Recollection" stated that the students
climbed to the top of van with three rifles and one machinegun. Hei-ma stated that the students from Politics & Law University,
acting as picketing, had brought the van to the front of the Xinhuamen CCP
headquarter where only two policemen were guarding the gate. Hei-ma stated that he, hearing about the interception of altogether
three vehicles, then went a short distance to Liubukou and saw two tourist buses
in the front of the musical hall. Some students had fetched weapons from bags
under soldiers' seats and climbed on top the bus to display bayonets. The CCP
plain clothes agents clandestinely shot photos of the student activists and
democracy activists at the scene. After the massacre, the CCP accused the
'rioters' of robbing the army of loaded machineguns at 7:00 am.
Students and the Peking citizens proposed a mass parade at 2:00 pm to
protest against the sneaky action by the army on that day. By noon, the Chang'an
Street was full of people, making a parade impossible. Wu Renhua stated that the
"joint seat meeting" held its last gathering in No. 29 Building of Beijing
University at noon on June 3rd, with such participants as Wang Juntao, Wang Dan,
Lao-mu, Gan Yang, Liu Suli and Yang Tao et al. The "joint seat meeting", for
protecting the four gentlemen, decided upon sending to the Square a special
picket team to be organized by Wu Renhua & Liu Suli among 40 Politics &
Law University students. "Yi-da-qi's Recollection" claimed that it was the
army's action that revived the people's fighting spirits that had been subsiding
since May 23rd. ("Yi-da-qi's Recollection" cited the "People's Daily July
26th edition in pointing out a robber's logic, i.e., that the CCP did not
back down because the students and "rioters" would not suffice to stop where the
CCP might have compromised, whether or not reversing the April 26th editorial,
reversing the May 20th martial law order, or reversing the June 3rd military
action.)
Wu Jiaxiang, at http://www.secretchina.com/news/articles/3/4/16/39890.html, disclosed that he, at lunch time, had encountered
dozens of Shaanxi Province policemen with martial arts skills at the canteen of
the CCP headquarter inside of Zhong-nan-hai. After the lunch, the Shaanxi police
exited the west gate of Zhong-nan-hai on the Fuyou Avenue, shot tear gas at the
demonstrators near the Xidan commerce center and the Xin-hua-men Gate, waved the
batons, and retrieved the van and guns. Gao Wenqian pointed out an additional
weapon called the "triangle iron rod" used by the police. Hei-ma stated that the military police were initially behind the
traffic police, shouting the CCP slogans with loud speakers, shot the tear gas,
attacked the people who were ordered to get off the top of the bus, and then
called over separate vehicles for shipping the weapons. Slogans included Mao
Tse-tung's blatant instructions in a robber's logic while attacking the
Nationalist army during the Huangqiao Battle in
July 1940, i.e., "I will not offend you should you not offend me, but I will for
sure offend you if you offend me..." (Tear gas shells, 4.5 cm in diameter and
about 20 cm in length, were collected by the people at scene as evidence. Tear
gas was also shot into the alleys, after the people who fled inside.) Some
German reporter was hit by bloody batons, and some pregnant woman did not get
exempted, either. "Yi-da-qi's Recollection" fixed the timestamp at 2:00 pm.
"SS.UNO.EDU's Recollection" stated that the policemen were carrying the electric
clubs and some were wearing the gas masks, vindicated by an eyewitness
recollection as follows: "At Xinhuamen (near Liubukou) about three o'clock, the
riot [armed] police used tear gas. They hit a young girl's leg and broke it.
Some young kids were hiding behind a tree; they used sticks to beat them. one of
the kid's heads was split open, the stick was full of nails. The kids' mother
went to help her son; she wore a white skirt--they pulled it up and kicked her
like she was an animal." The policemen returned to Zhong-nan-hai via the
Xin-hua-men Gate after retrieving the weapons.
Per Hei-ma, hundreds of army soldiers with helmets suddenly jumped out of
the Xinhuamen gate of Zhongnanhai, attacked the people surrounding the van with
batons, formed an arch line, and then retrieved the van. (The Army, aside from
the Great Hall, had occupied the Zhongshan Park, i.e., next door to the
Zhongnanhai CCP headquarter. Chen Xiaoya pointed out that the army had also
taken up positions inside the Laborer Cultural Palace and the Public Security
Bureau, and moreover, conducted 32 mock crackdown exercises, and devised 12
schemes of urgent response.)
One recollection stated that at about the
same time, a large column of military vehicles was stopped by the people at
Jianguomenwai, an area about three kilometers to the east of the Square.
"Yi-da-qi's Recollection" pointed out that it would be about 3:30 pm that
hundreds or several thousands of barehand soldiers, who were transported there
through the underground tunnel, came out of the west gate of the Greal People's
Hall and deliberately allowed themselves to be surrounded by hundreds of
thousands of people to the west of the Hall. ("SS.UNO.EDU's Recollection" gave a
different timestamp, stating that "in the early afternoon [June 3rd], at
Liubukou, people were still surrounding the buses and displaying the weapons as
a large number of soldiers came out of the Music Hall [???] ...At around 2:00
P.M. several thousand troops emerged from the west doors of the Great Hall of
the People.") While "SS.UNO.EDU's Recollection" claimed that fortunately no
violence was inflicted on those militarymen, "Yi-da-qi's Recollection" pointed
out that the soldiers from the Great Hall, wearing the white shirts and green
pants, were very ferocious, and had several scuffles with the people. (renminbao.com/rmb/articles/2003/6/4/26610.html pointed out that some soldiers carried the
walkie-talkie with long antennas.) The soldiers who came out of the Great Hall
later returned to the building in few hours. Per "Yi-da-qi's Recollection", an
officer promised not to come out again within next 48 hours.
Per
"SS.UNO.EDU's Recollection", "a column of troop trucks carrying approximately
one thousand soldiers had also been stopped at Qianmen, an area just to the
south of the Square." More, when this column of soldiers retreated, rocks were
thrown at the soldiers, and one wounded soldier was picked up by a CBS
cameraman.
In the afternoon, the Beijing TV Station [not CCTV]
continuously broadcast an "urgent announcement" in the name of the martial law
troops, stating that whoever went outside of their home should bear full
responsibility for any consequence on his or her own accord. "Yi-da-qi's
Recollection" stated that later at 7:00 pm, the CCTV did not carry this
announcement at all in its nationwide broadcast.
Hours later, at about
4:00 pm, Yang Shangkun, Li Peng, Qiao Shi and Yao Yilin convened a meeting
attended by army generals and commissars [Qin Jiwei, Li Ximing, Hong Xuezhi, Liu
Huaqing, Chi Haotian, Yang Baibing and Zhao Nanqi], Peking city [Chen Xitong],
State Council secretary [Luo Gan]. Zhou Yibing [commander of the PLA Peking
military district] and Liu Zhenhua [political commissar of the PLA Peking
military district] also attended the meeting. Yang Shangkun, the host of the
meeting, announced the decision of "square clearance". Li Peng stated that the
reactionary mobsters must be quelled by the night. Chen Xitong claimed that the
mobsters intercepted the army, set up the road blocks at dozens of
intersections, beat the soldiers, pricked the tires of military trucks, and
wrestled the weapons and ammunition. Zhou Yibing mentioned that a column of
plain clothes soldiers were chased and beaten by the Pekingers at Hufangqiao. Li
Peng further added that the mobsters mounted a machine-gun on a van at Liubukou
and attacked the west gate and Xin-hua-men gate of Zhong-nan-hai where the
police had to shoot the tear gas in self-defence.
The Blood Path From
Wukesong to Muxidi
Chen Xiaoya had listed
the three stages of military deployment, i.e., April 22-May 5th, May 19th-May
22nd, and June 3rd-June 4th. Chen Xiaoya stated that after the "April 20th
Xinhuamen Incident", army units from the 38th group army, i.e., the 112th
Division, the 6th tank division, the engineering regiment and the communications
regiment, about 8986 soldiers, had been sent to Peking via 409 trucks on April
22nd in the name of assisting the police and military police with security on
the occasion of Hu Yaobang's state funeral. An alternative recollection stated
that the 77th Division of the 26th Group Army arrived in the outskirts of Peking
at 10:00 pm on May 18th (???). Zhang Liang pointed out that the 11 Army Corps,
about 118,000 soldiers from the 3 military districts of Peking-Shenyang-Jinan,
entered Peking for clearing the streets and the Square. Alternative records, per
Chen Xiaoya, would include as much as 350,000 soldiers from 7 military districts
on basis of July 1989 report by HK's "Ming Bao" newspaper. (http://www.secretchina.com/news/articles/3/9/7/50300.html mentioned i) that the 12th Corps flew into Peking's
Nanyuan Airport the last, on June 4th, but the soldiers were allocated 130
bullets while the rest of army had only 10 bullets per person; and that while
the 12th Corps was the last to enter Peking, the 38th Corp was probably the
first to be dispatched to Peking after the April 20th martial law order. [Note
that nowhere was the 12th Corps mentioned in either Chen Xiaoya's research or
Zhang Liang's book.])
Zhang Liang, relying mainly upon the
post-massacre government documents, stated that merely 241 persons were killed
during the crackdown, with 5000 wounded. Zhang Liang's numbers being a fallacy,
Chen Xiaoya, years ago, had pointed out Zhang Liang's omission of and inaccuracy
in military deployment. Chen Xiaoya, at
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/2/6/1/n193647.htm [URL purged?], had provided a
corroborating account of the total army units mobilized for the massacre, i.e.,
the 15th Corps, the 20th Corps, the 24th Corps, the 27th Corps, the 26th Corps,
the 28th Corps, the 38th Corps, the 39th Corps, the 40th Corps, the 54th Corps,
the 63rd Corps, the 65th Corps and the 67th Corps, plus possibly the 23rd Corps
mentioned in another communist document. [Note Zhang Liang's claim of
"authentic" government source could be a convenient compiling of
non-governmental reports since the government publications pointed to
at minimum 13-14 army
corps and
possibly more troops that were deployed for checking against the various
military units in the course of crackdown.]
Yang Shangkun's
"Whatever Measures" Order [Issued At 4:00 pm]
In previous section, we
mentioned that at 4:00 pm, on June 3rd, Yang Shangkun convened an urgent meeting
attended by army generals and commissars and adopted the "whatever measures" to
eliminate the obstacles. Chen Xiaoya stated that political commissar Wang Fuyi
of the 38th Corps received the "whatever measures" order around 5:00 pm on June
3rd.
"Yi-da-qi's Recollection" carried an important episode that not
many eyewitnesses had written: i.e., in early evening of June 3rd, a company of
soldiers, from the southwest direction, ran to the Square along the
Qianmen-xi-dajie Western Street. About few hundred meters away from the Square,
6-7 soldiers fell down en route due to fatigue, but the rest of soldiers
continued to run towards the Square without letup. Quite some fatigued soldiers,
upon arriving at the Square, fell down and had to receive assistance from the
students. Half an hour later, seeing no other military units around, this
company of soldiers peacefully retreated back to the southwest. "Yi-da-qi's
Recollection" claimed that this incident, being the last victory of
non-violence, alerted the students to calling for relief. Public buses were
stuffed at the Qianmen area to the south for sake of preventing the army from
another sudden descent. The PLA "southwestern contingent" would mount a second
march later. Similarly, Shi-jian touched upon the arrival of PLA soldiers at the southern end
of the Nan-chi-zi [southern pond] Da-jie [grand avenue], about hundred meters
away from the Square at around 10:00 pm on June 3rd. Like herald troops of the
PLA southwestern contingent, those soldiers turned back in face of the wall
consisting of protesters and bicycles.
Hours earlier, a plain clothes
soldier was caught by the students and delivered to Wu Renhua's special picket
team around 6:00 pm, and another plain clothes identified himself for sake of
convincing the students that they should withdraw from the square to avert
bloodshed. (Wu Renhua's special picket team came to the Square at 3:40 pm.) "Wu
Renhua's Recollection" stated that the CCTV (??? conflicting with "Yi-da-qi's
Recollection") and the Central People's Broadcasting Station (??? conflicting
with "Yi-da-qi's Recollection") announced the same notice as the Beijing TV
Station beginning from 6:30 pm. "Lin Bin's Recollection" stated that people
ignored the notice, packed the eight-lane boulevard of Fthe uwai Street [i.e.,
Fuxingmen Wai (outer) Dajie (boulevard)] in the Muxidi area, moved the cement
dividers against the street vertically, and pushed Bus 320 and Trolley 114 onto
the street. Per Lin Bin, thousands of bicycles parked on the two sides, which
pointed to the fact that people had come over from a distance.
Student
leaders held a news conference at 7:00 on the Square as to injuries sustained by
the students and citizens. Zheng Lubin of the Surveyor Publishing House
denounced the army who hit him with belts around 3:15 pm at the southern flank
of the Great Hall. By 7:00 pm, Wu Renhua's team failed to obtain food supply
from the 'student command center' but later obtained soft drink and bread from
the HK-donated supply center. By 7:00-8:00 pm (???) of June 3rd, the
student-controlled broadcasting on the Tian'an'men Square mentioned the
possibility that the army would come in soon. "Yi-da-qi's Recollection" stated
that the student broadcasting also talked about the founding of the "Square
Democracy University" as well as a session of "singing songs with the Taiwan
students" via long distance calls. (Radical student leader Li Lu held a
matrimony on the Square sometime [?].)
At about 9:00 pm, Chen Ping and his
father joined the crowd on the Chang'an Street in moving the cement dividers
onto the streets. Quite some Peking citizens had worn the sports shoes and
brought along towels in preparation for emergency and the tear gas attacks.
"SS.UNO.EDU's Recollection" pointed out that the "word that troops were stopped
at Muxidi reached the Bei [Peking] Hang [aviation] University at around 9:00
P.M.", which led to the student reinforcement. By 9:50 pm, the government
announced a 2nd round of warning notices. Wu Renhua mentioned the people
continued to swamp onto the Square for watching i) the Statute of Democracy
Goddess and ii) singer Hou Dejian. Wu Renhua mentioned that innocent people were
still in high spirits, demanding the appearance of the singer from the hunger
strike tent. The "Square Democracy University" was pronounced by the Democracy
Goddess Statute around 10:00 pm under the blessing of Yan Jiaqi & Zhao Yu.
At 10:16, the government announced a 3rd round of warning to the effect that
"any hindrance to the martial law troops would be eliminated".
The
Blood Path - From Wukesong to Muxidi
"Lin Bin's Recollection" stated
that the army had been staying for close to two weeks at government agencies on
two sides of the Fuxing-lu Road which was to the west of the Fuwai Street [i.e.,
Fuxingmen Wai (outer) Dajie (boulevard)] in the Muxidi area. Lin Bin stated that
at around 6:00 pm, several military helicopters flew to Muxudi from the east,
circled for a while, and then flew towards the west. Per "Wu Renhua's
Recollection", the army, at Wukesong, i.e., the westernmost of the bloody path,
over 40 tanks rushed past the people, with one victim killed instantly.
Military doctor Jiang Yanyong of the PLA 301 Hospital also pointed out that a
motorcycle athlete was shot to death at Wukesong. (Philip Pan of "Washington
Post Foreign Service", at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28014-2004Jul4.html, wrote an article about Jiang Yanyong's imprisonment by
the communists for demanding a re-appraisal of 6-4-1989 incident.)
By 8:00 pm,
the army had apparently pushed past Gongzufen (princess tomb). Lin Bin cited a
"flying tiger" motorist messenger in stating that more people were needed for
impeding the army in the west. Many people rode their bikes towards the west.
Eyewitness Mu-ji-ren, at http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/4/5/5/n529619.htm, stated that around 8:30 pm, when he stepped out of the
Agriculture Department at Wanshoulu, soldiers with helmets and AK-47 were going
east on armored vehicles from the Shijingshan [stone scenery mountain]
direction. Mu-ji-ren stated that at about 9:00 pm, shots were fired at the
people along the path of Wanshoulu to Cuiweilu to Gongzufen; possibly some
ammunition truck exploded; and some armoured vehicles caught fire as a result of
soldier's sabotage on their own accord. At Guzufen, tens of thousands of people
surrounded the military convoy. People threw stones at the soldiers, and the
soldiers shot at people on the two sides of the road. Every once a while people
silently fell down after receiving gunshots, to be carried away to hospitals by
tricycle carts.
Bao Zunxin's book mentioned that Wang Juntao called him
three times on the night of June 3rd, mentioning that the army and the people
fought against each other at Wukesong; fierce shots were heard in Wanshoulu; and
intense fighting occurred in Gongzufen. Military doctor Jiang Yanyong of the PLA 301 Hospital stated that from past 10:00
pm to 12:00 midnight, 18 surgery rooms at the 301 Hospital treated 89 wounded
people, with at least seven dying from dumdum bullets. Jiang Yanyong of the
301 Hospital also treated a PLA colonel-equivalent officer who was shot down
together with an old man and a boy in front of the Military Museum, about one
block past Gongzufen. (Victims who died of dumdum bullets, per Cao Changqing,
would include Zhang Runing of the Peking International Broadcasting Station.)
After 9:00 pm, Lin Bin, standing in the tenth storey of a building,
could hear waves of shouting from the west. Seeing that wounded people were
brought to the Fuxing Hospital down below, Lin Bin came down the building and
went to the west of the Muxidi Overpass.
At a distance of about 300
meters from the Overpass, hundreds of thousands of people, who had formed a
human wall as thick as 200-300 meters, were in confrontation with the army. Per
Lin Bin, human crowds moved forward and backward by one step while shouting
slogans. When Lin Bin managed to sneak to the gate of the Peking Railway Bureau
from the sidewalk, he was already on the right [south] side of the army. About
one hundred riot police, followed by tanks, armored personnel carriers [APC],
and military vehicles, led the army column against the crowd. In front of the
crowd were students, including female students, who had their arms in arms. Some
people threw stones at the riot police from behind the student wall, and the
police hit back. (Lin Bin went back to the tall building, by the way, and did
not die on the street.)
"Lin Bin's Recollection" pointed out that the
army had pushed to the west side of the Muxidi Overpass by 10:00 pm. With
several buses on the road, the tanks went ahead of the riot police to ram the
buses. Under the command of a young man, thousands of people counter-pushed the
bus by counting 1-2-3. With tanks failing to gain an inch after several rounds
of futile attempts, the army shot tear gas at the crowds. When people ran away
from the tear gas, the tanks hit the trolley buses and sliced a space of about
two meters. Then, the people rushed forward again, pushed the buses back
together, and sustained the strike of the tank against the buses. The army fired
another round of tear gas. The people and the tanks contested with each other
again. Suddenly, the tanks stopped motor, and shots were fired. Lin Bin stated
that the people at the overpass dissipated right away to seek shelter. Hundreds
of soldiers, wearing helmets and pointing submachine-guns [i.e., AK-47 assault
rifles], marched onto the pedestrian lane on the Overpass, shooting to the front
indiscriminately. Two tanks then bumped apart the buses for the army vehicles to
come forward. one trolley bus caught fire and was pushed to the side of the
overpass. Lin Bin put the timestamp at 10:40 pm.
"SS.UNO.EDU's
Recollection" gave a different order of events: first, "suddenly several troop
trucks started on fire... behind the army area ... army began to march on both
sides of the street ... a student from Shi Da [Beijing Normal University] went
forward to talk to the officers. I heard a shot and the student fell to the
ground. People ran to him and took him to Fuxingmen Hospital--he died. . ."
Eyewitness recollection at http://www.secretchina.com/news/articles/4/3/10/61277.html stated, from the angle of the Fuxing Hospital [i.e.,
Muxidi area], that around 10:00 pm, gunshots erupted, and in a matter of dozen
minutes, hundreds and up to thousand wounded people and rescue workers swamped
into the hospital. Blood soaked the 20-30 meter long corridor to the hospital's
surgery rooms. Ding Zilin, i.e., the later renowned Tian'an'men Mother, lost her
17-year-old son Jiang Jiesheng [Jiang Jielian?] at Muxidi. (Doctors and leaders
of the Fuxing Hospital, with connection to the CCP nucleus, had already been
talking about the "planned shooting by the army" early in the day. The Fuxing
Hospital was located in an area designated as the "residential buildings of
government key departments" which included Dormitory Buildings No. 22 and No. 24
[i.e., Ministry Chiefs' Building]. 56 corpses were retained at the hospital,
including a graduate student from China Science & Technology University
[Anhui Prov] and a reporter [Zhang Runing] from the China International
Broadcasting Station. Later, on June 6th, in Muxidi, the CCP Military Committee
staged a hoax in luring the people onto the streets to welcome the so-called
"38th Corps" against the "murderer 27th Corps".)
"SS.UNO.EDU's
Recollection" stated that "... Then after 11:30 a lot of shooting began ...
Soldiers were also shooting at buildings. A seventy- to eighty-year-old woman, a
nine-year-old child, and a thirty-year-old pregnant were killed by the side of
the road. I saw lots of people just lie on the ground; if they stood up, the
soldiers shot at them. A boy was hiding in the bushes; he had been shot in the
hand and in the leg. A girl--maybe his girlfriend--went to help him but the
soldiers saw them and the boy was killed and the girl was hurt very bad. I was
very scared and ran too . . ."
The Qianmen-xi-dajie
Confrontation
A bit earlier, at about 10:15 pm of June 3rd, per
"Yi-da-qi's Recollection", two tanks [APC???] rushed forward along the
Qianmen-xi-dajie Western Street. Tanks overran the road blockades, cement
dividers, and iron fences, and then hit the bus at Qianmen, i.e., the southern
frontal gate to the Square. Tanks, after bumping the bus few times, went around
it to intrude onto the Square. (??? Did the two tanks enter the Square before
midnight? And, did it roll forward after entering the Square? Note that "Wu
Renhua's Recollection" stated that it would be about 0:30 am of June 4th that
two tanks entered the east and west boulevards of the Square from the Qianmen
area. "Shi-jian's Recollection" stated a different timeframe of 11:30 pm [???] when an
armoured personnel carrier was burnt by the angry people who stopped the vehicle
near the East Chang'an Street by inserting an iron rod into the caterpillar
tread. My guess is that Shi-jian could mean that the APC ran wild around the
Square around 11:30 pm before coming to a halt after mid-night.)
"Yi-da-qi's Recollection" stated that the people were in tears upon
seeing the ferocious tanks but managed to push some public buses and trolley
buses onto the streets at Qianmen again. Half an hour later, the PLA
"southwestern contingent", lifting guns upside down, ran over in battle
formation. When people threw rocks and softdrink bottles at the army, the
soldiers hit back with same stuff, but not bullets. The student picket force
came over, formed a human wall, and stopped the scuffling. The Army
"southwestern contingent" relocated to the vacant land to the south of Mao
Tse-tung's Memorial Hall. "Yi-da-qi's Recollection" pointed out that this army
unit, which first arrived at the Square, would be the last batch of troops to
enter the Square.
At this time, the people on the Square could hear
gun shots from remote places, and at 9:00 pm, the student broadcasting, with
students raising their right hands, swore an oath to "defend the Square and the
republic with young life". HK student representatives, i.e., Lin Yaoqiang, Li
Lanju, Chen Qinghua & Chen Zongyi, visited the student leaders after
destroying records and documents at the Peking Hotel. The "Square Democracy
University" was pronounced by the Democracy Goddess Statute around 10:00, with
Zhang Boli made into the president of the said university. Messengers with blood
swarmed onto the square to report the massacre on the two ends of the "Chang'an
[forever peace] Boulevard". At 0:30 am, Wuer-kaixi cried about the loss of a
female classmate and then passed out [again]. At about 1:00 am, the HK students,
at the west side of the square, witnessed the fight between a tank and the
people. Students repeatedly sang aloud Heh Dejian's song "The Descendants of
Dragon". Near the History Museum, HK student Li Lanju failed to talk with the
army while Chen Qinghua was beaten for taking pictures of a burning tank around
2 pm. At this time, a column of soldiers came over from the west, while a bus
drove towards the soldiers. Bus suddenly stopped; two people jumped off the bus
at the end; and soldiers shot dead the two right away. Soldiers then dragged the
driver out of the vehicle, and shot dead people who tried to go forward to
rescue the driver. HK students Lin Yaoqiang and Cheng Zhen lifted up someone to
find out that the said person was already dead after being shot at for throwing
a bottle at the army. By 2-3 am, the students moved their command center at the
foot of the monument. Chai Ling talked about the story of ants rolling into a
ball to escape the fire on a hill in an analogy to surviving the coming
massacre. The students kept on singing the Internationale, a song acquired after
of course 10-20 years of communist brainwashing. The students came to hug Wu
Renhua in tears and asked him to depart the Square for safety. Student leaders
asked the HK students to leave for their safety, but the HK students refused.
The Fuxingmen Overpass & Xi-chang'an-jie Confrontation
Eyewitness recollection, at renminbao.com/rmb/articles/2003/6/4/26610.html, stated that at about 11:00 pm, the PLA soldiers were
already charging around the Fuxingmen area, about four blocks to the west of the
Square. With the red and green signal flare rising all over the sky, people fell
down at the sound of gun shots. Hearing the gun shots from the direction of
Muxidi, students and people fled towards the underneath of the Fuxingmen
Overpass. When soldiers got on the Fuxingmen overpass, they shot at the students
and people singing songs below.
Details as to the Xi-chang'an-jie
Confrontation would be described below in the section on the Xidan-Liubukou Intersections
On the Square, "Wu Renhua's Recollection" pointed out
that they heard the first wave of gun shots from the Western Chan'an Street
around 11:00 pm. Soon, gun shots erupted all over the city and turned into
intensity like firecrackers. And, fire shot up to the sky to the direction of
the Xi-chang'an-jie [Western Chan'an Street].
"Wu Renhua's
Recollection" stated that around midnight, the student broadcasting station on
the Square announced the name of a college student killed on the
Xi-chang'an-jie. At midnight, some student from the musical institute sang
Chopin's "elegy". Students, being in tears, had just realized one hour ago that
the PLA soldiers were not firing the "rubber bullets".
The
Chegongzhuang Confrontation
At Chegongzhuang, http://www.zhongguohun.com/viewpoint/64/003.html, per Yu-yuan, mentioned that a column of army trucks
were stopped by the people, but the soldiers there did not carry weapons. Later
at about mid-night, when the bloody people ran over to the south from the
Er-huan-lu ["City 2nd Loop"] with news of the shooting, the people at
Chegongzhuang began to topple the army trucks and threw stones at the soldiers.
The soldiers jumped off to flee towards the subway station. The people and
students lit the dozen trucks and burt them. Students were persuaded into giving
up their school banners before going towards Fuxingmen, an event that might have
saved the lives of those students since the army would shoot at any people
carrying banners.
This group of students rode their bikes onto the
Chang'an Street, following the trace of the first column of the PLA western
contingent. By the time they arrived at Liubukou, some army convoys came from
the rear and shot at them, slightly wounding one of them. They managed to move
eastward along the southern edge of the Chang'an Avenue, passed the Xinhuamen
gate, and converged with a few dozen people stranded there. For about half an
hour, another column of military vehicles passed them, from west to east, and
occasionally shot at them. Some people proposed a continuous march towards the
Square for "rescuing the students", and with arms in arms, singing songs, they
walked to the proximity of about 100 meters away from the People's Great Hall.
Yu-yuan recalled that the army suddenly shot at them and killed quite
some of them. The crowd fled to a distance of 200 meters away from the troops,
and then regrouped for a march. The crowd of people engaged with the army at
least 4-5 times till daybreak.
A note of caution: Students and the Pekingers might
not understand why the soldiers were ruthless in killing. The communist
iron-fist control over the army, including both brain washing and material
control such as bullets and guns, was not the only factor. The bloody crackdown
could be said to be an illustrative example of the regime's utilization of a
"slave" or "mercenary" army. Recent economic reforms had led to a phenomenon of
the "mercenary" type of army recruiting in China. At about year 2003 or earlier,
the People's Liberation Army endorsed a policy of one time payout of about
RMB20,000 [approx US$2,500] for recruiting the countryside youths with high
school graduation. Apparently, the government was having difficulty recruiting
soldiers without offering some incentives. With or without the incentive, the
peasant kids had always comprised of the bulk of the army. In one sense, the
communists had employed the peasant background army as some sort of "mercenary"
army in the same way as historical dynasties in China and elsewhere in the
world, including Tang Dynasty's hiring the Shatuo Turks and the Tanguts, Han
Dynasty's hiring the Qiangs and Yuezhi, American's hiring the French vs
British's hiring the Germans during the independence war, the Ottoman Empire's
hiring the young Greeks, the Egyptian's hiring the Mamluks, and ancient Spain's
hiring the Slavs [i.e., slaves], and of course the United States' prevalent
policy of hiring legal or illegal mmigrant boys today. See the "Social Ladder For Countryside Kids".
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Massacring All The Way To Tian'an'men
Square
Starting from
6:00 pm of June 3rd, the people's liberation army started pushing towards the
Square from the major routes of west, east, north, northeast, south and
southwest. Chen Xiaoya pointed out, on basis of the communist bragging of
crackdown [including the self-account by political commissar of the 38th Corps],
that the 38th Corps under proxy chief Zhang Meiyuan and commissar Wang Fuyi,
with the 112th & 113th divisions or 10800 soldiers, departed the military
camps at Wanshoulu around 8:00 pm on June 3rd. The 115th & 116th divisions
of the 39th Corps under Fu Bingyao marched from the eastern city district of
Bawangfen [No. 8 Prince's tomb], Jianguomen and the Peking Train Station. Early
in the afternoon, at 3:35 pm, the 118th & 119th divisions of the 40th Corps
under Wu Jiaming, from the northeast corner, departed Peking's Capital Airport
for the Dongzhi-men City Gate. From north to south, the 23rd Corps under deputy
corps chief Liu Shuming departed the Shahe [sandy river] Airport for the
Desheng-men City gate. The 43rd & 44th brigades of the 15th Corps under
deputy corps chief Zuo Yinsheng, at 5:00 pm, departed the Nanyuan [southern
garden] Airport in the south. The 127th Division of the 54th Corps under deputy
commissar Zhang Kun departed Fengtai at 9:50 pm from southwest. The 63rd Corps
[the 188th Division under Corps Chief Qi Lianyun] and the 28th Corps [the 82nd
& 85th Div] followed the route of the 38th Corps, i.e., from west to east.
The 27th & 65th corps already stationed inside the Great Hall via the
underground tunnel transportation days ago.
The PLA soldiers, with
tanks, pushed their way into the city, with target of "clearing the scene" by
daybreak. A policeman from the sub-bureau at the Western Chang'an Street, per
http://www.secretchina.com/news/articles/4/5/29/65836.html, had disclosed that they were ordered to bury the
corpses before 7:00 am of June 4th because some satellite would move across the
sky of Peking by then. (Lin Bin's recollection confirmed that the PLA buried
dead corpses underneath the 28th High School [that was opposite to the Greal
Hall of the People] overnight.)
Around 6:00 pm of June 3rd, several military helicopters flew along the
Chan'an Street. At Wukesong, per "Wu Renhua's Recollection", over 40 tanks
rushed past people, crushing one victim instantly. By 8:00 pm, the army had
apparently pushed past Wanshoulu & Gongzufen. Eyewitness Mu-ji-ren, at
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/4/5/5/n529619.htm, stated that around 8:30 pm, when he was stepping out
of the Agriculture Department at Wanshoulu, the soldiers with helmets and AK-47
were going eastward on armored vehicles from the Shijingshan direction.
Mu-ji-ren stated that at about 9:00 pm, shots were fired at the people along the
path of Wanshoulu to Cuiweilu to Gongzufen. After 9:00 pm, the army was close to
Muxidi-Fuxingmen which was after the Military Museum. The army pushed to the
Muxidi Overpass by 10:00 pm, and were charging towards the Fuxingmen Overpass by
10:40 pm. People on the Square could hear the waves of gun shots from the
Western Chan'an Street around 11:00 pm.
The Xidan-Liubukou
Intersections
The PLA "western contingent", having pushed past Muxidi
& Fuxingmen, attacked the people at the Xidan intersection. Eyewitness
recollection, at renminbao.com/rmb/articles/2003/6/4/26610.html, stated that about 200 people concentrated near the
Telegraph Building in Xidan. The army randomly shot at the people, and sometimes
chased the people into alleys to kill, with two such corpses lying in an alley
to the west of the Telegraph Building. (Victims who died of chasing soldiers,
per Cao Changqing, would include 20-year-old Xiong Zhiming and his classmate
from the Economics Department of the Peking Normal University.)
"Wu
Renhua's Recollection" stated that at about 0:30 am, past midnight, Wu'er Kaixi
announced on the student broadcasting station that a female student from the
Chinese Language Department of the Beijing Normal University, who followed him
to the Square, was killed by the army. After midnight, Deputy Square Student
Leader Li Lu called on the students to concentrate towards the People's Hero
Monument. Wu Renhua estimated that about 10,000 students were around the
monument while another 70000-80000 Peking citizens surrounded the square. one 11
year old boy came to report to Wu Renhua that his brother, a "peasant
contractor-worker", was killed by the army around the Hufangqiao area.
"Wu Renhua's Recollection" stated that at the Xidan Intersection, about
one hundred students, waving the two flags of Beijing Aerospace & Aviation
University and Nanking Chinese Medicine College, faced the army, arms in arms
and shoulder to shoulder, shouting that they were ready to die for the
motherland. The soldiers, one minute after shooting to the sky, leveled their
weapons and shot dead the students in batches. The Peking citizens on the curbs,
seeing the atrocity, repeatedly cursed the army as 'bastards'.
With
China's TV and radio stations taken over by the military already, Li Dan,
i.e., director of the English broadcasting department of "Rado Peking" [i.e.,
the China International Broadcasting Station] broke the news to the world about
the ongoing massacre. Soldiers rushed into the recording room to have Li Dan
arrested. Li Dan's whereabouts is still unknown at this time, and could have
been executed shortly after the arrest by the army.
The Courageous
Rescue Activities 
The
army and the military police took action in all directions of the Square. The
students and the citizens ran over to report the horrific and savage killings
going on on the two ends of the Chang'an [Forever Peace] Street, to the north of
the Square. Zhang Xianling, i.e., one of the Tian'anmen Mothers, lost her
19-year-old son Wang Nan at Nankou [southern end] of the Nan-chang-jie Street,
to the west of the Square. Gun shots erupted all over the city, causing
confusion as to discerning the distance and direction of conflicts.
"Shi-jian's Recollection" pointed out that he managed to send to the Peking
Hotel, via tricycle, an injured foreign reporter who was hit by the military
police near the History Museum which was to the east of the Square. Shi-jian
further stated that after return to the Square, he would send to the Xiehe
Hospital an injured student who was hit by bullet that came from inside of the
People's Great Hall to the west of the Square.
Per Wu Renhua, one tank
rolled forward from the West Chang'an Street at about 0:15 am on June 4th, and
continued on to pass the Rostrum towards the east. A second tank followed
through. Tens of thousands of people tried to stop the tanks by throwing stones
at the tank or whipping the tanks with sticks in a Quixotic way. (Note that the
tanks mentioned here could be armored personnel carriers since the Chinese
people often confused them as tanks.) "Wu Renhua's Recollection" stated that at
about 0:30 am of June 4th, two additional tanks [or APCs] entered the east and
west boulevards of the Square from the Qianmen area and began to rotate around
the Square multiple times. (Note that "Yi-da-qi's Recollection" stated that two
tanks, possibly from the PLA "southwestern contingent", had already passed the
blockade at Qianmen at about 10:15 pm of June 3rd, and entered the southern
frontal gate of the Square.)
Wu Renhua stated that one tank broke down
at the northeastern corner of the Square while ramming the iron fences and
cement dividers. People courageously charged at the tank, pricked the machine
with sticks and iron rods, threw the cotton bed sheets on the tank, and lit a
fire. Three soldiers or officers climbed out of the tank. The Peking citizens
hit the three guys, but the students rushed to protect them and sent them along
to a clinic at the History Museum. (After the massacre, the CCP Central praised
the three soldiers and officer as the "national heroes". "Shi-jian's Recollection" stated a different timeframe of 11:30 pm [???] when an
armoured personnel carrier was burnt by the angry people who stopped the vehicle
near the East Chang'an Street by inserting an iron rod into the caterpillar
tread. My guess is that Shi-jian could mean that the APC ran wild around the
Square around 11:30 pm before coming to a breakdown after mid-night.)
After return to the Square from the Xiehe Hospital, Shi-jian noticed
that 2-3 APCs were on fire near the Square while people retreated from the west
in crowds. Shi-jian, whose mother embroidered two red crosses on his clothes the
previous night, claimed that he lacked experiences to pinpoint the entry of
dumdum bullets on wounded people by relying upon the flash of the lights at
night.
By this time, i.e., 0:50 am, tracers and signal shots lit the
Square from all four directions. Wu Renhua pointed out that the enraged Peking
citizens cursed and blamed the students for continuing the policy of
non-violence as "sitting down and waiting for the time of death". one college
student rushed to the Monument, demanding a machine-gun, while student leader
Chai Ling, at one time, called on the students to go to the edge of the Square
for self-defence and resistance by means of "whatever weapons available". Li Lu
and Chai Ling dropped the idea of resistance after the persuasion of moderate
student leaders and the intellectuals and teachers on the Square.
Qi Zhiyong, seeing that a tank drove around the Square at high speed,
would run away from the Square for hiding in the Xirong Alley at Liubukou [i.e.,
the area to the southwest of Zhongnanhai] where he parked his bicycle. Later, at
about 1:20 am, several soldiers with submachineguns shot at the people inside of
the alley. After Qi Zhiyong was sent to the clinic and then shipped to a
hospital, he would have to wait for two more hours to get surgery. His left leg
was to be amputated [see http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/4/7/9/n591439.htm].
To the west of the Square, at about 1:00 to
2:00 am, on June 4th, "Shi-jian" retreated with the crowd to the front gate of the Public
Security Bureau that was located to the western end of the Nan-chi-zi-Da-jie
Avenue. Seeing a bus with the Red Cross sign coming over from the east, Shi-jian
boarded the bus with the wounded people; however, the bus soon encountered the
soldiers who shrouded it with rains of bullets lasting minutes. A young man, out
of dozen or so volunteer caretakers, climbed forward inside the bus, dislodged
the white flag with the Red Cross sign, and waved to the army through the
shattered glasses. Shi-jian shouted towards the Army: "Don't Shoot! We are
caring for the wounded." Thinking that the army had acquiesced, the bus started
rolling, only to sustain another round of bullets. A wounded man with a bullet
hole in the belly crawled towards Shi-jian, but Shi-jian had only a handkerchief
left. Shi-jian then asked, "Who knows how to drive? Go back. Go to the Xiehe
Hospital [to the east of the Square]."
At the Xiehe Hospital, Shi-jian
obtained some bandage, was told that the hospital ambulances were forbidden from
going to the rescue, and rallied a dozen people for going back to the Square.
The Zhushikou & Qianmen City Gate
At about 1:15 am, June
4th, 1989, intensive gun shots came over from the Zhushikou intersection to the
south of the Square. Tracer shells lit the southern sky into a patch of redness.
"Yi-da-qi's Recollection" stated that 15 minutes after the gunshots, the army
[airforce units] had been pushing to the Kentucky Fried Chicken shop at Qianmen.
While the people hit back with bottles and stones, the soldiers shot at layers
of people with submachineguns without hesitation, leaving the wounded and dead
along the streets. Inside of a pavilion in the Kentucky Fried Chicken's parking
lot, one old man lied dead, with brain spilled all over the place.
"Yi-da-qi's Recollection" mentioned that the PLA "southern contingent",
having arrived at the east gate of the Great People's Hall, blasted an array of
bullets and tracer shells onto the "People's Hero Monument" under which students
and the "Square Command Center" resided.
Killing Under the Rostrum
& In Front Of the Rostrum
"Wu Renhua's Recollection" stated that the
PLA "western contingent" finally arrived at the Jinshui-qiao Bridge [golden
water bridge] under the Tian'an'men Rostrum at about 1:30 am. Wu Renhua pointed
out that this column of soldiers, belonging to the so-called "Red Army Regiment"
of the PLA 38th Group Army, indiscriminately shot at people near the western
part of the "parade reviewing stand", on the Chang'an Street [i.e., in front of
the Rostrum] and the northern edge of the Square, forcing people into a flight
to the underground tunnel. (Should we count the Chang'an Street, the Rostrum,
and the northern edge of the Square as part of the Square? Yes !!!)
At
about the same time, over thousand soldiers approached the southside of the
People's Hall from the Yongding-men, Xuanwu-men and Qian-men city gates, per Wu
Renhua. In face of the army, the people and students retreated towards the
Monument in the center. Considerable people had fallen down during this
timeframe on the Square, per Wu Renhua. (See the Zhushikou & Qianmen City
Gate confrontation above for killings through the Kentucky Fried Chicken shop,
and also compare the following Zhang Jian's recollection of a victim who was
shot near the Mao Memorial Hall.)
At http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/4/6/7/n561083.htm, Zhang Jian, an 18 year old student from the Athletic
School, was acting as part of the student picket force at the Square that was
opposite to the eastern part of the "parade reviewing stand" [i.e., dong
guanli-tai]. When Zhang Jian approached an army officer and stated, "the
People's Army Loves the People", the officer pulled out a pistol and shot him in
the leg three times at a distance of 10 meters. The students promptly rescued
Zhang Jian for shipping onto Bus 121. on the way to the Tongren [formerly St.
Lukes] Hospital, Zhang Jian noticed that three other wounded people all died en
route. Among the three killed, some was shot near the Mao Tse-tung Memorial
Hall. (Victims who died of the pistol shooting at short distance, per Cao
Changqing, would include 24-year-old student of the Chemistry Department of
Qinghua University, i.e., Duan Changrong, whose grandfather Duan Qirui bore
responsibility for crackdown on the communist-agitated "28 March 1926 student movement" 63 years earlier.)
After the massacre, the communist
government repeatedly tortured the people who dared to talk truth. Gao Wenqian,
at http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/4/6/7/n561548.htm, pointed out that a
post-doctoral student of the CCP Propaganda Dept was tortured for sake of
forcing a denial of truth.
Killing on the East Chang'an Street &
Near the History Museum
Back at the Square from the Xiehe Hospital,
Shi-jian noticed that people were confronting the army at the "Square Minor" to
the north of the History Museum but so far the soldiers had not reached the
segment of the East Chang'an Street to the east of Nan-chi-zi [i.e., southern
pond, the area to the front of the Rostrum]. The range of space from Nan-chi-zi
to north of the History Museum, in Shi-jian's words, had become the killing
field.
Several times, people tried to charge towards the Square for
lending relief to the students; however, rains of bullets impeded the crowds.
People shouted aloud solgans: "Down With Li Peng!", "Down With The Fascists!",
"Oppose the Crackdown on the Students!" Each round of slogan shouting would
solicit one round of bullets. However, the brave people there, after taking care
of the wounded and dead, would garner another charge at the army, relentlessly.
"Shi-jian" stated that by this time, medical staff and rescuers
retreated to Nan-he-yan [edge of southern river or pond], i.e., an area to the
east of Nan-chi-zi and to the north of the East Chang'an Street. Shi-jian and a
student from the Peking Medical University remained close to the square,
however. The two called upon the people to sit down instead of shouting slogans.
People sat down on the road and on the curb side to face off with the troops.
Suddenly, a woman in black skirt stood up and walked towards the army. Shi-jian
pointed out that this young woman had just lost her brother. People then stood
up and followed the woman. People, in hundreds of thousands, shouting slogans,
ran up towards the army. The sound of gunshots being buried by the sound of
slogans, Shi-jian kept running till the people in the front had reversed course.
People just died to the two sides of Shi-jian. Shi-jian examined a teenager boy
to find out the brains were flowing out from the back of the skull. The woman
who led the charge was covered in blood, with multiple bullet holes on the
skirt. Shi-jian claimed that the people had confronted the army a dozen times
over the span of several hours at Nankou of the Nan-chi-zi-Da-jie Avenue.
http://www.secretchina.com/news/articles/4/5/12/64993.html carried a Chinese version of the article written by a
CCN reporter who cited eyewitness Lewis Simons of the "Washington Post"
in pointing out that the army, using machineguns, shot three rounds at the back
of about 400 fleeing crowds at the northeastern corner of the Square on the
early morning of June 4th, leaving dead corpses numbering 5, 6 and 20,
respectively. The Chinese Red Cross, which gave an initial count of 2600 deaths,
shut up its mouth about the death toll soon.
The Tian'an'men Square
Proper
"Yi-da-qi's Recollection" stated that wounded people kept rolling
into the medical clinic on the Square. Wu Renhua recalled how Li Lanju [from
HK], near the History Museum, stopped a teenager from rushing towards the army
for vengeance of the death of a brother, only to find out the dead boy in blood
thereafter at about 3 am. Li Lanju then personally went to the History Museaum,
kneeled down in front of an officer, and pleaded for the army to stop killing.
Around 1:00 am, a survivor worker of the 30-member picket force came to report
to Wu Renhua that his pals had all sacrificed their lives at the Western
Chang'an Street. Two female workers then followed the survivor to the
confrontation scene, stating that they could not be cowards to live on alone.
Also killed on the Square around 1:30 am would be graduate student Cheng Renyu
of the East European Research Institute of the Chinese People's University. When
HK students called the British embassy for help, they were told to stay put.
Beginning from 1:30 am, June 4th, high-powered government loudspeakers
mounted on top of the Great Hall had been announcing repeatedly an "urgent
notice", stating that a "serious reactionary rebellion... had started
tonight [the night of June 3rd] in the capital". However, more people
came to the Square than had left, with tens of thousands converging onto the
center. At this time, student leader Chai Ling announced that "the final moment
had come", and students began to sign the "Internationale" over and over again.
Unable to get inside of the Great Hall where thousands of army soldiers
[the 27th Corps] took refuge since the abortive action on the afternoon of June
3rd, the PLA "southern contingent" established positions on the stairs of the
Great Hall, occasionally firing some shots to scare the people. Per Wu Renhua,
the PLA "southern contingent", around 2:00 am, fired multiple barrages at the
Monument. To the east of the Square would be the "Historical Museum of Chinese
Revolution" from which the army units streamed out to echo the "western
contingent", the "southern contingent" and the "southwestern contingent". Wu
Renhua mentioned that the students and citizens failed to get close to the
thousand soldiers at the History Museum for persuasion. Wu Renhua also mentioned
that between the Mao Memorial Hall and Qianmen would be the PLA "southwestern
contingent" equipped with tanks and APCs, i.e., about 3000-4000 soldiers whom
"Yi-da-qi" referred to as the most civil and peaceful of all troops. Hence, the
army surrounded the Square from the east, south, north and west.
Suddenly, the gates of the Great Hall burst open, and tens of thousands
of soldiers jumped out like a sea of tides. Wu Renhua could only discern the
flashing of innumerable helmets under army's flashlight. The thousands of army
soldiers inside of the Great Hall, now ascertained to be from the PLA 27th Corps
[that once upon a time fought at Mt Laoshan in Vietnam in 1979], would later
organize a 205 soldier "delta force" to storm the center of the Square for sake
of taking down the loud speakers of the student organizations and arresting the
student leaders.
Wu Renhua noticed continuous casualties among the
students and citizens. Two wounded college students were sent to the clinic in
front of the History Museum. At the urge of students from the Politics & Law
University, Wu Renhua went to inspect tents on the Square and ordered that all
students immediately vacate the tents for the Monument. Wu Renhua claimed that
many other students were still sleeping in tents which scattered around the
Square. Wu personally woke up two such fatigued students.
At about 2:00
am, the army units in the "Golden Water Bridge" area of the Rostrum dispatched a
special force to the northern edge of the Square. The army burnt the tents of
the "Peking Autonomous Workers' Union" which had relocated there from the
"western parade stand" before the army's arrival at the square. A survivor
worker came over to see Wu Renhua with a box for safe-keeping. Wu Renhua asked
the worker to leave the Square with the box. After routing the "Peking
Autonomous Workers' Union", the army pushed towards the Statute of Democracy
Goddess. Wu Renhua pointed out that the monument became a lonely island. The
student hunger strike command center moved to the radio station to the southeast
of the monument from northeast. The student radio station continuously appealed
to the army by stating that "We [students] are peaceful petitioners for the
democracy and freedom of the motherland, and for the wealthy-being and
strengthening of the Chinese nationalities..." Students, meanwhile, prepared
towels and water for countering the coming crackdown at the center of the
Square.
At about 2:30 am, Feng Congde broadcasted a message about the
non-violent struggle. Liu Xiaobo and the rest of four hunger strike gentlemen,
consecutively, called upon the students in putting down bottles, rocks and
sticks. All of a sudden, a patrol came to report that some workers had mounted a
machinegun [dislodged from the APC] at the foot of the monument and moreover,
refused to allow anyone to get close. Hou Dejian immediately went over to
diffuse the situation when the workers cried about vengence on behalf of dead
pals. Another worker surrendered a bullet-less rifle. Liu Xiaobo trashed the
guns in front of one foreign reporter.
Hou Dejian Negotiating With
the Army
At 3:00 am, four hunger strike gentlemen consulted with
teachers and medical stuff about preserving the students. Two doctors of the Red
Cross suggested that they could accompany Hou Dejian on a negotiation mission
with the army.
At about 3:30 am, without prior consultation with the
student leaders, Hou Dejian and Zhou Duo [Zhou Tuo] rode on an ambulance towards
the army. Ambulance had to stop at the northeastern corner of the Square. The
negotiators stepped off the vehicle and walked towards the army. Soldiers
immediately threatened the visitors with the sounds of pulling the bolts and
screamed at them with questions and curses. Doctors called out with identities
and claimed that Hou Dejian was coming to talk with the commanders. An officer
with three stars, together with 4-5 militarymen, came up to meet with Hou
Dejian. The officer demanded that 'the hunger strike must end'. Hou & Zhou
claimed they had ended it already. The officer said he needed to report to the
headquarters. Five minutes later, all lights on the Square were turned off.
(4:25 am [4:20 am per Wu Renhua] was said to be the moment when the lights were
turned off at the Square; however, majority eyewitness recollections fixed
the timestamp for lights' turnoff at 4:00 exact.)
The four person
negotiating team were scared by the sudden turn-off of lights. The soldiers at
the opposite end again displayed impatience, pulling the bolts, screaming,
kicking the broken glasses, and throwing the bottles.
At the
northeastern corner of the Square, one doctor of the four-person negotiating
team raised his hands above head and called for the officer to return to the
scene. Three minutes later, the middle-aged officer returned to instruct that
the students evacuate to the direction of southeast, disclosed that he was
commissar Ji from a certain unit, and encouraged the team by claiming that the
team would do a great accomplishment should they persuade the students into a
withdrawal.
Around the Monument Of the People's Heros
At the
center, the students were singing "Internationale" after taking the light as a
signal of final crackdown. Liu Suli told Wu Renhua that it was worthwhile to die
together as brothers on the day. Foreign reporters left the monument. Some
students and citizens went towards Qianmen to the south. About 5000-6000
students, and some teachers, remained at the northside of monument per Wu
Renhua. Twenty meters to the west of the monument, people lit bonfire with
bedsheets and tents. There was another fire far away to the northeastern corner.
After the lights were off, Wu Renhua could hear the motors of tanks and APCs
rolling towards the Square from the direction of the Golden Water Bridge of the
Rostrum. The Statute of Democracy Goddess fell under the strikes by tanks. Tanks
then continued on to roll over the tents. Wu Renhua was worried about the
possibility of students still sleeping inside the tents since he personally had
to force two such students into a relocation. Wu Renhua also cited the later
military report in stating that soldiers had awoken a student by the name of Wu
Bin from sleep inside a tent.
Soon, one such tank rolled over to the
monument and broke one thick iron-made flag pole. Wu Renhua did not notice the
coming of the tank till the iron rod fell. At this time, about 10 minutes after
the lights were turned off, Hou Dejian returned from the talk with the army. Hou
Dejian requested with the students for leaving the scene. About 4:40 am [4:30 am
per Wu Renhua], the lights came back on. The army broadcasted a message: "Now is
time to clear the Square. [We] Approve the appeal from the classmates to vacate
the Square." Wu Renhua recalled that the army, from northeast, north,
northwest and south, had been converging upon the center right after the lights
were turned on. Hou Dejian, [at 4:32 am per Wu Renhua], made an appeal on
radio and explained his negotiation with the army. Some students cursed Hou
Dejian as a coward, a traitor, and a soft-boned guy, and some students rushed
into the radio station, wrestled over the microphone, and tried to hit Hou
Dejian. At this moment, tanks rolled over from east, and soldiers at the History
Museum shouted in applauses, "Leave Fast! Leave Fast!" Teacher Chen Po of Peking
Univ encouraged the students by swearing to die with the students under the
monument. Wu Renhua, moved by Chen Po, called for the students to maintain
calmness. Army soldiers, wearing fatigue, walked to the monument with bowed
waists and submachineguns, to be followed by a small number of riot police, and
the tanks and APCs. Students waved to the army with V-shaped fingers. The first
row of soldiers crawled onto the floor at about ten meters away, and mounted 20
machineguns at the students. The second row of soldiers were in squat positions,
while the hind rows standing, all pointing submachineguns at the students.
Student leaders, like Feng Conde, finally adopted an oral vote for
deciding upon the "stay" or "leave" motion. The "stay" sound overwhelmed the
"leave" sound. Wu Renhua pointed out that the students to the north of the
monument did not utter "leave" at all. Feng Conde made a decision of "leave" by
claiming that the students were ashamed of saying it aloud. Students to the
south of the monument might have begun to retreat with Feng Conde's
authorization at this time.
At this time, about 4:40 am [per Wu
Renhua], 40 soldiers, i.e., part of the "Delta Force", shooting to the sky,
rushed onto the steps of the monument from the north side; and another dozen or
so soldiers rushed onto the steps from the east side. HK student Lin Yaoqiang
pointed out that the soldiers rushed over right after Feng Conde made the
decision as to which voice was louder, i.e., "leave" against "stay". Soldiers
hit the students with gun butts, shot at the speakers, and pulled down the
banners. Lin Yaoqiang pulled another student Cheng Zhen who refused to move, and
the two relocated to the 2nd level of the monument. Next, they would yield the
2nd level as well as the top level to the army by going to the base level. When
gunshots erupted to the southeast of monument, Wu Renhua was worried about the
safety of student leaders, only to find out later that Chai Ling et al had mixed
up with the students to the south of the monument and then left for the
southeast. Soldiers were said to have continued the shooting at the monument
when the students tried to stop it. Soldiers kicked Wu Renhua and his picket
students who were sitting at the lowest step of the monument on the north side,
and shot into the skies to create detente. A young captain, about age 30,
repeatedly pleaded with the students for a leave and disclosed that their order
was to clear the Square at any cost. Meanwhile, the soldiers were violently
pushing at and hitting the students [mostly from out-of-town per Wu Renhua]
sitting in the area away from the steps of the monument. Students were screaming
all over the place, but continued sitting tight instead of helping those who
fell. The army and riot police continued pouring in.
An alternative analysis by
Chen Xiaoya stated that via three routes, the "special task force" soldiers from
the 27th Corps, under tactician Zhao Yongming, at about 4:25 am [per Chen
Xiaoya's citation of government records - 4:40 am per Wu Renhua], arrived at the
People's Hero Monument without any confrontation, i.e., an event that the
communists marked as the climax of its crackdown operation but was left out by
Zhang Liang's purported "THE TIANANMEN PAPERS". Since the timestamp of
4:25 am [4:40 am per Wu Renhua] was said to be the moment when the lights were
turned off at the Square, Chen Xiaoya might have wrongly fixed the
initialization timestamp of 4:25 am for the "delta force" operation as the
timestamp when the soldiers pricked through the crowds to the monument. (Per
Chen Xiaoya, the "special task force" aborted its attempt to capture alive the
student leaders at the scene. After the Massacre, the PLA wrote special sections
on its military accomplishments, with great compliments for the 27th Corps.
However, at the home base of the 27th Corps, i.e., Shijiazhuang, people and 300
students stormed the army camp and surrounded the headquarters in denounciation
of the massacre. The 27th Corps, which claimed that they never had to fire a
shot at the people, would lodge a complaint with the CCP Military Commission in
regards to being a scapegoat on behalf of the PLA 38th Corps [i.e., the 38th
Group Army].)
At about 5:00 am
[per Wu Renhua], Hou Dejian & Zhou Duo came over to the north side of the
monument, and pulled up students for a move. Wu Renhua stated that only students
sitting to the northeast of the movement left with Hou Dejian & Zhou Duo
while the rest just sat motionless.
With day breaking, the commandos
from the 'Dealta Force' around the base level and two higher levels of the
monument suddenly went into a competition in shooting out. Wu Renhua could not
tell exactly where the soldiers were shooting. Students sitting on the 2nd and
3rd steps of the monument stood up in panic, and left the scene for the
southeast around 5:10 to 5:20 am. Wu Renhua and his picket force stood up from
the stairs on the north side, and left the same direction while the "delta
force" soldiers shot their guns every once a while. After turning around the
southeast corner of the monument, Wu Renhua noticed that the students away from
the stairs of the monument still failed to move themselves. This is because the
student column was still streaming through towards the southeastern corner.
Gunshots raged on at the monument.
The "southeastern passage" was
supposedly a guaranteed safety exit by the army, but the students, when exiting,
continuously fell down at the sound of gunshots per Wu Renhua. one student got a
hit in the head, and towels could not stop the blood from flowing down. Wu
Renhua stated that at the "southeastern passage", the army used gun butts and
sticks to hit the students mostly but shot at those students who went into
astray towards the direction of the History Museum. Female students who tripped
over often exclaimed aloud. Students were in disarray exiting the monument area.
Comparatively speaking, the students who vacated to the south might have fared
better per Wu Renhua. After passing the Mao Memorial Hall, the students managed
to form a neaty line.
"Wu Renhua's Recollection" pointed out that some
400-500 students, waving flags, including that of the Peking Aviation &
Aerospace University, were standing steadfast between the Hero Monument and Mao
Memorial Hall. Some students from Wu Renhua's retreating column went over to
join the 400-500 students. Further between the Mao Memorial Hall and the Qianmen
City Gate area would be thousands of soldiers that might belong to the so-called
"civil-behavior" PLA southeastern contingent. Upon arriving at the Qianmen City
Gate area, the Peking citizens, in thousands, sent over their condolence and
support. one old man, in tears, told the students that he had lost his son, and
wanted the students to never forget about the 'blood debt'. When Wu Renhua's
retreating column turned to the west at the embrasured watchtower area of the
Qianmen City Gate, they could hear intense gunshots back on the Square that were
mixed with shouting slogans and singing of the song "International". Later, some
catching-up students told Wu Renhua that the batch of students who refused to
leave the Square were gunned down by the army. (I could not ascertain
whether Wu Renhua meant for the out-of-town students who stayed to the north of
the monument or the 400-500 students who stayed between Monument and Mao hall.
Most likely the former in light of the 20 minute machinegun gunfire detailed below. I will tend to believe the eyewitness
recollections that 1000 among the last batch of 3000 students at the center of
the square were gunned down.)
Was There Massacre Around The "Goddess of
Freedom & Democracy" Statute?
Liu Nianchun, at http://www.secretchina.com/news/articles/4/6/4/66155.html, cited a female doctor's statement in pointing out that
the PLA soldiers, at about 4:00 am, had shot dead four remaining rows of
students who guarded the "Goddess of Freedom & Democracy" Statute. This
would be a female doctor from the Beijing University Hospital who had told her
collegues what she witnessed on the morning of June 4th, 1989. The eyewitness
recollection pointed out that the remnant students, mostly from out of town,
encircled the statute although the main body of students around the Hero
Monument had been evacuating. Stranded inside of the ambulance at the
northwestern corner of the Square, this female doctor observed how the army shot
dead the first row of arm-in-arm students who refused to obey the order to
leave. After the army gunned down the front row, the students at the 2nd row
shouted 'Down With The Fascists!" and marched towards the army. The 2nd and 3rd
rows of students were gunned down consecutively. When the army shot at the 4th
row, a few students escaped; however, the army chased to kill them. one such
student fell down after running close towards the ambulance. When the doctors
and nurses pleaded with the army for rescuing the wounded student, the army shot
at the ground as a warning. The doctors and nurses pulled their legs back into
the ambulance, and the wounded student finally stopped moving. Innumerable
number of students might have died from this massacre.
When the
twilight appeared, the ambulance driver started the engine in the attempt of
leaving the Square. Soldiers hit the vehicle with gun butts and ordered them to
stay put for further order. The eyewitnesses inside of the ambulance then
noticed that the army pulled corpses together into seven clusters, sprayed gas,
pointed the flamethrower, and burnt the bodies. Helicopters circled around from
above and dumped the gas. After everything was burnt, the helicopters landed,
and soldiers used the spades to fill the ash and remains into the wooden cases.
Helicopters conducted several sorties of clearance operations and flew away.
With the approval of a colonel equivalent, the ambulance was allowed to
drive away. The female doctor stopped talking about her eyewitness recollection
after watching the June 5th TV reports, i.e., i) the sentencing of 10 year
imprisonment for someone who claimed that the blood flew like a river on the
Tiananmen Square and ii) CCP cadre Zhang Gong's claim that "not a single shot
was fired and not a single person was killed on the Square". (Liu Nianchun
claimed that the troops who conducted the massacre around the Statute would be
the soldiers who came out of the bunkers under the People's Hall [??? 27th
Corps].)
http://www.alternativeinsight.com/Tiananmen.html, carrying sympathetic tone to the killer communists,
made a big deal out of the dispute in regards to any killing on the Square
Proper. Similarly, Robert Marquand of "The Christian Science Monitor" wrote an
article entitled "New story emerges of an infamous massacre" in June 03, 2004
edition [
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0603/p01s04-woap.html], which was to play into the CCP's denial of
massacre on the Square via so-called "investigative reporting". The CCP
clandestinely thought that should the Square be cleared of any massacre, then
the massacre of the Peking city would become a myth. (In deed, they thought they
could get away from it with the acquiesce of the U.S., Russia and Japan. Henry
Kissinger claimed that the Chinese communists were most tolerant since no
government in this world would allow the mobsters to take over a nation's
capital for so long. And, George Bush Sr was certainly eager to send secret
emissary to renew relations with the butchers. A
reactionary communist regime, which is bent on destroying China and the Chinese
people, would certainly meet the American criteria of "containing the so-called
'sleeping lion' of the Orient", i.e., a 1850s policy that passed down from
Matthew Perry as well as revived in the U.S. transfer of the Diaoyutai Islands,
i.e., Senkaku Gunto [Pinnacle Islands], to Okinawa [Ryukyu] of Japan in
1971.)
From 4:00 am to 9:00 am, killing
never stopped on or near the Square. "Shi-jian" pointed out that after the bulk of students vacated the
Square, the massacre continued. Around 5:00 am, on June 4th, a column of tanks
and APCs rolled westward along the East Chang'an Street and upon arriving at the
Square, shot at people on the two sides continuously. All lights on the Square
and along the Chang'an Street were knocked out by the army. Thunder of
gunshots raged on at the Square for over 20 minutes.
Twenty Minutes of Machinegun Gunfire
Numerous
eyewitness recollections talked about the 20-minute machinegun gunfire but
failed to get a glimpse of the reality. The reason was simple: Those who
actually got shot at by the machineguns during the interval would most likely
not been able to survive to tell the story. Both "Shi-jian" and Wu Renhua had been away from the center of
the Square at the time when the machinegun gunfire was heard. Though, we could
somehow piece together the details as to what happened during the said interval.
Han-san-bi's "History's Wounds" [East & West Culture Co,,
August 1989 edition, HK] compiled an anthology of eyewitness recollections,
invariably endorsing the number of 3000 for the last batch of people still
stranded at the center of the square by the army's evacuation deadline of 5:00
am.
Chen Xiaoya pointed out another ommission
by Zhang Liang's purported "THE TIANANMEN PAPERS", i.e., the army
effecting a junction by the 38th & 15th Corps at the Square for the
clearance push. The 15th Corps, which marched onto the Square from the south,
was guarding the area between the southeastern corner of the Monument and the
Qianmen-Da-jie Avenue to the south of the Square. At 4:30 am, on June 4th, the
15th Corps decided to push towards the center of the Square, and one hour later,
at 5:30 am, had the union with the 38th Corps at the center of the Square.
With the bulk of the
students gone already, why would the army take a whole hour to walk to the
center of the Square????? Note that the "special task force" from the 27th
Corps were already guarding the monument at the center since 4:25 am [4:40 am
per Wu Renhua]. The answer could be found in the mystery of twenty minutes of
machinegun gunfire. Cheng-ying, on pages 136-137 of Han-san-bi's "History's
Wounds", discussed about the massacre that started at 4:40 am when the
lights were turned on, and tracer shots were fired to the square. Apparently
after Wu Renhua and the students [other than to the north side of the monument]
had left the square, the army took drastic actions against the stranded
students. Per Cheng-ying, the soldiers on the monument hit the students to force
those on the lower levels into descending onto the Square level while the
soldiers on the Square shot at the students in a leveled orientation. Those
soldiers who mounted the guns, machineguns and submachineguns on the floor had
hit the students right on. Tanks and APCs rammed against the dozens and hundreds
of tents on the Square, and the soldiers chased the students, killed them along
the way, and pierced them with bayonets.
Another eyewitness, on pages
186-187 of Han-san-bi's "History's Wounds", stated that at about 4:45 am,
before the deadline of 5:00 am, the army turned off the lights again, mounted
100 machineguns at the students, rolled dozens of tanks and APCs against the
corpses, the wounded and the remnant people. Machinegun gunfire could be
heard for a duration of twenty minutes.
A student from Qinghua
University, on pages 159-162 of Han-san-bi's "History's Wounds", also
confirmed the fact that the soldiers on the floor had shot direct at the chests
of students who were driven off the base level of the monument. Further, about
30 APCs, running down the students, converged together to have the stranded
students completely surrounded. Students, in batches, rushed forward to push
apart the APCs. With innumerable students killed, finally one APC was pushed
apart. Students, about 1000 left, ran towards the History Museum to the east
where they converged with the remnant Pekingers. Students then fled towards the
direction of the "Peking Hotel" on the East Chan'an Street. By the time the
students arrived at the turn of the East Chang'an Street, gunshots from the
trees fired on the students. The remnants now changed direction to the south.
When they approached the Qian-men area, an army of soldiers with sticks jumped
out to beat the students. The Pekingers, for rescuing the students, rushed
towards the army. Students, with the cover provided by the entanglement between
the Army and the Pekingers, then fled to the direction of the Peking Train
Station.
At this time, machinegun gunfire had lessened in intensity,
but sporadic shots were incessant across the Square. About 5:30 am, helicopters
were seen encircling around the Square. Tanks, APCs and military trucks rolled
in from the two directions of east and west. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers
poured in to have the Square surrounded by a human wall as thick as 4 rows.
Those who climbed onto the trees invariably spotted rows of corpses filling up
the pedestrian xing of the Square. The sorties of helicopters blew apart
the canvas, exposing the layers of corpses which the army was busy cramming.
Cheng-ying, on page 139 of Han-san-bi's "History's Wounds", stated that
some Pekingers had spotted army lifting wounded onto the trucks.
The
same Qinghua U student, with two other classmates, returned towards the Square
at about 6:30 am, but failed to go beyond the Mao Memorial Hall. Rows of APCs
lined up at the edge of the Square, while the soldiers stood in rows of human
wall. The said student climbed onto a tall tree, and found out that the soldiers
on the Square were wrapping up the corpses with plastic bags and then covered
them up with canvas. Numerous students mentioned that their wounded classmates
were still on the Square, and some Pekingers said that the corpses had lined up
the pedestrian xing of the Square. Eyewitness Cheng-ying cited a HK news
reporter's observation from the Peking Hotel in stating that the army had
probably burnt the corpses on the Square, with the rising smoke lasting a long
time. To dispel the people who converged upon the southern end of the Sqaure,
the army suddenly fired tear gas around 7:30 am. All crematoriums of the Peking
city had already been taken over by the military.
Continuous Resistance
At the West Chang'an Avenue
Yu-yuan and his group
of people regrouped at least 4-5 times till daybreak to engage with the army.
They intended to march towards the Square for "rescuing the students". At about
100 meters away from the People's Great Hall, they were repelled by gunshots.
With every regrouped charge at the army, they lost a few folks at the sound of
gunshots. (Yu-yuan could tell that majority of the soldiers might have fired to
the skies while a few shot direct at them; otherwise, he himself might very well
be dead during the half a dozen charges at the army.)
By daybreak, they
found out that the army was about 50 meters away from the crowd in the center of
the street, while the people on the two ends were moving faster, about 20-30
meters from the soldiers who were waving the white batons. Daylight might have
impeded the soldiers from indiscriminate shooting as had happened at night.
First, the two parties fought a psychological war by singing songs against each
other. Half an hour later, rows of tanks came up from behind the soldiers. When
one guy lied down on the street, hundreds more followed the suit. Tanks stopped
just 5-6 meters away, with one such tank almost hitting the people with the
inertia. Soldiers jumped out of the tanks and threw the poisonous bombs.
Irritated by the pungent smell and the yellow smoke, Yu-yuan and the rest of the
people jumped up and fled the scene. Yu-yuan's classmate tried to pick up the
bomb to throw it back at the army. Soldiers waved their guns and jumped around
in jubilation.
Passing through Xinhuamen, Yu-yuan noticed that the
soldiers stood at the gate with hands tied to the back, motionless. By the time
yu-yuan reached Liubukou, the tanks had caught up to be ahead. Students and
people began to pause for vomiting due to the tear gas. Hearing of crying
opposite to Liubukou, Yu-yuan circumvented around a tank for inspecting on the
scene, only to find five dead students who were just rammed by the tanks. People
borrowed some door panels for carrying the corpses back to colleges so that the
army could not exterminate the evidence. A female student ID was saved as
evidence. Yu-yuan barely escaped a tank by throwing down a door panel which was
striken to pieces by the said tank. Meantime, Yu-yuan's classmate helped a
student [who lost an arm to the tank] to leave the scene. Further details could
be seen at the "Tank Ramming Students At Liubukou" below.
At this time,
a truck driver volunteered to send the corpses to the Politics & Law
University by taking the routes of alleys and lanes. The driver claimed that he
had been rushing to preserve the corpses throughout the night. At the Politics
& Law [i.e., Administrative Law] University, the five corprse were received
by professors and students who were all in tears. Tens of thousands of Peking
citizens came to the Politics & Law University to witness the horrific
scene.
Tank Ramming the Students At Liubukou
At http://www.secretchina.com/news/articles/4/5/30/65882.html, Gao Xin, one of the "four hunger strike gentlemen",
gave an recollection of the tanks' crushing and pulverizing about one dozen
people at Liubukou. Zhang Boli, i.e., deputy commander of the Hunger Strike Command Center,
stated that a tank suddenly rushed up to catch the tail of the retreating
students.
Per Wu Renhua, retreating students turned onto the West
Chang'an Street around 7:00 am on June 4th, 1989. (At about the same time, Yang
Yansheng of the "Chinese Athletic Newspaper" was killed by a dumdum
bullet when rescuing an wounded person on the Zhengyi Road.) Students walked on
the southern side of the bike lane along the 70-80 meter wide avenue when three
tanks chased over from the direction of the Square, shooting the tear gas that
permeated the air with a yellow smoke. (Wu Renhua pointed out that the Chinese
tear gas caused coughing, not tears.) Students, in a panic, jumped over the blue
arrowheaded fence for the sidewalk while the female students, unable to climb
over the 1.2 meter high fence, were scared. After the tanks passed through, 11
students were killed already at Liubukou, with two other students losing both
legs, respectively. Alternative recollections, cited by Cao Changqing, stated
that the tank killed 21-year old Wang Peiwen of the Chinese Youth Politics
Institute at the front of the student column, while another tank killed
19-year-old Dong Xiaojun. 23-year-old Fang Zheng of the Peking Athletic
Institute lost legs in the course of rescuing a female student, and would be
denied a right of participation in the sports contest as paralyzed sportsman
five years later. A Peking citizen managed to send five corpses to the Chinese
Politics & Law University. Wu Renhua stated that among the five victims
would be one from the Central Youth League School [Chinese Youth Politics
Institute], one from the Peking Iron & Steel Institute [Peking Technological
University ?? possibly 22-year-old Tian Daoming of the Peking Technological
Management University], and one from the Peking Aviation Institute.
Retreating students then turned at the Xidan intersection for the
north, and split into two columns at the Xinjiekou intersection for respective
colleges and universities. (Reporter Chen Tianquan of HK's "Ming Bao"
cited a report as to tanks killing 11 Qinghua U students at the intersection of
Xidan.) Wu Renhua returned to the campus around 10:00 am, received hugs from the
waiting colleagues and students, and kneeled down in front of five corpses.
Soldiers, passing by the campus, sent a carbin of bullets to the skies above the
Chinese Politics & Law University. In the afternoon of June 4th, near the
broadcasting station of Peking U, a HK student, who had brought HK$20k to Peking
on May 23rd, met student leaders Feng Congde, Li Lu, Chai Ling and et al.
Students, who had prepared bottles and bricks for fear that the army could come
into campuses, would then disband after Peking U President Ding Shisun announced
the start of an immediate summer vacation. Soldiers began to station in the
college park district of Haidingqu on June 12th.
The
Post-64 Massacre & Crackdown
"Shi-jian" pointed out that the massacre continued for the next few
days, till the night of June 8th at minimum. Shi-jian pointed out that at
about 6:00-7:00 am, the army shot at the crowds from the three angles of the
History Museum, the Public Security Bureau, and the Rostrum. People
retreated to the Nan-chi-zi-Da-jie from the Chang'an Street. Thereafter, at
about 8:00 to 9:00 am, on June 4th, 1989, soldiers followed through to Nankou
[southern end] of the Nan-chi-zi-Da-jie Avenue, and some soldiers picked up
bicycles and chased the people with sub-machineguns. Soldiers on bicycles went
all the way to the Nan-chi-zi Grain Shop where Shi-jian spotted a wounded old
man lying on the ground. Medical staff, students and people, who survived the
early killings, would be either beaten or shot at when passing through
Nan-chi-zi after fleeing away from the Square. 
Los
Angeles Times reporter, i.e., Jia-gan, pointed out that at around 10:25 am, on
June 4th, in front of the Peking Hotel, the army had shot at about 60 protesters
who pleaded with the soldiers for stopping the massacre. After the death of a
dozen people, more protesters rushed forwards against the guns. Jia-gan
estimated that there were 50 casualties. Three French airline workers and one
Portuguese calculated that the army had killed the group in four batches of
shooting that lasted about one minute. Around noon, at the hospital where HK
student Li Lanju stayed, the doctors issued an instruction that all wounded
people must leave the hospital becuase the army would be coming over by the
night. Li Lanju heard from a doctor that the army had shot dead two doctors at
another hospital as well as those who ventured outside for fetching the blood
supply. At the hospital, a wounded person told Li Lanju that at the peremeter of
the Square, he witnessed the soldiers shooting dead a woman who was holding a
kid, and then shot to kill the people who tried to rescue the kid as well as the
kid himself. A student, with a broken leg and a gunshot in the chest, returned
the money to HK student Chen Qinghua, stating that he had no chance to walk away
from the hospital.
By the night of June 4th, the army marched eastward
along the Chang'an Street, shouting slogans in the rain and shooting
indiscriminately every once a while. Victims who died of indiscriminate shooting
after the massacre, per Cao Changqing, would include: 1) 21-year-old Qian Hui
who was killed by the army convoy in front of the Peking Broadcasting College in
the early morning of June 5th, 1989; 2) 19-year-old Xiao Jie [Chinese People's
University] who was shot at the back at Nan-kou of Nan-chi-zi, near the Rostrum,
in the afternoon of June 5th; 3) three civilian deaths on the
Fuxingmen-wai-dajie Street on June 6th; 4) three civilian deaths on the
Nan-li-shi Street on the evening on June 6th; 5) two civilian deaths including
An Ji [the "Town & City Construction" magazine] in front of the
Peking Children's Hospital on the night of June 7th; and 6) 20-year-old Wang
Zhengsheng who was shot near the Children's Hospital at about 11:00 pm on June
7th.
Li Xuewen, i.e., one of the Tian'anmen Mothers, pointed out that
during the half-month-long search for her missing son Yuan Li, she had spotted
at least 400 corpses in 44 hospitals. Tian'anmen Mother Ding Zilin, in 1995,
published a book with a list of 96 victims who died in the crackdown after
strenuous visitation of victims' families in Peking. (For testimonies of
victims' families, please refer to http://www.hkhkhk.com/64name/64.html.)
COMMENT
On Jan 17th 2005, reformer Zhao Ziyang, after 15 years of house arrest,
passed away. Before his passaway, Zhao Ziyang was said to have commented that
there was "no cure " for China. People who had hoped for a change at this juncture
might be disappointed should no significant mourning-related activity or
political loosening happen in China.
Note that in history, China's
dynastic substitution was mostly the results of mutiny or foreign invasion,
except for Yellow Turpans of Eastern Han Dynasty and Red Turbans of Yuan
Dynasty: mutiny applied to Li Zicheng & Zhang Xianzhong rebellion in late
Ming Dynasty, and Xin Hai Revolution in late Qing Dynasty, as well as applies to
the scenario of 1927 Communist Revolution against the Nationalist Government;
hence, one would have to pessimistically expect that the Chinese communists
would commit suicide by themselves one way or the other [e.g., attacking Taiwan]
in order to see a revolution similar to the Xin Hai Revolution that had
overthrown Manchu rule in 1911.
After we have closely examined the
historical context of China's reforms from 1979 to 1989, we would understand
that in today's China, i.e., year 2005, there will be void of any chance of
change. This is because the "Enlightened Intelligentsia" we discussed above had been routed since June 4th 1989
Masssacre, while no significant regenerating force had ever emerged. The damage
to China's fortune was many times worse than the abortion of late Manchu-era
"Hundred Day Reformation" at which time incessant foreign invasions had sustained the
fighting spirits and martialness of the Chinese people, as seen in Assassinations & Uprisings. China's fate, i.e., a
continuous down-sloping in the context of past 500 years, continues unabated in
the same line. Any Chinese technological advancement, no matter space rockets or
atomic bombs, would look pale in comparison with accelerating speed of
industrialized countries, not to mention the lost spirits among today's Chinese
people. There is reason to believe that China is on a very wrong path,
and China will have no time for any catch-up work should the current course
stay.
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| Hu Yaobang, Reform & Death First Students' Movement CCP's Economic Crimes Enlightened Intelligentsia & Petition Movements Second Students' Movement Hunger Strike & Student-CCP Dialogue Martial Law Enaction In Peking June 3rd, 1989: Setup, Framing & Smear Campaign Blood Path From Wukesong to Muxidi Massacring All The Way To Tian'an'men Square Massacre Around The "Goddess of Freedom & Democracy" Statute Twenty Minutes of Machinegun Gunfire Post-64 Massacre & Crackdown |
Eyewitness Recital By Lin Bin - Muxidi Area PLA Insider Disclosure of Death Toll At 31,978 Three Brave Young Men From Hunan Province Eyewitness Recital - TAM Square & Surroundings PLA Deployment of Over Dozen Field Army Corps Wu Renhua's Eyewitness Recital of TAM Square Eyewitness Recital of Tanks Ramming Students PLA Playing Tricks Of 27th vs 38th Corps on 6-6-89 Eyewitness Recital of Blood Path by Yi-da-qi |
| [ this page: june4th_massacre.htm ] | [ next page: 6-4_massacre ] |
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