During the spring of 1989 prodemocracy student activists
staged a series of demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in Beijing,
China. Demonstrators erected a 10-m (33-ft) high statue entitled
.Goddess of Democracy., modelled on the Statue of Liberty in the
United States, as the symbol of their protest. Hundreds of
protestors died on June 3 and 4, 1989, when the Chinese
government ordered the military to crack down on the
protest.
The tanks ran over students tents crushing the occupants, but
they failed to crush the determination of the Chinese
people!
A demonstration of Chinese courage
This report on the Tiananmen Square Massacre appeared in The
Times on June 5, 1989.
The violent repression by the Chinese authorities of this
peaceful student-led protest in the main square in Beijing
(Peking) led to widespread international condemnation. The
100,000-strong gathering in Tiananmen Square had been the
culmination of several months of pro-democracy demonstrations.
When government demands that the students disperse were ignored,
tanks and troops were sent in. Hundreds died, up to 10,000 were
injured, and widespread arrests, trials, and executions of
pro-democracy leaders followed.
Peking Protesters Massacred .Thousands Feared Dead as Tanks Crush
Heroic Resistance.
The unofficial death toll in Peking has risen to more than 1,000,
with many times that number injured Buses and lorries blazed as
residents manned barricades in a renewed attempt to halt the
onslaught by the Army Sporadic bursts of gunfire were heard near
the diplomatic quarter in the centre of Peking Tank
reinforcements moved towards Tiananmen Square as thousands of
troops guarded all approach roads
The people of Peking last night continued their heroic but doomed
resistance as some of the tanks and heavy artillery that had
crushed the student protest movement less than 24 hours before
patrolled the capital.
Last night the unofficial death toll had risen above 1,000, with
many times that number injured.
Early today the military authorities were quoted on a radio news
programme as saying that the capture of Tiananmen Square was
.just an initial victory. and predicted a long fight against
.dregs of society..
In the suburbs, buses and trucks blazed for the second
consecutive night as Peking residents manned barricades in a
renewed attempt to halt the armed onslaught. There were reports
of gunfire on university campuses to the north-west of the city,
and sporadic bursts of gunfire were heard near the diplomatic
quarter in the centre of Peking, as lorries and jeeps drove round
the area.
A convoy of 10 tanks and 16 armoured troop carriers firing
machine guns crossed a three-mile stretch of Peking from
Tiananmen Square to the main embassy district. .It must be to
keep people inside,. said a Western diplomat living in the
area.
Witnesses spoke of 15 armoured personnel carriers on fire in the
north of the capital and another two to the west of Tiananmen
Square.
Tiananmen itself was occupied by two dozen tanks and armoured
personnel carriers in formation and several thousand troops stood
guard.
Small crowds of people gathered in front of the line of troops on
the north-east of the square, and shouted taunts. Earlier in the
day, city residents had emerged gingerly from their homes and
refuges and stood talking in hushed and bewildered tones.
As rumours spread of hospital wards and storehouses piled high
with bodies, hospitals were besieged by anxious people inquiring
about friends and relatives.
Gradually more details emerged to fill out the sketchy picture of
yesterday morning.s massacre. According to one account, tanks and
armoured personnel carriers had driven on to the square,
indiscriminately crushing the makeshift tents with students still
inside.
Another report said that when the students had filed out of the
square, holding hands, troops had fired at them, felling the
first row of 100, and then the second.
By nightfall, the people of China had still not been told
officially of the human cost of the military operation to restore
.order and stability. to Peking. On the main evening news
programme, the newsreaders wore black in what was interpreted as
an individual gesture.
The only casualties mentioned by the newscast were among troops.
The Army was said to have suppressed a .counter-revolutionary
riot.. According to the report, the troops moved in at 5 am and
had .completed their task. in half an hour.
Television showed pictures of tanks crushing barricades and of
troops knocking down the .Goddess of Democracy., the replica of
the Statue of Liberty built by art students in the middle of the
square.
The meagre reports by the official media failed to stop horror
and anger over the massacre spreading to other Chinese cities,
and thousands took to the streets in many places to condemn the
Army.s action.
Despite pouring rain, students in Shanghai erected barricades and
bus drivers went on strike, while more than 100,000 people
demonstrated in the southern city of Nanjing. Protests also took
place in Changsha, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Xian, Tianjin and
Qingdao.
Back in Peking, a speech by the Mayor, Mr Chen Xitong, advised
residents not to take part in demonstrations. He said that more
than 1,000 troops had been injured in yesterday.s violence.
Another radio report justified the use of force by the level of
violence in Peking and praised soldiers for .upholding the
endless revolutionary spirit of Chairman Deng Xiaoping.. Mr.
Deng, chairman of the Communist Party Central Military
Commission, was said to be ill.
One announcer on Radio Peking.s English-language service broke
the official silence on the truth of what had happened by
speaking of thousands of casualties, .most of them innocent
civilians.. The broadcast was summarily taken off the air.
Injuries were reported among foreign journalists covering the
military assault. Two reporters were injured by bullets
ricocheting off the Peking Hotel and several, including two US
television correspondents and two British newspaper
reporters.Jonathan Mirsky of The Observer and Michael Fathers of
The Independent.were badly beaten by plainclothes police.
At the campus of Peking Normal University, a British student,
Miss Ruth Herd, said that two small lorry loads of troops had
offered to hand their weapons over to the students.
The carnage in Peking presented the British Government with a
diplomatic problem of acute sensitivity, as hundreds of thousands
of people in Hong Kong demonstrated against the action of the
Peking leadership.
The Governor of Hong Kong, Sir David Wilson, spoke on the
colony.s radio of his .shock and deep sadness.. Many people
condemned his remarks as an inadequate response and called for
action, including changes in the British Nationality Act to give
Hong Kong residents right of abode in Britain after 1997.
At a mass rally and march in the afternoon, the barrister, Mr.
Martin Lee, and Mr. Szeto Wah both announced that they were
withdrawing from membership of the Basic Law drafting
committee.
A general strike has been called in the colony for Wednesday to
protest against China.s action, and individuals have called for
disinvestment in China and the abrogation of the Sino-British
agreement on Hong Kong.
China last night began jamming the BBC. A spokesman for the World
Service said three out of five Chinese transmissions were
blocked.
Deng order:
Mr. Deng gave the orders for the bloody military invasion of
Peking from a hospital where he is being treated for prostate
cancer, Chinese officials said yesterday (AP reports).
They said that Mr. Deng.s condition was serious. The officials,
who work in the office of the former President, Mr. Li Xiannian,
said that Mr. Deng gave the orders a day before the army
action.
Even if they.re functioning out of ignorance, they are still
participating and must be suppressed,. Mr. Deng was quoted as
saying. .In China, even one million people can be considered a
small sum..
Deng Xiaoping died on February 19, 1997
