Thinking Activity 5.6: Analyzing Different Accounts of the Confrontation at Tiananmen
Square.
SEVERAL ACCOUNTS OF EVENTS AT TIANANMEN SQUARE, 1989
The New York Times (June 4, 1989)*
<<* Excerpts from “Square Is Cleared” and “Beijing Death Toll at Least 300; Army Tightens
Control of City but Angry Resistance Goes on,” by Nicholas D. Kristoff, The New York Times,
June 4/June 5, 1989. Copyright © 1989 by The New York Times Co. Reprinted by
permission.>>
Tens of thousands of Chinese troops retook the center of the capital from pro-democracy
protesters early this morning, killing scores of students and workers and wounding hundreds
more as they fired submachine guns at crowds of people who tried to resist. Troops marched
along the main roads surrounding central Tiananmen Square, sometimes firing in the air and
sometimes firing directly at crowds who refused to move. Reports on the number of dead were
sketchy. Students said, however, that at least 500 people may have been killed in the crackdown.
Most of the dead had been shot, but some had been run over by personnel carriers that forced
their way through the protesters’ barricades.
A report on the state-run radio put the death toll in the thousands and denounced the
Government for the violence, the Associated Press reported. But the station later changed
announcers and broadcast another report supporting the governing Communist party. The official
news programs this morning reported that the People’s Liberation Army had crushed a “counterrevolutionary rebellion.” They said that more than 1,000 police officers and troops had been
injured and some killed, and that civilians had been killed, but did not give details.
© Houghton Mifflin
Deng Xiaoping, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, as reported in Beijing
Review (July 10–16, 1989)
The main difficulty in handling this matter lay in that we had never experienced such a
situation before, in which a small minority of bad people mixed with so many young students
and onlookers. Actually, what we faced was not just some ordinary people who were misguided,
but also a rebellious clique and a large number of the dregs of society. The key point is that they
wanted to overthrow our state and the Party. They had two main slogans: to overthrow the
Communist Party and topple the socialist system. Their goal was to establish a bourgeois
republic entirely dependent on the West.
During the course of quelling the rebellion, many comrades of ours were injured or even
sacrificed their lives. Some of their weapons were also taken from them by the rioters. Why?
Because bad people mingled with the good, which made it difficult for us to take the firm
measures that were necessary. Handling this matter amounted to a severe political test for our
army, and what happened shows that our People’s Liberation Army passed muster. If tanks were
used to roll over people, this would have created a confusion between right and wrong among the
people nationwide. That is why I have to thank the PLA officers and men for using this approach
to handle the rebellion. The PLA losses were great, but this enabled us to win the support of the
people and made those who can’t tell right from wrong change their viewpoint. They can see
what kind of people the PLA are, whether there was bloodshed at Tiananmen, and who were
those that shed blood.
This shows that the people’s army is truly a Great Wall of iron and steel of the Party and
country. This shows that no matter how heavy the losses we suffer and no matter how
generations change, this army of ours is forever an army under the leadership of the Party,
© Houghton Mifflin
forever the defender of the country, forever the defender of socialism, forever the defender of the
public interest, and they are the most beloved of the people. At the same time, we should never
forget how cruel our enemies are. For them we should not have an iota of forgiveness.
Reporter (eyewitness account), reported in the New York Times* (June 4, 1989)
Changan Avenue, or the Avenue of Eternal Peace, Beijing’s main east-west thoroughfare,
echoed with screams this morning as young people carried the bodies of their friends away from
the front lines. The dead or seriously wounded were heaped on the backs of bicycles or tricycle
rickshaws and supported by friends who rushed through the crowds, sometimes sobbing as they
ran.
The avenue was lit by the glow of several trucks and two armed personnel carriers that
students and workers set afire, and bullets swooshed overhead or glanced off buildings. The air
crackled almost constantly with gunfire and tear gas grenades.
Students and workers tried to resist the crackdown, and destroyed at least sixteen trucks and two
armored personnel carriers. Scores of students and workers ran alongside the personnel carriers,
hurling concrete blocks and wooden staves into the treads until they ground to a halt. They then
threw firebombs at one until it caught fire, and set the other alight after first covering it with
blankets soaked in gasoline. The drivers escaped the flames, but were beaten by students. A
young American man, who could not be immediately identified, was also beaten by the crowd
after he tried to intervene and protect one of the drivers.
Clutching iron pipes and stones, groups of students periodically advanced toward the
soldiers. Some threw bricks and firebombs at the lines of soldiers, apparently wounding many of
them. Many of those killed were throwing bricks at the soldiers, but others were simply watching
passively or standing at barricades when soldiers fired directly at them.
© Houghton Mifflin
It was unclear whether the violence would mark the extinction of the seven-week-old democracy
movement, or would prompt a new phase in the uprising, like a general strike. The violence in
the capital ended a period of remarkable restraint by both sides, and seemed certain to arouse
new bitterness and antagonism among both ordinary people and Communist Party officials for
the Government of Prime Minister Li Peng.
“Our Government is already done with,” said a young worker who held a rock in his
hand, as he gazed at the army forces across Tiananmen Square. “Nothing can show more clearly
that it does not represent the people.” Another young man, an art student, was nearly incoherent
with grief and anger as he watched the body of a student being carted away, his head blown
away by bullets. “Maybe we’ll fail today,” he said. “Maybe we’ll fail tomorrow. But someday
we’ll succeed. It’s a historical inevitability.”
Official Chinese Government Accounts
“Comrades, thanks for your hard work. We hope you will continue with your fine efforts to
safeguard security in the capital.”
— Prime Minister Li Peng (addressing a group of soldiers after the Tiananmen Square event)
“It never happened that soldiers fired directly at the people.”
— General Li Zhiyun
“The People’s Liberation Army crushed a counter-revolutionary rebellion. More than 1,000
police officers and troops were injured and killed, and some civilians were killed.”
— official Chinese news program
“At most 300 people were killed in the operation, many of them soldiers.”
— Yuan Mu, official government spokesman
“Not a single student was killed in Tiananmen Square.”
© Houghton Mifflin
— Chinese army commander
“My government has stated that a mob led by a small number of people prevented the
normal conduct of the affairs of state. There was, I regret to say, loss of life on both sides. I
wonder whether any other government confronting such an unprecedented challenge would have
handled the situation any better than mine did.”
— Han Xu, Chinese ambassador to the United States
The New York Times (June 5, 1989)*
It was clear that at least 300 people had been killed since the troops first opened fire
shortly after midnight on Sunday morning but the toll may be much higher. Word-of-mouth
estimates continued to soar, some reaching far into the thousands. . . . The student organization
that coordinated the long protests continued to function and announced today that 2,600 students
were believed to have been killed. Several doctors said that, based on their discussions with
ambulance drivers and colleagues who had been on Tiananmen Square, they estimated that at
least 2,000 had died. Soldiers also beat and bayoneted students and workers after daybreak on
Sunday, witnesses said, usually after some provocation but sometimes entirely at random. “I saw
a young woman tell the soldiers that they are the people’s army, and that they mustn’t hurt the
people,” a young doctor said after returning from one clash Sunday. “Then the soldier shot her,
and ran up and bayoneted her.”
Xiao Bin (eyewitness account immediately after the event)
Tanks and armored personnel carriers rolled over students, squashing them into jam, and
the soldiers shot at them and hit them with clubs. When students fainted, the troops killed them.
After they died, the troops fired one more bullet into them. They also used bayonets. They were
too cruel. I never saw such things before.
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Xiao Bin (account after being taken into custody by Chinese authorities)
I never saw anything. I apologize for bringing great harm to the party and the country.
Tiananmen Square: The Declassified History
(http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB16/) This multimedia web site is drawn
from the National Security Archives.
Tiananmen: The Gate of Heavenly Peace (http://www.tsquare.tv/) A multimedia site supporting
the PBS documentary.
© Houghton Mifflin