Tiananmen Square anniversary

Aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre
(click image to enlarge)

Today is the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. This post would not be allowed n China. The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) strictly censors any mention of the event. A post like this in China would earn me a visit from the police and worse. So, because it needs to be remembered, I'll post it here.  

The quote below is an excerpt from The New Statesman's article Bearing witness at Tiananmen Square. I have edited it to add paragraph breaks and to simplify one footnote.

After midnight, after two armoured cars had sped down each side of the Square from the Front Gate, the situation became increasingly serious. Official loudspeakers repeatedly blared out “notices”. Dense lines of steel-helmeted troops ringed the Square. Despite the darkness, you could clearly see the machine-guns mounted on top of the History Museum. There was not the slightest attempt to hide them. We students crowded round the Monument to the Heroes of the People. I carefully estimated the crowd. Two thirds were men, one third were women; about 30 per cent from universities and colleges in Beijing. Most were students from other cities. At four o’clock sharp, just before daybreak, the lights in the Square suddenly went out. The loudspeakers broadcast another order to “clear the Square”. 

I suddenly had a tight feeling in my stomach. There was only one thought in my head: the time has come, the time has come. The hunger-striker Hou Dejian (a Taiwan pop-singer now working on the mainland) and some other people negotiated with the troops and agreed to get the students to leave peacefully. But just as they were about to go, at 4.40am, a cluster of red signal flares rose into the sky above the Square and the lights came on again. I saw that the front of the Square was packed with troops. A detachment of soldiers came running from the east entrance of the Great Hall of the People. They were dressed in camouflage. They were carrying light machine-guns and wearing steel helmets and gas-masks. As soon as these troops had stormed out they lined up a dozen or so machine-guns in front of the Monument to the Heroes of the People. The machine-gunners lay down on their stomachs. Their guns pointed toward the Monument. The rostrum was behind them. When all the guns were properly lined up, a great mass of soldiers and armed police, wielding electric prods, rubber truncheons and some special weapons of a sort I’d never seen before suddenly rushed at us. We were sitting quietly. There were two differences between the troop and the armed police: their uniforms were different, and so were their helmets. The police helmets were bigger than the troops’ and had steel flaps going down over the ears. 

The soldiers and the policemen started violently laying about us. They split our ranks down the middle and opened up a path to the Monument. They stormed up to its third tier. I saw 40 or 50 students suddenly spurt blood. Armoured troop carriers and an even greater number of troops that had been waiting in the Square joined the siege. The troop carriers formed a solid blockade, except for a gap on the museum side. The troops and policemen who had stormed the monument smashed our loudspeaker installations, our printing equipment, and our supply of soda water. Then they beat and threw down the steps the students still occupying the third tier. We’d stayed put all along, holding hands and singing the Internationale. We’d been shouting: “The people’s army won’t attack the people”. The students packing the third tier had no choice but to retreat under the blows and kicks of such a large body of men. 

While this was going on, the sound of machine-guns started up. Some troops were kneeling down and firing. Their bullets whizzed above our heads. The troops lying on their stomachs shot up into the students’ chests and faces. We had no choice but to retreat back up onto the Monument. When we reached it the machine-guns stopped. But the troops on the Monument beat us back down again. As soon as we’d been beaten down, the machine-guns started up again. This manoeuvre was plainly designed to avoid troops firing directly onto the Monument, and chipping or pocking the stone fresco of heroes (though, as television news has shown, they did hit a few). 

The dare-to-die brigade of workers and citizens picked up anything that served as a weapon – bottles, pieces of wood – and rushed towards the troops to resist them. The Students’ Union gave the order to retreat to places outside the Square. It was not yet five o’clock. A great crowd of students rushed toward the gap in the line of troop carriers. The heartless drivers closed the gap. Thirty-odd carriers drove into the crowd. Some people were crushed to death. Even the flagpole in front of the Monument was snapped off. The whole Square was in massive chaos. I’d never thought my fellow-students could be so brave. Some started to push at the troop carriers. They were mown down. Others clambered over their corpses and pushed too. Finally they managed to push one or two carriers aside and open up a gap. I and 3,000 other students rushed through under a hail of fire. We ran across to the entrance to the History Museum. There were large numbers of citizens in front of the Museum. We joined up with them. Seeing how bad things were, we immediately ran off to the north in the direction of the Gate of Heavenly Peace. But we’d only gone a few steps when rifle fire broke out from a clump of bushes alongside the road. We saw no people-just the bursts of fire from the gun-barrels. So we turned and ran off south towards the Front Gate. 

I was running and weeping. I saw a second batch of students running off under machine-gun fire. I saw lots of people lying on their stomachs on the road that we were trying to escape along. We were all crying – running and crying. When we reached the Front Gate, we were suddenly confronted by a batch of troops. They didn’t open fire. They were armed with big wooden staves. They beat us furiously. Then a large crowd of citizens came pouring out of the Front Gate. They clashed violently with these troops. They protected us while we escaped in the direction of Beijing railway station. The troops pursued us. It was five o’clock. Dawn was breaking. The gunfire on the Square seemed to have died down a little. Later I met a fellow student at the International Red Cross. He told me that at five o’clock the last group to escape had broken out. The machine-guns continued to rake the Square throughout, for 20 minutes or so. I’ll never forget another student from Qinghua who was shot and wounded but still carried on running with us. He was determined not to give up. As we ran along he touched me on the shoulder and said, “Could you please support me for a bit?” I was already supporting two physically weak female students, one on each arm. I could do nothing for him. I put him down on the ground. The crowd trampled over him. . . There’s no way he could have survived. Look, this is his blood on my back. Half his body was covered in blood. 

I will never forget my fellow-students being mown down by machine-guns. Others selflessly, and with complete disregard for all danger, dragged away the corpses and tended to the wounded. Women students took off garments to make bandages for people’s wounds. Soon some were almost naked. After we’d run off to the railway station, I and two other students went back to the Square. By then it was 6.30am. A great crowd of citizens surrounded the Front Gate. I followed them further into the Square until I got to the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall. Lines of armoured troop carriers blocked the way. Troops formed a human wall. I went to the side of the road and climbed a tree. I could see soldiers on the Square putting the corpses of the students and citizens in plastic bags, one corpse to a bag. Then they piled them up under a big canvas. The troops weren’t letting ambulances of the International Red Cross enter the Square to help the wounded. I with another student hurried off at once to the Red Cross first aid centre at Peace Gate. We saw many casualties being taken there by trishaw. The doctors told me that an ambulance trying to get into the Square had been shot at and set on fire. I saw students there from the second, third, and fourth batches of escapers. They said that many students who had fallen to the ground wounded were still lying on the Square. 

At around 7.20am, I went back to the Square for a second time. I asked what was happening. I particularly questioned a group of a dozen or so elderly people. They said that corpses were lying in long rows on the pavement round the Square and that the troops were hanging up sheets of canvas so that the citizens could not see them. They said that lots of trucks had driven into the Square and taken away the wounded. At about 7.30am the troops on the Square suddenly launched gas canisters at these people. A large group of soldiers charged us. I ran back to the railway station. On the way I saw students from the first and second break-outs, all crying. The Students’ Union assigned us Beijing students the job of escorting students from outside Beijing to the railway station. I was hoping to put them on to trains, but a railway official said none were running. There was nothing for it but to leave the station. We were besieged by a great crowd of citizens who wanted to take the students to their homes and hide them. They were sad. They were all crying. The people of Beijing are truly good, they are truly good. 

Edited to add: Free Tibet, Free Hong Kong, and Taiwan is a country.