But when the government declared martial law, the unthinkable happened.
“I waited all night on the monument of the people’s heroes in the middle of the square for troops to arrive — and they didn’t,” recalled Robin Munro, then a human rights activist in Beijing and now at China Labour Bulletin.
“The student loudspeakers burst into life and someone announced ‘the great Beijing people have blocked the advance of the army’ — and this roar went up. It was an extraordinary moment that no one had believed would be possible. Beijing citizens, ordinary people, had all turned out and physically stood in front of tanks to stop them coming into their city. And the troop columns halted,” Munro said.
‘SERVING THE PEOPLE’
Unlike many of the celebrating students, Munro correctly read the brief triumph as the beginning of the end.
“I felt it was huge loss of face for the authorities. They will not accept it. They will have to end it their way,” he said.
Two weeks later, Deng’s patience ran out. Troops were ordered to clear the square by dawn.
“They woke me up and said tonight, army really, really will break in; we have to get prepared,” Han said. “I still did not believe it — I had been in the army for three years. We were educated that the only aim as a soldier was serving the people.”
Jielian, pushing his way through the crowd in a suburb, was hit almost as soon as the firing started.
“Even after they were shot, they thought it was rubber bullets, so they tried running away,” Ding said. “After he ran a few steps he said to his friend, I may be shot — you run fast; don’t wait for me. And after he finished the sentence he knelt down and then fell forward.”
Munro thinks the authorities had never expected that citizens would dare to defy the state en masse for a second time. Yet they sent their troops in with tanks and live ammunition.
“I believe what probably tilted the balance was this point: that it would shock and awe the Beijing citizenry into submission for the far foreseeable future,” he said. “And terror works. That’s the awful thing.”
He watched as troops fired on civilians and an armored personnel carrier rammed a truck, sending it crashing on to the crowd.
“There was one poor man who had been crushed underneath it and his brains were lying outside of his head — squashed out,” Munro said.
Amid the chaos, some soldiers were set upon, beaten and killed by angry citizens. Officials would cite this as proof of “a counter-revolutionary riot.”
“It was a one-way shooting massacre,” said Wuer Kaixi, who left the square on the last ambulance to arrive in hospital awash with blood: “Darker, fresher, lighter, red. And the awful smell.”
In Tiananmen Square, as the dawn approached, troops were massing in their thousands.
“The students left it till the very last minute — and many were determined to stay and sacrifice their lives. They were writing their wills on the monument,” Munro said.
In the end they walked away, minutes from the deadline. Some would flee into exile, where many remain; others were caught and jailed. Across the city, hundreds lay dead, among them Jielian.
“The last time I kissed him was two days after his death,” Ding said. “He was so cold. So cold, I can never, ever forget his cold cheek.”
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