In June 1989, a lone figure halting a battalion of tanks
in the Chinese capital, Beijing, sent shock waves around the world.
It is an act which China itself prefers to forget.
What had started as a peaceful student protests calling for freedom
and democracy ended seven weeks later in carnage.
We challenged the government before everybody in the whole world...
..and they took the worst of all options.
A bloody and brutal climax to what had become a battle
for the soul of a nation.
I never thought we got so close
to shape an entirely different future for China
and I never expected the military crackdown was so extreme.
How could this happen?
Why did this happen?
30 years on, eyewitness accounts and secret documents
now help provide a deeper understanding
of how the Tiananmen massacre changed the course
of Chinese history.
GUNSHOT
UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYS
IN CHINESE:
Tiananmen is the beating heart of China, built by the people,
for the people.
A symbol of its history and tradition,
Tiananmen is also a place of absolute power.
But, for seven dramatic weeks in 1989,
it became a battleground to determine the country's future.
MUSIC: Rock 'N' Roll On The New Long March by Cui Jian
Throughout the 1980s, China had been undergoing
a radical transformation.
From a previously closed society
to one that was embracing modernity and individuality.
The Communist Party had opened up to Western values and influence.
The 1980s will be remembered as the best decade
in contemporary Chinese history.
It was a moment of really high expectation,
rising expectation, and happiness.
Taking credit for this golden age was China's leader - Deng Xiaoping.
A longstanding Party official,
persecuted during Mao's Cultural Revolution,
Deng envisioned a new deal for China.
He promoted a programme of economic reform,
dubbed "The Four Modernisations",
promising a better standard of living for every Chinese citizen.
But with this new-found prosperity came an expectation
of a fifth modernisation -
the people's voice - democracy.
And, in an unelected single-Party state,
this presented Deng with a dilemma.
Would he dare to make that final move?
Was the Communist Party ready for a complete political turnaround?
By 1989, Deng Xiaoping had stepped down
from the day-to-day leadership of the Party.
But as calls for reform escalated, he continued to pull the strings.
Central to his political manoeuvring
was the play-off between his two opposing successors -
hard-line conservative premier Li Peng...
..and the reformist general secretary Zhao Ziyang.
But Zhao's reform plans faced heavy resistance from within the Party.
They monitored and controlled every facet of society to maintain order.
Thanks to thousands of leaked official documents
known as "The Tiananmen Papers",
the story from within the Party can now be revealed.
"April 17th, afternoon. Politburo meeting.
"Party secretary Zhao Ziyang and Premier Li Peng are notified
"that there are worrisome trends on university campuses.
"Zhao asserts his view that the student protests
"are essentially patriotic,
"but that reason should be their watchword.
"Li Peng however argues that the problems
"should be nipped in the bud.
"He has been warned that anti-communist ideas of bourgeois
"liberalisation are in the air and must be blocked."
I would describe the campuses more like a keg, you know,
for gunpowders and ready for any spark.
On April the 15th, 1989, the unexpected death of one
of the Communist Party's leading modernisers,
Hu Yaobang, sparked calls for reform.
He had been harshly dismissed from the Party for supporting change.
Thousands of students headed to Tiananmen Square
to commemorate him.
MUSIC PLAYING
Within a week, the students had created a movement.
They saw themselves as the guardians of China's future, fired up
to challenge the authoritarian nature of the communist regime.
On the walls of Beijing's universities,
giant handwritten posters
known as "dazibaos" promoted democratic reform.
Leading the way was a 21-year-old - Wang Dan -
soon to be the movement's principal strategist.
IN ENGLISH:
THEY CHANT
The students were confident their voice would be heard.
In 1987, the Party had passed a motion allowing dialogue
between the people and their leaders.
On the night of April the 19th,
thousands of students made their way to Party headquarters
to present their proposals for reform to Premier Li Peng
and demand an official dialogue.
We want to meet with the leaders.
We wanted to meet with Li Peng.
But they were met with silence.
That gathering last until 4am,
when the Beijing region decided to deploy police force to drive us off,
and then I think that was the first time I got really beaten by police
in my entire life.
When you deploy police, you create the front line.
That's what they did.
IN CHINESE:
Being a leader in 1989 really wasn't that hard.
I stood up and then people decided to listen.
I think that's something people long wanted, not just somebody
to take the stage but to show we're not afraid.
On April the 22nd, the state funeral of the students' champion Hu Yaobang
was held in the Great Hall Of The People at Tiananmen.
With every senior official of the Party in attendance,
the students saw another opportunity.
We didn't just come for a funeral -
we came to Tiananmen to ask for that dialogue.
They prepared another petition, outlining their reformist agenda,
but a troop of armed police awaited them.
They broke through,
took it to the doors of the Great Hall Of The People...
..and waited.
Yet again, no-one came to listen to them.
We have come to the point, we're not going to just beg...
..for democracy, we're going to...
We're going to demand it.
As the students rallied on the square,
Zhao addressed senior Party members.
He argued for a policy of persuasion to restore calm.
Dialogue was his preferred strategy.
Premier Li Peng didn't disagree.
The following day, Zhao left on a diplomatic visit to North Korea,
leaving Li Peng in charge.
Behind closed doors in Deng Xiaoping's home,
Li took advantage of Zhao's absence to force Deng's hand
on taking a tougher approach to the student movement.
"April 25th, Politburo meeting.
"Hardliner Premier Li Peng is outraged by the open calls
"for the government to step down,
"the appeals to institute broader elections
"and revise the Constitution,
"to lift restrictions on political parties and newspapers."
Deng apparently listened to Li Peng's argument,
listens to the others' comments, and then sums things up by saying,
"This is a well-planned plot, whose real aim is
"to reject the Chinese Communist Party and the socialist system
"at the most fundamental level.
"We've got to be explicit and clear in opposing this turmoil."
"I completely agree with the standing committee's decision.
"This is no ordinary student movement.
"A tiny minority want to confuse the people
"and throw the country into chaos."
On the morning of April 26,
the students were confronted
with an editorial on the front page
of China's official Party newspaper - The People's Daily.
It claimed the students' actions
threatened to plunge the country into chaos.
It recalled a bloody period in recent Chinese history -
Mao's Cultural Revolution.
A dark decade that saw millions jailed and thousands executed.
Deng's own son had been attacked and paralysed by Mao's Red Guards.
There was no place for civil disobedience in Deng's new China.
By portraying the peaceful student demonstrators
as enemies of the state,
Deng's incendiary editorial touched a nerve.
The following day, defying an emergency ban on public protest,
the students took their anger onto the streets.
21 years old, I was.
CHUCKLING: I was facing this dilemma.
Do I give this command for my fellow classmates to go out to face...
..we don't know what?
We told them that we will take part in this march.
We will be in the front line.
From universities across the capital,
students walked for many hours to the centre of Beijing,
outraged by the misrepresentation of their movement.
APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
The editorial also led to a development
that Deng could never have expected -
it aroused public support for the student demonstrations.
That's one day that I think we will remember in such festive feeling.
And everybody was giving us a V sign and then it became a symbolic
gesture of the 1989 student movement, too.
Anticipating conflict, thousands of police had been mobilised,
but the march's peaceful good nature caught them off-guard.
In the face of overwhelming public support, there was only so much
resistance they could use against the students.
It was such a triumph.
We break human walls formed by police.
The feared armed police did not arrive.
And it was such a carnival.
WHISTLE BLOWING
Believing that triumph was within their grasp,
the students realised that, to champion democracy,
they needed to practise what they preached.
ALL SPEAKING
There was also the hardening of attitudes among students
because the regime sent out for the dialogue some of the most hardline
sort of liars and bastards, you know, kind of thing,
to have dialogue with the students and use the old paternalistic,
"You stupid students, get out of the square," kind of thing
that absolutely didn't work.
Not everyone in the Party took a hard line on the students' demands.
Back from his trip to North Korea, reformist Zhao Ziyang tried
to convince his sceptical comrades of the urgent need
for political change.
"April 1st. Reported statement.
"Politburo standing committee meeting.
"Party Secretary Zhao Ziyang explains the need to accelerate
"the reform of the political system,
"especially the building of a socialist democracy based on law.
"If the Party doesn't hold up the banner of democracy,
"someone else will.
"Ziyang however insists on pursuing multi-channel dialogue while putting
"pressure on the students to return to classes."
On May the 4th, Beijingers celebrated the 70th anniversary
of a landmark moment,
when the people's voice changed China's political landscape,
ushering in communism.
The country was once again on the brink of transformation.
This time, it was the Communist Party itself that was the target.
CHANTING TO THE TUNE OF FRERE JACQUES
THEY REPEAT
But on May 4th, Zhao Ziyang was scheduled
to address an important economic summit.
He made a choice that would come back to haunt him.
Zhao's position was clear - China was not in danger of collapsing
into the turmoil that Deng Xiaoping had forecast.
His public revelation of the Party's bitter internal split
on democratic reform set him up for a fall.
People in the conservative faction of the leadership and Deng Xiaoping
accused him later of having used this ADB speech
to sort of make a public challenge
against Deng Xiaoping and the rest of the...
But I think his intention, and he defended himself later and said,
that his intention was simply to continue on the track
of signalling to the students that,
"You should separate yourself from the small number of extremists
"and go back to the campuses, and your message
"has been heard and accepted."
The students did not go back to campus.
The movement was spreading across China,
a nation now united in its hunger for a different kind of society.
Large-scale protests broke out in 21 provinces,
the student voice amplified by the support
of every sector of the population.
Back at Tiananmen, the student leaders were tired of being ignored.
Everything about the hunger strike was symbolic,
down to the white headbands identifying those taking part.
We were going to stop eat to death...
..until our demands were met.
We all have written down our last will.
It's a moment of self...
..definition for all the young peoples.
We were making who we are.
VOICEOVER: "During the glorious days of our youth, we have no choice
"but to abandon the beauty of life,
"yet how reluctant, how unwilling we are.
THEY SING
"The country is our country.
"The people are our people.
"The government is our government.
"Who will shout if not us?
"Who will act if not us?
"Though our shoulders may be frail,
"though we are too young to die, we must leave.
"We have no choice.
"History demands this of us.
"Democracy is not the concern of only a few
"and the building of democracy cannot be accomplished
"in a single generation."
This profound gesture had an immediate effect.
The Party was finally ready to talk.
Four ministers plus the State Council
and the Central Committee of Communist Party were present.
The student negotiators arrived at the meeting with high hopes.
It was chaired by Yan Mingfu, a reformist and sympathiser,
and the Party agreed it would be broadcast on national television.
Yan Mingfu sat down and said, "As hard as it is for me
"to agree orders, let me say, yes." So, yes, we were promised.
He tried very hard to make sure all these conditions were met.
MAN SPEAKING CHINESE
Live broadcast, however, was cancelled in the last moment.
Wang Chaohua barged into the room and said,
"We need to stop, there's no broadcast."
IN ENGLISH:
We felt cheated.
So we were sabotaged by the State Council,
by Prime Minister Li Peng, and stopped the broadcast.
As student leaders seethed over the thwarted talks, at home,
Deng Xiaoping was feeling the heat.
"May 13th. Private conversation.
"Deng Xiaoping affirms to Zhao Ziyang that dialogue is all well
"and good, but the movement has dragged on for too long.
"The hunger strike is a ploy to gain international attention.
"Since USSR Party secretary Mikhail Gorbachev is due for a crucial state visit in just two days' time,
"Deng is worried about China's international image.
"The square must be in order when Gorbachev arrives."
Gorbachev's policy of "glasnost",
which had introduced openness to Soviet communism,
had been an inspiration for the Chinese student movement.
For Deng, Gorbachev's visit raised fears of change.
As Deng fretted, Zhao's reformist group persuaded a number
of Chinese intellectuals to visit Tiananmen,
believing that this respected elite could encourage
the students to leave the square.
The intellectuals' call for rational thinking had no effect.
Hunger strikers were already fainting.
The square had become a charged environment.
The following morning,
Deng Xiaoping's worst fears were realised.
The student movement was immovable.
The Chinese leaders will be furious if the historic significance
of the summit is overshadowed by internal unrest.
On May the 15th, Gorbachev arrived.
He would never make it to Tiananmen.
What should have been a glorious state reception on the square
became a handshake on the airport runway.
SIREN BLARING
There were student demonstrators as far as the eye could see.
Deng's humiliation was overwhelming.
Standing witness, on the rooftop of the Forbidden City,
Zhao Ziyang looked down through binoculars on a sea of protest.
Two days later, it would be his turn to face humiliation.
"May 17th, evening, Politburo meeting.
"Premier Li Peng lists the massive mistakes
"of Party Secretary Zhao Ziyang
"regarding the escalation of the student movement.
"Li Peng is openly critical.
"Zhao has exposed the Party's internal conflicts.
"He used Gorbachev's visit to point a spear at Deng Xiaoping
"while the world was watching.
Deng Xiaoping decided that martial law was required
and that Zhao Ziyang, as General Secretary, must implement it.
Five days in, even the state-controlled Chinese television
was reporting sympathetically on the fasting students.
The students were making the ultimate sacrifice for the people.
As more and more citizens took to the streets
and visited the square in support,
an upbeat mood swept throughout the city.
Finally, after weeks of resistance, Li Peng agreed to talks
with the student leaders - including Wang Dan and Wu'er Kaixi.
But it was all a sham.
The Premier knew that martial law was just around the corner.
The students were weak with hunger, but determined to fight on.
The students were sort of puffed up, I think, with the power
of being covered by the international media,
of having somehow gotten away with this demonstration for weeks
and weeks, and they were like, "We're winning, you listen to us!"
Until today, I think I was quite polite.
I was firm and then I was...
I think I was a little agitated, but of course.
I was in my fifth day of hunger strike.
But, unfortunately, that meeting wasn't...
..meant for them to listen.
They didn't bring their ears. They were there to just talk.
In the dawn hours of May the 19th,
Zhao made a final visit to Tiananmen.
He apologised to the students, but hidden within was a suggestion
that their time was up.
MAN YELLING ON MEGAPHONE
With Zhao Ziyang's ruthless dismissal,
the Party had shown they would stop
at nothing to end the movement.
For those in the square, it was becoming clear
that a showdown was inevitable.
On the evening of May the 19th, Premier Li Peng revealed
to the Party the emergency plan to suppress the students.
A chaos had broken out in the city, according to the leadership,
and martial law was required.
Everyone had to leave the square immediately
or be responsible for the consequences.
The troops were on their way.
MAN SPEAKING ON MEGAPHONE
At midnight, Li Peng's declaration was broadcast in Tiananmen Square.
In a matter of hours, all would be subjected to military rule.
Demonstrations, mass gathering, speeches -
everything that fuelled their movement
would become a criminal activity.
More than 200,000 soldiers of the People's Liberation Army
had been deployed, primed to seize control
of seven major Beijing districts.
An astonishing thing happened that night -
everyone was keeping vigil in the square,
waiting for the soldiers to arrive.
SINGING AND CLAPPING
The hours ticked by and then, about 3am,
people were thinking, "Where's the army?"
You know, "What's holding it?"
The Party's stated aim for martial law was to curb the turmoil
with a firm hand, but they hadn't accounted
for the unique relationship
between the Chinese citizens and their army.
In a country where schoolchildren are taught to sing
"the army loves the people", this firm hand was a personal affront.
I just climbed up the trucks and talked to them,
and said, "Do you know what's been going on?"
And, "Why are you doing this?" You know?
"We are on the same side.
"We just want China to be better."
Suddenly, the student loudspeakers came to life in the square
and announced the great citizenry of Beijing
has stopped the advance of the PLA into the capital
at all points of entry by sheer force of numbers.
CHEERING
On the morning of May 20th,
military helicopters dropped bulletins
outlining the strict regulations of martial law.
The troops may have been stalled, but the new order was here to stay.
Emboldened and determined, the students would not be intimidated.
The hunger strike was abandoned
in favour of the permanent occupation of the square.
The standoff between the people and the Party
had reached a new level.
Not only were Beijing citizens stopping the military crackdown,
martial law was under threat from within,
through an unprecedented mutiny within every rank
of the People's Army itself.
There are accounts of soldiers that didn't want to be doing
what they were doing. The real tough question is,
how widespread was that kind of thinking?
As chairman of the Central Military Commission,
Deng's orders should have been final.
Instead, his plan looked perilously close to backfiring.
The army was deeply divided.
We also know that the commander of the 38th Army, which is the
Beijing division - Beijing-based division of the PLA -
refused to carry out orders.
May 21st. Meeting with the Elders.
Home of Deng Xiaoping, Forbidden City.
Deng Xiaoping called for an emergency meeting
with the Eight Elders.
He states, "The martial law hasn't restored order.
"The ongoing divisions inside the Party prevent from taking action
"against an issue that should have been solved long ago.
"Party and state are facing a life and death crisis.
"Deng incites the Elders
"to publicly support the army and martial law."
On May 22nd, Deng raised the stakes.
All hopes of crushing the student movement lay with martial law.
Any dissent within the Party needed to be curbed.
He ordered his own comrades to be placed under surveillance.
This transfer of power had no constitutional legitimacy,
but, by now, Deng had assumed absolute control.
CROWD SHOUTING
Outrage at martial law enforcement
once again united the people against the government.
A protest in Hong Kong,
where 600,000 took to the streets,
mirrored similar mass gatherings throughout China,
from Wuhan to Shanghai,
to Chongqing, and beyond.
To buy time to enlist China's entire military force, Deng withdrew
the troops to the outskirts of Beijing.
But, as one massed convoy left the city, a whole new group
of protesters was arriving.
On May 23rd, one million Beijing workers staged a mass strike
in support of the student call for democracy.
This was really quite something.
A big column of brawny workers appeared in the square,
carrying banners and looking very kind of proletarian.
The big banner saying...
SPEAKING CHINESE
..which means, "Citizens Dare To Die brigades."
The message the workers were giving at this time is, "We, the workers,
"are here and we will defend the students in the square
"with our lives - if necessary."
As soon as the workers actively came in on their own account,
then it became a multi-class movement,
which was really unprecedented in China.
Nurses, journalists, even the police, openly identified themselves
with the movement -
the closest thing to a revolution Beijing's streets had seen.
This further fuelled the government's paranoia.
In fact, this really was their worst nightmare.
MUSIC: No More Disguises by Cui Jian
Tiananmen was no longer the headquarters of a movement...
..but the epicentre of a free-speaking society.
A model of the China they all hoped to live in.
It's very hard in Beijing to find ordinary people
who are on the government's side.
People came out and the public mood
was better than I'd ever seen it in Beijing.
People were nice to each other.
There were no policemen, but it was a self-run city, very civilised.
The crime rate was down during that time
and it was a funny moment that there was little posters
saying that thieves in Beijing declared a strike.
They will stop stealing in support of the students.
CHANTING
SINGING
To us, it was China's Woodstock.
It was the first opportunity for people since 1949
to fully express themselves.
In the cold light of day, many woke up to a harsh reality.
The day-to-day logistics on the square were tough.
With martial law still in operation,
each day was an anxious waiting game.
The movement's democratic principles were in jeopardy
as hot-headed sentiment took hold.
And the radical voices are usually louder.
The rational voices can hardly compete with those voices,
so it's clear, toward the end of May,
there were different voices in Tiananmen Square.
Maybe we will lost our lives, we will lose our lives,
but we have decided we must go out. We must strike on.
APPLAUSE
Key to the square's growing radicalisation
was a newly-installed commander in chief -
23-year-old Chai Ling.
For a political movement that campaigns on such a huge scale
to reach its desired consequences, desired result,
we need to be able to not just charge our emotion
but also be able to restrain from it.
By mid-May, as many protesters left the square, a flow of new students
from the provinces poured into Beijing, drawn by the hope
of being part of China's new future.
So, they're arriving and somebody says,
"Oh, it's time to fold up and go back."
"No, we just got here!"
The ones who stayed to the very end and risked their lives -
and some of them lost their lives - were disproportionately
students from outside of Beijing.
THUNDER RUMBLES
RAIN AND THUNDER
If we vacate the square before June 4th,
we probably could avoid a bloodshed.
I'm not saying students should hold responsibility for the bloodshed.
If we could have avoided it, and then we didn't...
..I think that question will haunt us for the rest of our lives.
On May 27th, the longest-serving student leaders
addressed a packed crowd.
They were faced with a moral dilemma.
Should they stay to the bitter end and face the consequences,
or encourage the students to back down?
Wu'er Kaixi and Wang Dan had the benefit of first-hand
experience in dealing with the Party -
both knew how ruthless it could be.
They foresaw a tragic conclusion.
Unable to convince their fellow students,
they withdrew from Tiananmen.
By May 27th, Deng's military strategy was in place.
He'd secured the backing of the army and enlisted troops from provinces
throughout China to carry out a final act of suppression.
On their arrival in Beijing, the provincial troops were confined
to suburban barracks and groomed to crush the movement.
The soldiers were mostly young peasant males,
who came into the army and now were sent to the city.
They were indoctrinated,
they were told that this was a counter-revolutionary riot,
inspired by foreign forces, and that it was their patriotic duty
to follow instructions.
"June 1st. Propaganda report ordered by Li Peng.
"The turmoil was planned, organised and premeditated
"by a tiny minority of people.
"Hostile forces, organisations, individuals from inside
"or from abroad have provided spiritual and material aid
"to the plotters.
"They are determined to push for a final showdown
"with the Party in government.
"They pulled together thugs like the Motorcycle Flying Tiger group,
"Dare To Die brigade, and the army of volunteers.
"Plans were made to kidnap or detain Party and state leaders."
By June 2nd, a massive statue dominated the square,
created by students of the Fine Arts Academy.
Modelled on the Statue of Liberty, and dubbed the Goddess of Democracy,
it was erected to face off the portrait of Chairman Mao.
During the day, four celebrated intellectuals, led by Liu Xiaobo
and Chinese pop superstar Hou Dejian, launched an emergency
hunger strike in solidarity with the students.
They made a final plea for calm.
"June 2nd, evening. Politburo meeting.
"Members of the Politburo urged Deng Xiaoping to take firm action.
"The Army needs to intervene now.
"Deng Xiaoping agrees with the committee.
"Martial law troops should begin to carry out the clearing plan
"and finish it within two days.
"Reformist Chau Tzu admits that clearing
the square is necessary.
"Unfortunately, events have shown that students had not left
"the square spontaneously."
The Party was now in agreement.
The People's Liberation Army headed for the square
in the early hours of June 3rd.
It was a weird atmosphere and I can remember our young driver,
he reached down and he picked up a knife. He had this long knife.
He said, "I'm going down to the square to help the students."
As morning broke, undercover soldiers continued
to infiltrate the city.
They were intercepted and disarmed.
A platoon of troops was dispatched from the Great Hall of the People
to take control and seize back the stolen weaponry.
SHOUTING
"June 3rd, 5pm.
"Orders from the Politburo to the Central Military Commission.
"At 9pm on June 3rd,
"People's Liberation Army, People's Armed Police, assisted
"by Beijing Public Security, will begin to put down the riot
"that has erupted in the capital.
"Martial law troops will arrive at the square at 1am on June 4th
"and clear it by 6am.
"They must resolutely carry out their mission according to the schedule.
"Absolutely no delays will be permitted.
"No-one is permitted to block the advance of the troops.
"If blocking occurs, soldiers may clear it using all self-defence
"means that may be required.
"Television will broadcast nonstop emergency announcements
"from the Beijing municipal government
"and the martial law command.
"Important announcements will also be broadcast
"over loudspeakers in the square."
The message was blunt.
If killing were required, then so be it.
Along Chang'an Avenue, the main artery to Tiananmen,
outraged citizens began building barricades
and setting the boulevard ablaze.
News of the crackdown had brought more people out on the streets.
Beijingers crowded every intersection around the square.
They were the first to discover the brutal truth.
The ammunition was live.
Tiananmen Square was ground zero
for the troops that were converging from all points of the compass.
But the scene of the massacre
was on the approach roads coming into the city.
The people who came out to block them were the citizens
because they were trying to protect their students.
I think it's no exaggeration to say that the Beijing citizens
fell in love with those students, that they just could not bear
the thought that these students were going to be violently...
..rounded up or even killed.
SHOUTING
I was not thinking.
I couldn't.
I just experienced,
without any mental or psychological preparation,
the most horrifying thing in my life.
EXPLOSIONS AND GUNFIRE
I just saw a female student from another university -
who took a bullet on her face, which to this day I believe
that bullet was meant for me -
and then she was carried by four people
and passed in front of me. And I looked down, I saw her face.
By the end of the night,
the mood on Tiananmen Square remained defiant.
News of the shooting had not emerged and the remaining leaders
were still entrenched by the symbolic
Monument to the People's Heroes.
CLAPPING
But the atmosphere in Tiananmen had descended
into chaos and violence.
When a lone army tank appeared, it was blasted with petrol bombs.
GUNFIRE
With every point of entry and exit to Tiananmen now completely blocked,
the students were trapped.
Suddenly, a group of about ten PLA soldiers
formed a line and started marching south.
They suddenly stopped, lowered their rifles and began firing.
RAPID GUNFIRE
The experience of being fired at
by ten soldiers with AK-47s is unforgettable.
SIRENS
I went towards the stairs,
the front stairs of the Great Hall of the People.
I saw hundreds and hundreds of troopers bashed out...
..with automatic guns with bayonets on them
and they were wearing helmets. Helmets.
There were emerging from like a hole in the ground,
a secret entrance or exit below the stairs,
literally from under the ground.
SHOUTING
SIREN WAILING
TANKS RUMBLING LOUDLY
That noise of the tanks...
..er, roaring in,
still so far was the loudest noise I've ever heard in my life.
Still that noise stays with me forever.
The Beijing United Medical College had a medical emergency tent
in the northern sector of the square.
I will never forget the scene there.
It's erm...
It was so moving. Erm...
One young man had taken a bullet to the side of the head.
He was clearly dying.
There was blood pouring out of his head
and the doctor said to me, "You know,
"we can't really do anything except try to make these people
comfortable, these casualties, because we have no plasma,
"we have no drugs. The troops are not allowing us to take casualties
"out of the square to the hospitals."
That's a war crime, right off.
In a last attempt to avoid further carnage,
two emergency hunger strikers
set out to negotiate a truce with the military.
They said, "Look, give us more time. We will try to clear the square.
"We don't want violence."
And the officer in charge of the troops in the square said,
"You have limited time, but, if you can do this,
"you will deserve merit."
By the time the mobile units of the 27th Army arrived
at the Monument of the People, it was clear the Party had won.
CROWD SINGING
One final time, it was put to the vote.
And for the first time, the result was leave.
CRYING
I felt the ultimate total helplessness.
Human bodies against state apparatus,
dictatorship, machines, their cold steel.
REPORTER: Can you tell us more...?
There was a TV crew and I remember that moment...
..when the light was on me.
My immediate thought was that,
"I know how dangerous it is to say something on camera -
"obviously a foreign crew -
"but it's very important to tell the world they're killing people."
Of course, I'm sure, very sure.
Many students were killed.
It is said 1,000 students.
Feel right now?
I'm very angry!
We were just forced to do that.
What they are doing now is just opposite to the people's willing.
On June 4th, Beijing awoke to scenes of devastation.
The streets were unrecognisable.
Thousands of unarmed civilians were dead.
I learned later on, from a close personal friend, who also
has been close to the Deng family,
even when they surrounded Tiananmen Square
and start shooting, the whole family was on the edges of their seats,
getting all this live report.
The moment they took over and the students were forced
to peacefully withdraw from the square,
they all let out a sigh.
This is Deng's family.
And they went to sleep.
On June 5th, in the wake of the savage suppression,
no-one expected a defiant last stand.
Of course, everyone's seen the picture of the man who stood
in front of the tanks.
This man looked about, sort of, in his 30s.
Imagine the audacity and bravery of this man.
This one man has brought the PLA to a halt.
He's climbing it. He's climbing on.
We never hear about him again after that.
He is an enigma, but, at the same time,
he epitomises the whole movement.
He represents tens or hundreds of thousands of Beijing citizens
and citizens from cities all around the country who came out
to say no and tried to stop this military rape
of their city by the army.
Tens of thousands of arrests were made.
Others, labelled as rioters, were executed.
Despite the Party's recourse to military brutality,
Deng promoted his own version of events.
He had suppressed a counter-revolutionary riot
and restored stability to the nation.
For Deng Xiaoping, the case was closed.
The events of the past seven weeks were a blip
in the success of his new deal for China.
My feeling, I'm pretty confident of this, of why he chose a massacre
was to slam the lid on, once and for all.
And it worked.
It intimidated not only people in Beijing, but people
all over the country, and you can argue that the intimidation
has lasted until today.
For 30 years, I wrote about Tiananmen
and my personal experience.
It's a form of therapy and still very emotionally charged for me.
I can move on.
I live, relatively, a normal life,
but my fellow students and
my fellow countrymen in China
did not have that chance.
In the wake of Tiananmen,
21 of the key players were condemned as China's most-wanted criminals.
Number one was Wang Dan, who spent five years in prison.
Seven others, including Wu'er Kaixi,
Chai Ling and Wang Chaohua fled to avoid arrest.
They now live in permanent exile.
We achieved so much
by the end of May.
We have changed the political landscape of China.
We made a demand.
The government did not respond.
And then the crowd, the people, decide to stay,
applying that pressure and willing to pay the price for that.
It's their...
It's their glorious decision.