Editor’s note: the following is the VOA introduction of its first half of “Pro and Con” talk show by Ning Xin on June 2 , 2017, featuring its invited guests: Ciping HUANG, Yaxue CAO, Hengqing LI, and Wei ZHANG.
VOA Pro and Con Program: Witnesses of the 1989 Democracy Movement: the 1989 Tiananmen Square Democracy Movement I experienced
June 2, 2017 23:56
— Ning Xin, Voice of America
Washington -Several generations of people have a common collective memory about the 1989 democracy movement in China: tens of thousands of hunger strike protestors in Tiananmen Square, the Goddess of Democracy that held the torch, the students kneeling outside of the Great Hall with their petitions, Wang Weilin, the lone protestor on Chang’an Street who blocked an array of tanks of the People’s Liberation Army… However, in addition to these collective memories, each of us also has our own unique memory fragments. These memories imprinted in our hearts, and became deep marks that can never be wiped off in our lives. What is your most profound memory about the 1989 democracy movement in China? Here we invite several guests to share their memories.
The four guests are: chief editor of the online magazine China Change Yaxue Cao, Washington pension fund auditor Hengqing Li, IFCSS council member and executive director of the Wei Jingsheng Foundation Ciping Huang, and financial consultant and legal advisor from Beijing Wei Zhang.
Hengqing Li said that the most memorable scene was the night sky in Beijing on June 3, 1989, when the bullets were like meteors all over the sky or like the fireworks during the festivals. His schoolmate, Duan Changlong, a 1984-year student at the Chemistry Department in Tsinghua University, was killed in the morning of June 4 in the vicinity of Xidan intersection. Before the June 4 Massacre, we had no premonition about repression, although it was expected that the leaders might be put in jail. “But we did not expect the government to use tanks and machine guns to suppress us; the then-time mood was like — I want to die here.”
Hengqing Li said that as one of the student leaders, he was hidden in northeast China after the withdrawal from the Tiananmen Square. He got help from a lot of people he did not know. Finally, when he returned to Beijing via Tianjin at the end of July he saw the train platform in Tianjin was full of troops carrying out martial law, which was very chilly. After he hid in Beijing for a month, he went to the Chang’an Street to see the bullet holes in LiuBuKou. He saw that about every 20 meters there was a soldier to carry out martial law. He was arrested and put into Qincheng Prison for one year, where there were more than 200 detained students in the building. All of them were there due to the 1989 democracy movement. While most of them were later released, more than 10 people were sentenced.
It is worth mentioning that because of the international concern, the punishment of the Communist regime against most of the detained students was relatively restrained, compared with the average citizens who received more brutal treatment. Many Beijing citizens were sentenced to death because they blocked the military vehicles, throwing burning bottles, and so on. Even now there are people still in prison. There is no record of the suffering of the average citizens.
Hengqing Li said that he was transformed from a student cadre of communism to a participant of the student movement. This transformation of thought is most appropriately summarized by his father: first pursuing joining the Communist Party with pious idealism in 1985 before high school graduation, then becoming doubtful in 1986, to become anti-Communist Party and anti-Socialism in 1987. Just as Hu Ping said, as long as you are pursuing the truth, you will be anti-Communist Party and anti-Socialism.
Yaxue Cao said that in 1989 she was in Shenzhen, and thus able to watch the Hong Kong TV live from all directions as well as all foreign media reports that the international audience would see. At that time she saw the tanks in Tiananmen Square rolling over tents, flat carriers pulling the dead bodies and the injured people, as well as military vehicles patrolling in the streets.
Yaxue Cao said that in the 1980s, university students in China were eager to pursue freedom and liberty. She liked literature, but was not interested in politics. She did not give too much thought even she saw the rich contents on TV, but her brother’s one sentence well represented the situation then. He said: “Let us go back to our hometown in Shanxi, and be guerrillas in the mountains!” This sentence reflected people’s thought at that time, as if China had entered a war when the Chinese Communist regime shot the people.
Ciping Huang said that during the 1989 democracy movement, she already had a full-time job with a comfortable life and meanwhile was still studying in school in the USA. Starting in April 1989, she began to pay attention to the student movement and its trends, for she considered that as an opportunity as well as a potential disaster in China. Although she was overseas, she actively participated. She used the communication tools of the time, fax and phone; and also co-founded the IFCSS (the Independent Federation of the Chinese Students and Scholars, USA). She worked day and night to organize for solidarity with the students inside China, and even sent faxes to persuade officials in China not to go against the will of the people.
Ciping Huang said that the overseas students then were strongly driven by the sense of responsibility. During the establishment of the IFCSS at the end of July 1989, there were student representatives coming from Australia, Japan, Canada, and European countries to support and associate. On October 1, 1989, tens of thousands of students marched from Lincoln Memorial to the Chinese embassy to protest the June 4 massacre.
Wei Zhang said that he was in 6th grade at the time of June 4 Massacre. He was young and very afraid. His father described the shooting by the soldiers he witnessed. On June 5, after the Tiananmen Square was forcefully emptied, his father joined the protesters in the back of the group. At the front of the protesters, there were many young men who were shouting the slogan of “fascists go back”, which was responded with direct fire of the machine guns from the army. People fell over. After the shooting stopped the crowd gathered again, and encountered more fire from the machine guns. More people fell over. His father was hiding behind the poles, looking for an opportunity to escape on his bike. One of his uncles saw a large number of tricycles carrying the bodies passing by his front door.
Wei Zhang said that another uncle was a music teacher. One of his students lived in a building for high-level cadres. When he was lying down and asleep, a bullet went across his scalp. Zhang’s family had their balcony facing outside, so they had to figure out where the whole family should hide to protect their lives when they encountered the shooting. “Because we all want to live, do not want to die.”
For more exciting content, please watch the full version of “Pro and Con” on June 2, 2017.
