23 Year Remembrance of Tiananmen Square – May 26th 1989, Beijing China

Written by Diane Gatterdam

Twenty-three years ago on this day Friday May 26th 1989, even though the square had been fairly quite these past few days, the feeling was of a standoff between the government and the students, nether knowing what the other was going to do next.

“There was an underlying atmosphere of crisis.”
-Shen Tong

Shen Tong went to the square everyday, going from tent to tent talking to the students.

“I talked to my fellow students, I was encouraged. No one knew what was going to happen, but instead of talking about death, people were talking about building a better life for them and for China. They wanted to move forward from what they had achieved.”

“I was proud of my generation.”
- Shen Tong

Students had set up little camps for themselves, with pillows and blankets and mattresses that had been donated by various sourced. Those on the perimeter tended to have better provisions that those in the center, who were harder to reach.

Many people were reading, some were preparing for the TOEFL exams so they could go abroad to study, others read novels or fliers called “fast news” which were printed by the hunger striker leadership at the monument. A lot of students listened to music on personal stereos, and others brought portable stereos so music was heard all over the square. Two of the most popular singers were Qi Qin and Cui Jian, called the John Lennon of China.

One of the food stations on the Square

After dark brought impromptu concerts on the square, bringing a sense of joy.

In Chai Lings camp, they tried to carry out plans to push for a special meeting of the National People’s Congress, divide the soldiers, launch workers’ strikes, give speeches in other cities, print leaflets and set up a university in the square.

On the Square and on various school campuses, posters announced a new resolution from the Autonomous Federation of Beijing Students about a “Great Global Chinese Protest Day” to held on May 28th.

At Beida a wall poster signed by Wang Dan proposed a prolonged battle to promote democracy in China. Wang called for the formation of four groups of 200 students. The groups would take turns demonstrating on the Square.

On May 26th came the formal dismissal of Zhao Ziyang, but it seemed that the conservatives had lost too, because they were still unable to control the situation.

Shen Tong was right to be proud of his generation

23 Year Remembrance of Tiananmen Square – May 25th 1989, Beijing China

Written by Diane Gatterdam

Twenty-three years ago on this day Thursday May 25th 1989, the Autonomous Federation of Students sent 5 teams of students to various places around the country to network, the first headed by Wu’er Kaixi, had already left by train for Tianjin and planed to go south from there.

In Beijing the students sent vehicles equipped with loudspeakers around the city calling on people to join a demonstration that afternoon to welcome Wan Li (Chairman of the Standing Committee of the NPC, and retired Vice Premier retired in 1993) and to ask that Li Peng step down.

From 2:00 pm on, some 100,000 students and citizens, including workers and a variety of government employees, demonstrated for an emergency NPC meeting, the firing of Li Peng, and the return of Wan Li. As student from the command post of a the large contingent of non-Beijing Students said that 216 institution of higher education were represented from 27 provinces. The demonstrators were more loosely organized that they had been in the past.

Li Peng step down!!

Disabled Veterans made a slogans out of crutches
“Supporting Students Against Corruption Disabled Veterrans” in Tiananmen Square

One of the AFS organizers revealed privately that the students were divided over whether to withdraw from the Square. They had almost decided to do so but postponed the proposal after Chai Ling opposed it because, as she put it,

“The intellectuals are trying to take control of the Student Movement in the Square.”

The State Security Ministry detailed recent activities of the FASSC (Federation of all Social Sectors in the Capital)

This illegal organization was formed by Chen Ziming and Wang Juntao, who headed the Non-governmental Beijing Social and Economic Science Research Institute.

These two had emerged as the “Main Plotters” behind the scenes of the student movement.

They distributed two documents in the streets of Beijing this day.

The first was the introduction to the FASSC, its structure and purpose. The second was describing the patriotic democracy movement.

Also on May 25th reports came in to the capital describing the demonstrations and sit-ins occurring in 60 cities around China and around the world.

New York Chinese Embassy

Washington DC Chinese Embassy

Miami, USA

Hong Kong

Chengdu, China

Macau

Shenyang, China

Moscow, Russia

BEHIND THE SCENES ON TIANANMEN SQUARE

The broadcast booth and student leader central

Young western journalist, Phillip Cunningham got into the student leaders broadcast booth on the Square and reported what he saw:

I felt a bit like I’d just peeked behind the curtain at the Wizard of Oz. This was it? This was the projection booth responsible for the amazing, rainbow-hued phantasmagoria outside that only days before involved the choreography of a million obedient souls? The inner sanctum itself was slummy-looking, a modest patchwork of canvas and tarps, mounted on poles, nestled up against an angular recess in the marble pedestal of the Martyr’s Monument, but its centrality was not to be underestimated. Spending the afternoon inside the tent gave me a vivid sense of how hierarchical things were getting, how overwhelming the scale was becoming, how raw and apparently arbitrary was the power that emanated from this ad hoc command center in the heart of Tiananmen Square. The most obvious trapping of power, with parallels to both gang organizations and legitimate governments, could be seen in the plethora of security guards who controlled access and watched my every move. The broadcast tent was not much to look at, but crucial decisions hammered out here were disseminated to tens of thousands by loudspeaker, printed handouts, and word of mouth.

A portable generator rigged up just north of the tent sputtered and growled, supplying power for announcements, radio and lights. Matching signs announced NO SMOKING and NO PHOTOS, as if the two prohibitions were somehow related. The smoking ban was judicious as there were containers of kerosene stored adjacent to the flammable tent.
While waiting for permission to enter, I had to stand around conspicuously in front of the tent on a rarified patch of empty pavement with thousands of eyes on my back.
The strictly guarded sterile zone in front of the tent, roped off and maintained despite the press of the crowd and inevitable shoving matches, was like a square within the square, an empty ceremonial space imbued with symbolic power. It was the undemocratic center command of the democracy movement, shrouded in security and secrecy, riddled with intrigue and infighting.

Then, with a silent hush as if an imperial audience were about to begin, a series of student bodyguards waved me on, ushering me into the “studio,” the China Broadcast Station of the Tiananmen Nation. Stooping to step inside the low-slung tent the first thing that caught my eye was a portrait of Mao displayed next to decks of electronic broadcasting equipment. The painted likeness of Mao was based on a well-known photograph of the great leader as a young revolutionary. In the spirit of the tacky personality cult of the Cultural Revolution era, it portrayed the handsome demigod against a solid red background.

Were the students closet Maoists? Or was it some kind of inside joke? A good-luck totem perhaps?

The portrait was hung respectfully in the center of the tent, much as it might have been had these students been Red Guards making revolution in 1966. If the kitschy painting was a period piece from the 1960′s, then the painted plate was at least as old as the students who had put it up in the tent for inspiration.

“So why do you have a picture of Mao up there?” I asked a bodyguard.

“Oh Mao? We just put him there just for the fun of it. It’s our way of showing our discontent with Deng,” he said with a jocular laugh. “But China does need a great leader.”

A bare light bulb illuminated the cluttered interior of the lean-to tent that was nestled comfortably in an indented corner of the monument at ground level where the white marble facade meets the gray stone pedestal. The south and east walls of the shelter were composed of canvas, the sturdy north and west side utilized the fastness of the marble monument itself. The stone-slab pedestal of the monument, which rose about four feet off the ground, was wider than the decorative marble structure that it supported. This created a ledge that gave the tent instant bookshelves, filled with bric-a-brac worthy of a home. The ledge was cluttered with assorted odds and ends ranging from a bouquet of flowers in an empty Coke bottle, to packets of medicine, printing supplies, crumpled paper and piles of hand-printed reports.

Two banks of brand new amplifiers were stacked four or five high, nestled against the marble wall. The amps looked like store-bought stereo equipment, they were plugged into a socket mounted on the wall that led to the generator in a tangle of wires. The student announcers, squeezed next to each other on a narrow cot against the marble wall, handed back and forth a bouquet of microphones strapped together with tape.

I didn’t ask any questions. A woman and two men, both of whom looked to be around my age, sat on the cot going over scripts for the next announcement. Sitting next to the radio equipment was yet another woman who also looked to be in her early 30s. So this was a bit more than a student movement. But who was she? It is possible she was a merely a graduate student or a sympathetic faculty advisor, but it struck me as possible that she might be a link to someone high up in the government.

The broadcast tent propaganda crew was preoccupied with writing, editing and reading “official” announcements, but every once in a while one of them smiled or otherwise acknowledged my presence. One of them kindly suggested I could take a nap, offering genuine make-yourself-at-home hospitality in spite of the tense and cramped work conditions. Although I seriously doubted that I could sleep in the middle of such hubbub, with tens of thousands more milling around outside, the air was hot and stuffy and I was tempted by the offer. After politely refusing to monopolize the cot and displace others, I settled for an open space on the cot that lined the east wall of this makeshift studio. Given the womb-like embrace of the tent, I felt safe and secure, even though I was surrounded by thousands of what the government now characterized as “thugs and rioters” in the middle of an illegal encampment in a city under siege.

23 Year Remembrance of Tiananmen Square – May 24th 1989, Beijing China

Written by Diane Gatterdam

Twenty-three years ago on this day Wednesday May 24th 1989, at 1:30 100,000 students lead by Chai Ling took a pledge in front of the Monument.

The oath went as follows:

“To promote the motherland’s democratization, to protect the dignity of the constitution, to protect the great motherland from the machinations of a small handful of conspirators, to prevent 1.1 billion countrymen from being scarified in blood under the terror of military rule, to save the Chinese people from falling under fascist dictatorial rule, to assure that millions and millions of children will enjoy an atmosphere of freedom and democracy, I swear to devote my life an my loyalty to protect to the death Tiananmen Square, the capital of Beijing, and the republic. I will Struggle to the end again all difficulties!”

They announced another election of leaders:

Wang Dan read a version of the statement of the FASSC’S declaration about the decisive battle between “ Light and Darkness”. Wang stressed that the students now had no choice but to continue to battle to the end, because if they retreated from the Square as losers, they would become targets of the new ideological rectification campaign.

The student leaders issued new passes and set up new guard lines around the square, but most importantly they had to decide on future strategy.

At 9:00pm they began a meeting of over 400 representatives from 300 universities around the country.

They knew that there were many plain-clothes police among the students but all they could do about that was to have two layers of pickets and issue special passes for the representatives.

Chai Ling said a few words on behalf of the headquarters. Feng Congde, Zhang Boli and then the representatives spoke. Tempers ran high.

Li Lu, Chai Ling and Feng Congde

Li Lu chaired the meeting.

Some said that they had better go right now to stop the army units from driving in, instead of talking; it was hard to keep the meeting in order.

“I seemed to always to be stressing the fundamental concepts of representative democracy, while democracy was an ideal and a rallying cry, people know very little about it or how it worked.”
- Li Lu

Lu said,” We must keep calm. We are shouldering the responsibility for the future of China.”

By now the meeting was very quiet. Li Lu summoned up the ideas that they were given into several proposals.

• To stay on the Square and hold talks with the Government, gradually leaving as they accepted the student’s demands
• To stay on the square, but consider the Government our enemy, to launch strikes, call for special meetings of the Party and the National Peoples Congress.
• To try to stage a coup within the army, the Government, or the Party
• To keep the movement pure and not get involved in any power struggle, persuading the Government and Party to negate the April 26th editorial and state that the student movement is democratic and patriotic.

April 26th editorial

After a three hour discussion they voted, and at about 4 or 5am the results of the voting was compiled.

There were 288 valid votes:

• 162 wanted the frontal attack
• 80 wanted to remain in the Square and carry out dialogue with the Government
• 38 wanted to persist in the purity of the student movement and not get involved in the power struggles at the top
• 8 wanted to leave the square

They would not be leaving the Square…..

Protester in Paris may 24th 1989

23 Year Remembrance of Tiananmen Square – May 23rd 1989, Beijing China

Written by Diane Gatterdam

Twenty-three years ago on this day Tuesday May 23nd 1989, the State Security Ministry reported on the situation in the Square, stating that only about 10,000 students were still sitting in, a majority of them from schools outside Beijing.

Martial law troops had not entered the city, and the mood among the students and onlookers was calm.

The students danced, sang, slept in their tents, or chatted in groups.

The AFS, students from outside Beijing, and the Beijing Workers Monitor Corps formed a joint coordinating organization, which announced by loudspeaker that it would keep the struggle going, maintain hygiene on the Square and send groups around the city to explain the students opposition to martial law and a demand for emergency meetings of the NPC Standing Committee and the Party Central Committee to remove Li Peng from office.

The student headquarters was now moved out the bus and back to the steps of the monument.

Around 2:00pm, four individuals threw ink-filled eggs at the official portrait of Mao Zedong on the Gate of Heavenly Peace. Students and onlooker seized the perpetrators and handed them over to Public Security. They also grabbed a foreign reporter’s camera to prevent him from taking a picture, telling him that it would not be in the interest of the student movement to have it taken.

The portrait was cleaned

During the day the Chinese Red Cross issued an urgent appeal. It asked health units to continue to station themselves in the Square to help the demonstrators and asked that garbage be cleared away to reduce the risk of epidemic disease. To alleviate crowding it suggested the student should withdraw, and the government should facilitate this, should keep open the channels of dialogue, and should carry out no future retribution.

A group of students called for the cancellation of martial law, removal of the troops, and convening the NPC Standing Committee and the Party Congress. In return, the students should withdraw from the Square, restoring normal order.

This withdrawal would not be a retreat but would advance the democracy movement to a new stage.

The proposal drew support of sixty Beida University professors.

When Yuan Mu received the report of the Red Cross’s appeal and the students’ proposal, he felt it painted the students in too favorable a light. He also asked, “What business does the Red Cross have doing the governments job?”

He passed his concerns on to Li Peng.

The demonstrations that took place on May 23erd were the largest since martial law.

Bus and subway lines had been partly restored to operation, and things were calming down in the city.

About 300,000 people marched though parts of Beijing. The marchers were student from outside Beijing and people from all professions, culture, finance, science and technology, industry, journalism, and government joined them.

The main slogans called for Li Peng’s resignation and the cancellation of martial law.

Around 4:00 pm there was a violent rainstorm that broke up some of the columns of marchers.

The Beijing Railway Station reported that about 10,000 students entered the city on May 23rd from all provinces, the largest group coming from Henan.

At 10:00 pm the State Security Ministry reported that some 30 intellectuals at a meeting in the Political Science Institute of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, issued a declaration attacking Li Peng for trying to use military force.

Wang Juntao, Wang Dan and others discussed coordination between the students and the intellectuals. Bao Zunxin read a statement called “The final battle between light and darkness” hailing the student movement as unprecedented in Chinese history and spelling the end of the Old China, and opening a new era of harmony and democracy.

Chinese students in Miami Florida march in solidarity with the Students in Beijing on this day.

The movement would have to press ahead until Li Peng was removed….

You’re thinking of Obama, not Bush

Yang Rui is offered political asylum in USA

Dear Yang Rui of CCTV’s “English language” aka “international” channel, CCTV-9, the most intelligence-insulting, dumbest f—ing TV channel in the world:

In light of your current troubles in the People’s Republic of China, and also considering your extraordinary talent for being stupid on TV under the pretense of journalism, I hereby invite you to escape to the USA for political asylum.

My fiancee Hypatia de la Pink will be waiting for you with a dish of Chinese-made Italian-noodle-for-Foreigner, at the Kit Kat Klub (KKK) in Chinatown, Idaho, USA, third booth from the left.

Sincerely yours,

Ivan

source: http://www.beijingshots.com/

23 Year Remembrance of Tiananmen Square – May 22nd 1989, Beijing China

Written by Diane Gatterdam

Twenty-three years ago on this day Monday May 22nd 1989, the waiting game between the students and the government dragged on and the morale of the students started to plummet, and a growing number of students began to abandon the Square.

After 6 weeks of occupation, the Squares hundreds of acres were heaped with deepening piles of trash and garbage.

It’s makeshift shelters tattered and the buses in which the student had been living, were filthy and inhospitable. In the now, ninety-degree heat, the latrine situation had gone from bad to worse.

The Square looked and smelled more like a squatters camp than the headquarters of an idealistic political movement.

Deng Xiaoping’s son Deng Pufang was rumored to have dispatched representatives to the square to warn of another military assault and council protesters to retreat quickly if the wished to avoid bloodshed.

Fearing that the hard-liners would be harsher that ever after their embarrassing failure, and after 2 days of martial law, Wu’er Kaixi made an impassioned speech on the Square urging the students to retreat to the embassy area a dew blocks away for safety.

Although Wu’er Kaixi had been expelled from the Beijing Students Autonomous Federation earlier, most people still regarded him as the public face of that organization.

Wang Chaohua had been working hard in the last couple of days to resurrect the organization as the student leadership.

Wu’er Kaixi left the square and moved to the Jimen Hotel, about ten kilometers west of the Square, which became the new center of activity because many of the intellectuals had moved there.

Wu’er Kaixi and Wang Dan spent most of the their time there now.

The intellectuals were interested in helping set up a secret publishing system to combat the government propaganda should there be a crackdown. They thought that the government would not last more that a few days if people among the country were told about its use of violence against the peaceful students.

Canadian reporters called Shen Tong, as they wanted to interview the student leaders, and when he went to their offices to make arrangements he saw a well-known Chinese television journalist working as a translator there which meant the reporters both Chinese and foreign were continuing to work despite the martial law order.

After suggesting that they interview Wang Chaohua, he went to the Square to look for her, but was told she had left with Wu’er Kaixi and the other Federation students.

While in the Square Shen Tong saw six yellow jacket high tech helicopters, which had been used in the massacre in Tibet, flying overhead dropping leaflets warning the student to evacuate. Everyone was shocked and angered by the loud sounding blades sputtering overhead, and after reading the government leaflets, the students pointed at the helicopters and shouted obscenities.

“I am worried about the square,” Shen Tong said, most of the students left there now are from outside the city. The hunger strikers who monitor the place told me that more than 70% are from out of town. They have no place to go, no plans at all.”

During the day, former hunger strike leaders returned and Zhang Boli suggested that they needed to form a new leadership. He persuaded Wang Chaohua to take her Federation off-site for reorganization and promised her that she would regain the leadership in 48 hours with a stronger Federation.

Meanwhile, he engineered the formation of a “Provisional Headquarters” and installed Chai Ling as the Commander-in-Chief. Indeed, the new headquarters would look exactly the same as the defunct Hunger Strike Headquarters, with Li Lu, Feng Congde, and Zhang Boli acting as the main deputies to Chai Ling.

The student leaders now permanently split.

Beneath the surface appearance of inactivity, the army was busy. Having learned how difficult it would be for unarmed troops to reach Tiananmen Square by way of a frontal assault, military commanders began covertly funneling bands of uninformed soldiers into key locations.

At the same time, undercover operatives were dispatched around Beijing to gather intelligence about the student morale, the locations of barricades, the activities of the new workers federation and the general mood among the populace.

Deng Xiaoping who had made no public appearances since Gorbachev’s departure, was reported to have flown to Wuhan to gather up 200.000 fresh troops and set up a command center in Central China just in case control of Beijing was lost.

His new strategy was to mobilize detachment for all of China’s seven military regions, thereby reducing his reliance on any one group army in which an insubordinate commander might complicate his plans.

The Beijing Government and Martial Law Headquarters issued a joint announcement on May 22, describing chaotic conditions in Beijing and making five requests of the public:

1. People should dismiss the rumors that the tiny minority of people with ulterior motives were manufacturing. Their goal was to cause chaos.
2. People from outside Beijing should go home as soon as possible.
3. Workers of every kind are to remain on duty and concentrate on their work.
4. All martial law troops should serve their mission and people should cooperate with them.
5. Traffic police were to stay on duty, and no one else was allowed to establish checkpoints, guide traffic, or set up roadblocks.

Military headquarters issued a letter to all officers and soldiers, extending regards and seeking to boost their morale.

May 22 was also the day that Zhao Ziyang, who still did not know that the Party elders had decided to dismiss him, returned to his office after his three-day leave.

He found no documents to read and no work to do. He had already been cut off from all news of the student movement, martial law, and everything else.

At the same time the Standing Committee of the Politburo has sent out telegrams summoning important provincial leaders to Beijing to hear about Zhao’s dismissal….

23 Year Remembrance of Tiananmen Square – May 21st 1989, Beijing China

Written by Diane Gatterdam

Twenty-three years ago on this day Sunday May 21st 1989, it was clear that most of the troops had been prevented from reaching the heart of Beijing and this news gave a great sense of euphoria to the students in the square. Just before dawn students played Schiller’s “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony over the their public address system at the monument.

Once again the brave people of Beijing held the soldiers at bay on the outskirts of the city.

At day-break, hundreds of thousands of festive people spilled into the streets and milled joyfully though the Square congratulating each other, trading news and passing out leaflets.

But in the student headquarters the mood was different. The situation was critical.

Reports said that the army’s inability to enter the city had infuriated Li Peng, Yang Sangkung and the other old officials. If the army could not enter the city, those at the top would lose face, and a coup against them would be possible.

To show that they were in firm control, they ordered the army to be in the square by 1:00am.

Helicopters circled in the air: several hundred more were reported nearby. Civilian planes stopped flying. All underground transport closed, and the underground trains were used for moving army units.

Over 3,500 soldiers had already gathered in the railway station close to Tiananmen Square, ready to come into the Square that night.

Zhangnanhai received reports detailing unprecedented levels of protest among Chinese students overseas. In the US the Association of the Chinese Students and Scholars went to the Chinese consulate in New York to deliver an open letter urging China to block the impending military crackdown on the student movement.

Two strangers introduced themselves to Li Lu as a professor at the Air Force and a former paratrooper. Both had taken part in the suppression of the Tiananmen Incident in1976, but now they stood on the side of the students. They told him how the Square had been cleared that time, and that there was a big network of tunnels that lead in all directions from the center of the city and leaders could go and in and out at will.

An influx of new supply came to the Square via Hong Kong donations from groups there. Red and Blue tent, food, and other necessities were handed out. The Square became a sea of red and blue.

Chai Ling, Li Lu, Feng Congde and other hunger strike leaders had now taken over as the only student leaders on the Square, the Federation student leaders went back to Beida.

Chai Ling called a meeting that afternoon and discusses preparations for a compete defeat, and if that happened there would be arrests and killings.

They talked about how they would organize more strikes and soon have to go underground. They talked about setting up code names, passwords, and liaison places and would first run to an area within 100 kilometers of Beijing and then further the next day.

After this meeting things became silent as they realized that that they would soon be experiencing life as wanted criminals.

When leaving Li Lu again meet up with his girl friend who had come for Tianjin to find him. He was happy to see her and gave her a long kiss. Chai Ling suggested that they get married right then and there on the square.

The mock wedding was broadcast over the loudspeakers and the students celebrated as a symbol of hope and happiness.

That night the students were expecting the army to move in a 1:00am.

Student leaders had an emergency conference where they agreed that apart from a few key personnel, all would leave and go underground. Lu Li chose to stay, although his new wife was forced to leave with Chai Ling.

As 1:00am came and went the government announced of the loudspeakers that the army would come and clear the Square at 5:00am.

As the students woke, and still no movement by the government on the Square…..

 

Dear Yang Rui

Dear Yang Rui,

23 Year Remembrance of Tiananmen Square – May 20th 1989, Beijing China

Written by Diane Gatterdam

Twenty-three years ago on this day Saturday May 20th 1989, it was a hot, sultry day, and the day that Beijing was placed under martial law.

All forms of public protest would be banned, all journalist prohibited from entering the martial law area of jurisdiction and troops would be authorized to handle the situation “forcefully.”

Li Peng’s statement was met by choruses of booing and chanting in the square- “Down with the government, down with Li Peng.”

With the 2 million people that poured into he streets the night before, the troop transports were confronted by barricades constructed out of traffic-lane dividers, public buses, booths from street markets, dumpsters, and concrete sewer pipes, as well as throngs of ordinary people.

Pyjama-clad patients from one hospital were reported to have left their sick beds in order to form a human blockade. Some people went so far as to lie down in the middle of the street to prevent convoys from passing.

Columns of troop trucks and supply vehicles were soon halted and backed up for miles.

Meanwhile thousands of Beijinger’s returned to the Square itself to provide psychological support and to bring food, drinks, clean clothing, wet gauze for face masks in case if the troops fired tear gas, and even a new generator for the students’ sound system.

Thousands of workers streamed into the Square as a general strike was called by the Autonomous workers Union.

Several hundred editors and reporters took to the streets under a People’s Daily banner, distributing copies of an “extra” edition of the paper as they went.

The students met in their different fractured groups to talk about the next step.

Both Shen Tong and Chai Ling gave speeches reminding the students that this was a non-violent protest, as Helicopters fly over the Square.

The student leaders from the hunger strike also had now taken off their headbands and badges and all had “student bodyguards” following them everywhere. Chai Ling also started to wear a doctor’s coat.

Students take an oath in the Square to defend it.

Rumors were running rampant in the Square about the troops and their movement and students were waiting scared that any moment the troops would take the Square.

Troops had been reported to have entered the Forbidden City, the Museum of History and the Great Hall of the People (all three surround the Square). Student were talking about plain-clothes soldiers mixing in with the students on the Square. It now was difficult to just walk into the Square as student marshals were posted in the Square checking student credentials. Even some of the leaders had to fight their way in.

Zhao Hongliang from the Beijing Autonomous Federation of Workers

Reports reached Li Peng and other leaders that the Beijing Autonomous Federation of Workers had organized hundreds of motorcyclists into a “Flying Tiger Group” to provide students and citizens in the Square and around the city with news about martial law and related topics. The report said that “this so-called Flying Tiger Group” had been formed by lawless people in society, “we must use resolute measures to disband it or the consequences could be catastrophic.”

As the night progressed, crowds in the Square waited anxiously for news.

Just after midnight student loudspeakers came to life. “Students! The people of Beijing have stopped the advance of the PLA at the Hujialau intersection!” A few seconds went by as the true impact of the momentous news began to dawn on the exhausted students in the Square. Then a joyous roar of triumph went up all around.

In Shanghai students were still holding a hunger strike at the main government building and set up the Statue of Liberty in front of the main door.

In China’s provinces, 132 cities held demonstrations across the county.