NYT Archive 1989: Man Against Tank

The scene of one young man against a column of tanks, which had become the symbol of the Tiananmen Massacre, was vividly described in New York Tims on June 6, 1989:

It all started with a man in a white shirt who walked into the street and raised his right hand no higher than a New Yorker hailing a taxi.

Unlike so many of the pictures from China in the last few weeks, images crowded from one edge of the frame to the other, with determined demonstrators and ambivalent soldiers, this one was powerful in its simplicity: A single man stopping a column of tanks rumbling toward Tiananmen Square.

The man stood only half as tall as the lead tank. But his body language made it clear: He wanted the slow-moving column halted, and halt it did, the huge treads on the lead tank grinding to a stop just a few feet from his face.

It was a close call - the tank came perhaps a second or two of killing him - and it seemed to encapsulate many of the confrontations in recent days between the citizens and the army: the touch-and-go maneuvering, with soldiers not sure when to press on and when to retreat; the determination of the demonstrators, brave and unyielding in ways that might have been unthinkable a few weeks ago. In its quiet way, this little confrontation seemed to symbolize the fragility of the Government's position.

For a long time afterwards, rumors had this young man identified as someone by the name of Wang Weilin (王维林). There are, however, not any evidence to back that up. The identity of the man will most likely never be revealed.

In college campuses, students were setting up memorials for their falling classmates. Even in the aftermath of the massacre, there were still demonstrations in the campus area, which had not been immediately bothered by martial law troops.

There were no immediate reports on the fates of student leaders.

Much attention was however focused on the behavior of the army in the city, amid speculations that conflicts were developing between different units with possibilities of a civil war. Most of these analysis were based on information that were since proven to be false.

In the United States, President George H. W. Bush ordered a suspension of military sales to China, but is reluctant to impose any other economic sanctions. Groups with plan to visit China were canceling their trips.

NYT Archive 1989: The Day After

One day after the bloody crackdown, New York Times on June 5, 1989, put the death toll as "at least 300":

Army units tightened their hold on the center of the Chinese capital on Sunday, moving in large convoys on some of the main thoroughfares and firing indiscriminately at crowds as outraged citizens continued to attack and burn army vehicles.

It was clear that at least 300 people had been killed since the troops first opened fire shortly after midnight on Sunday morning but the toll may be much higher. Word-of-mouth estimates countinued to soar, some reaching far into the thousands. Outbreaks of firing continued today, as more convoys of troops moved through the city.

The bloodshed stunned Beijing and seemed to traumatize its citizens. Normal life halted as armored personnel carriers and troop trucks rumbled along debris-filled roads, with soldiers firing their automatic weapons in every direction. Smoke filled the sky as workers and students vented frustration and outrage by burning army vehicles wherever they found them separated from major convoys,in side streets or at intersections.

The area around central Tiananmen Square was completely sealed by troops who periodically responded with bursts of automatic-weapons fire whenever crowds drew close to the square

The killing, in fact, continued on this morning after as the "bursts of automatic-weapons fire" were aimed at protesting crowds.

The clearing of the Square itself was quite accurately reported by NYT, in two short paragraphs:

When troops finally seized Tiananmen Square early Sunday morning, they allowed the student occupiers who held on to the center of the square for three weeks to leave and then sent tanks to run over the tents and makeshift encampment that demonstrators had set up. Unconfirmed reports rapidly spread that some students had remained in the tents and were crushed to death.

The troops sealed off Tiananmen Square and started a huge bonfire. Many Beijing residents drew the conclusion, again impossible to verify, that the soldiers cremated corpses to destroy the evidence.

To this day, there has been no evidence that anyone died in the tents, although at least two casualties were confirmed happening within the Tiananmen Square itself.

In the aftermath, various estimates of the death toll spread:

The student organization that coordinated the long protests continued to function and announced today that 2,600 students were believed to have been killed. Several doctors said that, based on their discussions with ambulance drivers and colleagues who had been on Tiananmen Square, they estimated that at least 2,000 had died. But some of these estimates, based principally on antipathy for the Government, appeared to be high.

In a separate reports, Sheryl WuDunn described the scene in area hospitals and Nicholas Kristof compared this massacre to a similar one in Kwangju, South Korea.

As the West condemned the crackdown, the US Administration was reluctantly weighing its options. Chinese students in the US, on the other hand, demonstrated and demanded sanctions to their own country. In Hong Kong, as its citizens protested, the stock market plunged.

Death Toll: Tracking The Fallen

For almost two decades, the Tiananmen Mothers have been collecting and documenting the victims of the Tiananmen massacre, despite of constant government surveillance and harassment. Their efforts have resulted to a list of 189 deaths of confirmed deaths. In this list, 71 were students, ranging from elementary school to graduate school ones.

They were also able to identify the exact locations for 134 deaths. At the 19th anniversary of the tragedy, they published detailed maps showing where they had fallen (the map is annotated in Chinese):

Map of the Fallen Victims

An accompanying map shows the hospitals where the dead were collected:

Map of Hospitals

The first map clearly indicated that the worst fighting happened along the Chang'an Avenue to the west of the Square, where the Beijing residents had put up the most stingiest resistance and where the troops showed the worst violence. Entering the city from the west, the troops killed 2 people in the outskirt, 4 in front of the Military Museum, 36 at the Muxudi intersection, 10 before Fuxinmen, and 5 at Fuxinmen intersection. Continuing inside downtown, they killed 6 near the Peoples Hotel, 10 at Xidan, and 9 at Liubukou. Most of the 9 at Liubukou, however, were killed after the troops had encircled Tiananmen Square and students had withdrawn. In a nightmarish maneuver, an armed personnel carrier charged into crowed and mauled over many on bikes and foot.

In all, more than 80 people perished along the west Chang'an Avenue. In contrast, there were only 6 confirmed deaths in and around the Square itself.

The list of 189 confirmed by Tiananmen Mothers is certainly an incomplete one. It also did not include deaths within the military troop. But among the various numbers that had been reported in the media, it might be the one closer to reality.

NYT Archive 1989: Crackdown

As troops opened fire in Beijing nineteen years ago, New York Times' series reports changed from "Upheaval in China" to "Crackdown in China". But on that day, not much reporting actually made it before the deadline. No death toll was given. There was not yet a comprehensive coverage of the crackdown itself, saving a "reporter's notebook" by Nicholas Kristof:

The violence against students and workers in Tiananmen Square was most obvious today, because for the most part they were the ones getting killed. But they, too, were violent against the police and army troops, although less effectively so.

Clutching iron bars and bricks, the students glared at soldiers 100 yards away on the other side of the square. It was dark, although the fire from an armed personnel carrier that students had set ablaze cast an eerie glow over part of the square, and the troops and their rows of vehicles could be dimly discerned in the haze.

From time to time, a group of them would advance on the soldiers to throw rocks and otherwise harass them. And then often, they would be shot and killed. It was an unequal competition.

Whenever the students got their chance, spotting an unarmed group of soldiers, they attacked with bricks and iron bars. However, the soldiers, most of whom had guns, tended to stick together.

Until now, students had emphasized the need for nonviolent tactics, and today some still begged their friends to put down their bricks and iron bars. But many students seemed to have crossed their personal Rubicon today, and those who previously had clutched leaflets and megaphones today picked up firebombs.

President George H. W. Bush and other American officials immediately condemned the crackdown. 300 people sieged on the Chinese Consulate at New York. More reactions were seen in Hong Kong and Taiwan. In Taiwan particularly, on the day their President acknowledged Communist control of China, the events and tragedy at Tiananmen were actually bringing people across the strait together.

As the brief history of this movement was outlined, NYT also published an extensive report on the reasons behind it. The lengthy piece was obviously written before the crackdown and being published for the Sunday edition.

Pu Zhiqiang Not Allowed To Visit Tiananmen

Nineteen years ago, when Pu Zhiqiang (浦志强) left Tiananmen Square with his fellow students under the gunshots of the advancing martial law troops, he vowed to return to the Square every year on this day to commensurate the dead. He persisted to fulfill his oath every year, even when he had to do under police escort.

He was not able to do the same thing this year. You can read what happened here.

NYT Archive 1989: Military On The Move

On the eve of the massacre, New York Times on June 3, 1989, found time to publish a profile of the student leader Wang Dan, describing him as "an intellectual lacking charisma or oratorical skill". But it also anointed him as the most influential leader, over the more charismatic Wuer Kaixi and Chai Ling:

''I have one regret,'' Mr. Wang said. ''I failed to persuade the elite intellectuals to give us direct support.'' Intellectuals should have been more involved in helping to lead the movement, he says.

Mr. Wang believes that the intellectuals joined too late, and he suggests that one of the results of this is that the students did not have coherent goals.

''I think that the student movements in the future should be firmly based on something solid, such as the democratization of campus life or the realization of civil rights according to the Constitution,'' Mr. Wang said. ''Otherwise, the result is chaos.''

Indeed, Wang Dan had been spending most of his time with intellectuals during the entire movement that his fellow leaders and students did not really know where he was most of the time.

In the streets of the capital, this day was marked by small-scale troop movements and confrontations with city residents:

Tens of thousands of Beijing students and workers surged onto the streets early this morning to turn back more than 2,000 troops who were marching toward Tiananmen Square.

It was the biggest outpouring of citizen support for the demonstrating students in more than a week, and it seemed possible that it would rekindle the student movement and present a new challenge to the Government.

The confrontation underscored the fragile and volatile nature of the situation in Beijing just when the turmoil here seemed to be subsiding after seven weeks of demonstrations by students and workers for democracy and against corruption.

Tear gas was used at Xinhuamen, where residents sieged on a convoy of trucks carrying weapons. The atmosphere in the city became extremely tense.

NYT Archive 1989: Tyson vs. Foreman

At the brink of a bloody crackdown, the Chinese government offered $25 million for a boxing match between Mike Tyson and George Foreman, reported New York Times on June 2, 1989.

But the preparation for the crackdown did continue as well. Foreign reporters were being barred from writing any articles about the democracy movement. Meanwhile, a bizarre kidnapping attempt were reported at the Square:

The most peculiar incident was the assertion by students occupying Tiananmen Square that four people tried to kidnap two student leaders from their tent at 3 A.M. today.

According to the students' account, Chai Ling, the general commander of the Tiananmen Square students, and her husband, Feng Cengde, the deputy general commander, were awaken by four people who tried to gag them with towels and carry them away.

Mr. Feng escaped and shouted for help, and other students seized and interrogated the four people. Three of them were also students, and one was a member of a Beijing citizen organization that has supported the demonstrators, but most students were convinced that the four were Government agents.

The kidnappers were actually led by Wang Wen, who was among the group who had decided to go on hunger strike in early May. Wang Wen had repeated sought for leadership positions and was never successful. He staged the kidnapping as a coup, attempting to overthrow Chai Ling on corruption charges.

Meanwhile, the possibility of a military coup in the government lingered on.