The Reunion

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The Reunion: Tiananmen Square Protests

Tiananmen Square Protests

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Kirsty Wark reunites witnesses to what happened in Tiananmen Square in June 1989.

Student leaders and others talk to Kirsty Wark about the events of June 4 1989 when Chinese Army units rolled into Tiananmen Square, ending weeks of peaceful protests.

Kirsty Wark reunites eyewitnesses to the June 4 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy protests led by students and residents in Beijing. 

Hundreds of people were killed and many more wounded when People’s Liberation Army units rolled into Tiananmen Square, ending more than seven weeks of peaceful protests seeking political reform. 

The cataclysmic chain of events began with the death of Hu Yaobang. The former general secretary of the Communist Party was a reformist and his liberal views were despised by party hardliners. Thousands of students occupied Tiananmen Square which was soon covered with a jumble of flags and banners calling for democracy. They staged sit-ins and went on hunger strikes demanding dialogue with political leaders. Art students rolled a replica of New York’s Statue of Liberty, about 10 metres tall, onto the square.

The weeks of demonstrations left the Chinese Communist Party dangerously divided. A night and a day of bloodshed, as the army opened fire in central Beijing, left the party’s reputation in tatters. The arrests and recriminations continued for more than a year.

James Miles was the BBC’s Beijing correspondent reporting from the streets; author Diane Wei Ling climbed onto the tanks to try and negotiate with the soldiers. Student leader Zhou Fenghsou was arrested and spent a year in prison. Wuer Kaixi, number two on the most wanted list, made a dramatic escape to the west with the help of Jean-Pierre Montagne, the French deputy consulate in Hong-Kong who was part of a secret underground railway which helped 130 dissidents avoid capture by the Chinese government in the months following June 4.    

Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Emily Williams

Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

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