A Chinese Perspective on the Tiananmen Square Incident: By Anisha Khosla

Is it possible that the Tiananmen Square “Massacre” was not a massacre at all? That it was nothing more than and incident, misreported and propagandized by the Western media so much that it evolved into a such said “massacre”?  The Chinese government may have been acting accordingly to the situation, with the best interests of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation at heart. As a representative of the Chinese government, I believe that this was the case. This was not merely a chance occurrence, the incident was likely to happen for months. During the months prior to the incident, from the death of Hu Yaobang to June 4^th, there had been a steadily increasing amount of protests taking place in the Square. The government announced martial law, and surrounded the city of Beijing with military. The troops were unable to get through the barricades of people that lined the streets. It is rumored that many of the troops were touched by the students, and in fact retreated from the streets. According to some research, the students rated more damage than the troops. “Over 1,280 vehicles were burned or damaged in the rebellion, including over 1,000 military trucks, more than 60 armored cars, over 30 police cars, over 120 public buses and trolley buses and over 70 motor vehicles of other kinds. More than 6,000 martial law officers and soldiers were injured and scores of them killed.” (The Truth About The Beijing Turmoil - Beijing Publishing House, 1990) This research also states that the troops suffered heavy casualties while trying to spare the innocent civilians.

 Around 1 am on the morning of June 4^th, the troops finally cleared the streets and entered the square. There, according to the observers, they waited for instructions from the government. By then, it is rumored that a large majority of the students had left the square. At 4 am, the army again offered the students a choice, to leave or to stay and face the consequences. This evidence proves that the army did not go in and just start blindly shooting at the students. They gave the students a chance to save themselves. Around 5 am, the tanks finally entered the square, shooting and attacking the students. Xiaoping Li, a former China dissident, who had been on a hunger strike on the square to show solidarity with the students, said: Some people said 200 died in the square and others claimed that as many as 2,000 died. There were also stories of tanks running over students who were trying to leave. I have to say I did not see any of that. I was in the square until 6:30 in the morning.” This here is further proof that the “Massacre” of June 4^th 1989 may not have been as severe as previously thought.