Before the bloody end of the demonstrations in his heart Beijing many hoped for a democratic change in China.

This possibility, 35 years later, still seems very distant. Wer Caixi remembers June 4 with anger. The exiled Chinese was one of hundreds of thousands of students who 35 years ago descended on Tiananmen Square (Tien An Men) in a peaceful demonstration against the government, corruption and in favor of strengthening democracy.

But the demonstration ended within one blood bath and since then this day is officially a taboo subject in China. To this day, the distinctive image of the man who stood in front of the armored vehicle is a symbol of protest by ordinary people against the powerful party.

“The sounds of gunshots were loud,” Kaysi recalled of the night between June 3 and 4, 1989, when soldiers intervened and put a bloody end to the weeks-long protests. “We wanted to have a say too, we wanted to be heard,” says the Uighur, who currently lives in Taiwan. The demands of the demonstrators were the recognition of the democratic student movement and the holding of free elections.

In today’s China of Xi Jinping these demands still seem like a distant dream. But the problem is not Xi, but the system itself, says Wu Renhua, who was also among the protesters in 1989 and lives in exile in Taiwan. “If the Communist party does not take the initiative to start a transition to democracy, then one day it will be overthrown by the people like the Soviet communist regime,” he estimates.

Hope for democracy in the 1980s

During the 1980s there was a belief in China that economic modernization would be followed by reforms. The hope of many was Hu Yaobang, then General Secretary of the Communist Party and comrade of the reformer Deng Xiaoping. But a democratic change never materialized. In 1987 Hu was deposed and finally died in April 1989.

With Hu’s death, the democratic mobilization took place in Tien An Men Square – indeed in front of the monument to Mao Zedong, the once most powerful communist revolutionary leader, whose image adorns the entrance to the Forbidden City. The protests were inspired, among others, by the Solidarnosc (“Solidarity”) movement in Poland, as Kaisi says – the union that opposed the government and succeeded in holding elections. “Then we hoped that Beijing would become a second Warsaw.”

A “bloody scene”

The pressure on the government culminated in a hunger strike. Beijing could not control the protests – on 15 May even Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was prevented from entering the Square where official visitors were usually received with lavish honours. About a million people demonstrated in front of the international press, thus dealing a significant blow to the international reputation of the Chinese leadership.

The Chinese government called in the People’s Liberation Army and imposed martial law. “Early in the morning of June 4, 1989, I remained in the Square with two thousand other students until the soldiers removed us,” said Renhua, author of several books on the Tien An Men Square massacre.

During the night the students had left the Square and the carnage took place in the surrounding streets, with armored tanks chasing the students trying to escape to the west, Renhua continues. “One of the armored vehicles numbered 106 came out from behind, killing 11 people on the spot and injuring many more,” turning the area into a “bloody scene.”

Escape with ambulances

Kaisi also escaped from the Square, with “the last ambulance”, as the 56-year-old says. A student, seriously injured in the head, cooled down in the vehicle before his eyes. “Rage is one of the many emotions I feel,” he declares.

The number of dead remains unknown to this day, certainly in the hundreds. At the time, the Chinese Red Cross made an unconfirmed estimate of 2,600 dead. “One day the truth will be revealed,” Kaishi is sure.

Shortly before the 35th anniversary of the massacre in the Square, the “Mothers of Tien An Men”, an association of relatives of the victims, is again asking for explanations and some compensation from the government. Many of the people who took to the streets then live in exile today – and only from there can they speak freely about their experiences. “A massacre that shocked the whole planet and 35 years later the Chinese people are still not allowed to talk about it,” says Renhua. “I find it very sad.”

Arrests before the anniversary

For many years people in Hong Kong have been commemorating the victims. But Beijing has so undermined democracy in the former British colony that public commemorations are no longer allowed.

These days, the police are making several arrests of citizens, on the charge of publishing “subversive” opinions on the internet and calling for illegal acts in view of a “sensitive date”.

The Chinese government wants to erase all memory of the massacre, as Maya Wang of Human Rights Watch reports. The human rights organization is asking the international community not to allow Beijing to ban reports of the massacre and prosecute those who want to recall the events.

Public uprisings are apparently impossible in China. There was a small glimmer of hope with the pandemic protests of 2022, when people took to the streets with white sheets of paper, protesting against the government’s strict restrictions. Demonstrations were blocked and pandemic measures were only lifted when cases could no longer be brought under control. It was the largest collective mobilization with political demands in the country since the Tien An Men Square events, Renhua says.

Hope for change remains alive

Caixi states that these activists still exist in China today, as do democratic demands to limit government power and for greater citizen participation in decision-making. The only question is how the government will manage these desires. “From ancient times to the present day no regime has existed forever,” observes Renhua.

1989 activists call for greater democracy in China. And although such a thing is not a simple matter, “pressure always brings some result”, says Kaishi. On the contrary, the tolerance shown by the world community towards China for 35 years does not help anything. “One can be either on the side of the armored personnel carrier or the protester who stood in front of the tank. There is nothing in between.”

Edited by: Giorgos Passas