Hearing the news about killings at the Square was shocking. How could this have happened? The day after 6-4 I had a lunch date with a Chinese friend who lived on Changan Jie, very close to the Square. Chaos had erupted in Beijing. All intersections were blocked with burned out cars and buses. I was so glad I was on a 10 speed bicycle that I could pick up and walk around road blockages, yet speed down streets. This is my recollection.
Burned buses blocked traffic intersections in Downtown Beijing
In our dorm a group of us huddled around, talking about the protests when an excited student arrived. He had just returned from the Square and told us about the killings. I still recall his nonchalant attitude, of telling us an everyday story. He was with a Chinese friend, who was beside him. He heard gunfire and dropped to the ground. Unfortunately his friend did not and was killed. He had his friend’s blood on his shirt. Not only was he not afraid for his life, but thought that the event was so cool. Very cool. Your friend is now dead, and you could have returned to the States in a body bag. That’s so not cool. This guy was actually preparing to return to the Square to see what else was happening.
I returned to my room and turned on my shortwave. These were the days of CCTV only at set times of the day, and no private phones, much less internet. I recall VOA’s broadcast of events as being sketchy on the details. VOA had broadcast that Chinese soldiers had surrounded Beijing University and other nearby universities. I knew that was not true, and hoped my parents were not listening to the broadcast. BBC was much more measured and had more accurate information, which I could verify with eye witness and personal accounts. From that day I had much respect for the BBC’s reporting integrity.
I had a lunch meeting with a Chinese friend the next day, but was not sure if we could still meet. I called her house and she was home. She told me that it was much too dangerous for me to travel down to her place and wanted to postpone. I said I still wanted to visit so she agreed. Her brother, who was about 12 at the time, had gone down to the Square’s perimeter to face the soldiers on the front line and had taunted them and swore at them, and was almost fired upon. They had run after him but he ran away. She was afraid that her brother would get into trouble, be beaten up or killed. He was livid that the Chines People’s Liberation Army would kill their own unarmed citizens.
The University was abuzz with activity, more than usual. As I rode my bike I noticed that all was not well in Beijing. At almost every street intersection cars were blocking the road. Citizens were out on the street screaming loudly and crying. Car traffic had stopped. In the beginning I was able easily ride around cars at intersections, but as I got closer to the city centre more often than not I had to puck up my bike and carry it over the grass dividers that separated traffic.
Very odd was my first sighting of Beijing public transit buses at intersections, torched black. They had obviously been set ablaze and left to block the intersection. I wondered why would people block the intersections anyway, and why would citizens set so many buses on fire? Cars were also turned over and also had been set ablaze.
Beijing was in total chaos. Traffic lights were not working. Intersections were all blocked. There were no police in sight at any intersection. In fact I saw no police nor police vehicles the whole day. As I got closer to the Square I was very thankful I had a 10 speed bicycle, which I could easily pick up and carry over obstacles. There was no way a car could traverse the city.
And all this because of a peaceful student protest? A protest that I thought would peter out. It had been over a month and the university students were back in their dorms recovering. As I looked around the streets I could see that the protest had become much bigger, including workers and common citizens. When trouble brews in China escalation can happen pretty quickly and can easily get out of hand.
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You’re definitely unique from having experienced the events of Tiananmen Square in person.
As I was reading your description, I am reminded that perspective makes a big difference. You were a western-educated student in a country where information flows are controlled. In some sense, I think that the Chinese students that you knew were innocents — some may even say naive. The events of the day unfortunately didn’t go in their favour.