A Child-Witness Account of Tiananmen Incident 1989

The following is an article penned by wanxi398 who witnessed the Tiananmen Incident in 1989. English translation by Fish. 

When the Tiananmen Incident occurred, I was just eight-year-old. Although it is an age too young to be able to comprehend complicated matters, I was however aware of what was going on in the world around me.

I remember many schools were shut down for over a month, and we kids considered it to be the best thing happened in the whole event. After I came to the West, over the years, I tried to understand the true nature of the incident that I witnessed as a child.

According to the credible definition of martial law, it is a system of rules that takes effect when the military is in control of the normal administration of justice, which can be declared in situations that may result in grave consequences for national security and law enforcement, such as in face of an external military threat, a violent street riot, a major natural disaster or serious political crisis. Any legitimate government in any nation has a legal right to declare martial law in a state of emergency.

Don’t tell me what happened in Beijing at the time was just a peaceful protest by students. The nature of the protest had changed soon after it began, and the forces behind that directed the whole event were more sinister than most people would have imagined. The Chinese government had been in a series of dialogue sessions with the students for more than a month with no result produced since the students didn’t know what they really wanted to achieve. The martial law was made under such a hopeless situation, as the government seemed to have no other options. Only after martial law was imposed and ignored by the people occupied the square, the army opened fire.

At about 8 am on June 4, my father took me to Changan Avenue (长安街) by cart, the main road in Beijing that runs through Tiananmen Square. We went to Xidan (西单口) and did not dare to go in the direction of Liubukou (六部口). We rode towards the west until we reached the Headquarter Building of the Worker’s Union (工会大楼) and Yanjing Hotel (燕京饭店), and spotted a thick smog in the distance. Later we learned that the military vehicles in front of the Military Museum were burned. I didn’t see any dead bodies though but noticed a large number of abandoned bicycles, and badly burned buses turned sideways, the metal pieces from the construction sites by the road and bullet holes in the walls. Later, I heard the adults mentioning the armoured vehicles near Liubukou firing shots into the air, and they had to bend their bodies when fleeing the scene. I think it is very likely some people might have been hit by the bullets.

The end of the Tiananmen Incident was the beginning of the migration wave to the West. No matter whether you had ever remotely related to the event, as long as you said you did, you were in for the resettlement opportunity in a lifetime. The more outrageous your story sounded, the happier the Westerners who reviewed your application for migration were since they could collect a few more bullets to fire at China. Now 20 years have passed, I’m baffled as to why those who initially made the fanciful claims still haven’t come up to correct the records. Is it so hard for those people to speak the truth? China today is a very different place compared to what it was twenty years ago, and Chinese people cannot be easily fooled. For anyone who intends to rehabilitate the whole event in 1989, he will have to provide hard evidence [to prove that the Chinese army did have intentionally killed the people, and in a large number as it is still claimed by the West and their paid Chinese foot soldiers, and to convince the Chinese people that the movement was not orchestrated by the hostile alien forces with the full cooperation of the “student leaders”].

The majority of the students who participated in the protest were motivated by their concern for China’s future. Unfortunately, the movement was quickly spoiled by the “student leaders” who actually cared about nothing but a power play, which brought a huge negative impact on China’s reform progress. Consequently, it is the Chinese people who have suffered.

It is only half a month away from the day marked as the 20th anniversary of the incident, and I’m sure there will be a lot of related posts appearing, and many old stories encircling online. I urge you to think for yourselves and to find out how much truth in those outlandish tales.

天安门事件回忆

作者：wanxi398 （2009）

89年我8岁，可以说还不具备分辨复杂问题是非的能力，但那已经是记事儿的年龄了。当时只是看热闹，觉得很好奇，因为日常生活突然改变了，周围的环境突然变得不一样了。所以发生在我身边的事情我还能记得很清楚。记得当时学校放了有一个多月的假，这在当时对我们可是个最好的消息。

出国以后我用了很长时间试着去认识那段历史，来用自己的头脑作出判断。因为我自己认为我算是在北京亲身经历过那段日子的人，至少比那些当时还不知道在哪儿干什么听风就是雨的愤青更有开口的权力。

戒严（Martial law）：是指国家在处于对外战争、内部叛乱、天灾瘟疫或者财政经济危机的等严重危害社会安全与政治稳定的特殊时期采取的一种紧急措施。戒严实施司法及行政权会部分或全部由军队接管。在有的国家又称之为紧急状态。

首先，军队是在政府发出戒严令以后开枪的。任何国家的合法政府都有权利在特殊情况下下戒严令。你如果当时不在北京，就不要跟我说，那只是学生和平情愿，政府不应该下戒严令。那时候已经不仅仅是学生的事了，政府跟没有目的底线的学生交涉了一个多月，结果怎样大家都知道。戒严令也应该是政府迫不得已发出的。

六四早上8点多，我爸骑着三轮车带我去长安街，在西单口没敢往六部口方向走，去的是西边，一直走到工会大楼，燕京饭店附近，西边远处冒着很浓的黑烟就没再往前。过后听说是军博那里军车被烧了。那天早上在路上我没看到尸体，只有路边扔的成片的自行车，路中间被推倒烧过了的公共汽车，路边工地铁皮和墙上的弹孔。 后来听大人聊天说在六部口坦克用机枪对周围扫射过，但是都是往高处平射，他们都是弯腰跑回来的。我想应该有打到人。

六四结束就是中国人去西方的一个移民潮的开始，不管沾不沾边的全往外跑，随便说点什么人家就留你。那些数据有多少是准确的？说的越离谱他们越高兴，高兴在他们反华文章里又补充了一条“证据”。已经过去20年了，他们为什么不拍着良心说句真话。现在已经不是20年前那个封闭的中国了，老百姓也不会再像20年前那么好骗。如果要给六四翻案，我们需要当时在场的人举证。

那时的学生运动初衷是好的，可惜到了后期因为内部的利益争夺，导致六四事件的发生，影响到了政府体制上的改革。最终吃亏的还是中国老百姓。

还有半个月就20周年了，最近一定会有很多关于六四的帖子出现。一定又有很多陈年的文章被各种各样的人翻出来再贴到这里。恳请大家用脑子简单的去分析一下文章的真实性。