Crackdown in Beijing; President Assails Shootings in China

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the nationwide, student-led democracy movement in China, and the subsequent June 4th military crackdown in Beijing. To commemorate the student movement, CDT is posting a series of original news articles from 1989, beginning with the death of Hu Yaobang on April 15 and continuing through the tumultuous spring. The full series can be read at Twenty Years Ago Today: Tiananmen Square Student Movement.

Robert Pear reports on the U.S. government’s reaction to the military crackdown on student protesters in Tiananmen Square for the New York Times:

President Bush said today that he deeply deplored the shooting of protesters by Chinese troops.

The President said it was ”clear that the Chinese Government has chosen to use force against Chinese citizens who were making a peaceful statement in favor of democracy.”

[...]Secretary of State Baker, appearing on the Cable News Network television program ”Newsmaker Saturday,” declined to say whether the Bush Administration would seek to penalize China by such steps as cutting off sales of American arms to Beijing.

If you have access to additional sources of original reporting, video, accounts or photos from the spring of 1989, please send them to us at cdt@chinadigitaltimes.net and we’ll consider including them in this series. Many thanks.