This year marks the 30th 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.
From the June 1, 1989 New York Times:
About 2,000 students and workers protested in front of the Public Security Ministry tonight, and three union leaders were released after two days of interrogation.
The release suggested that the Government may be apprehensive about the reaction if it arrests leaders of the democracy movement. The three, who are leaders of a newly formed labor union in the capital, were detained Monday night.
It was principally concern over their fate that prompted demonstrations Tuesday and again Wednesday in front of the Public Security Ministry, tying up traffic on the Avenue of Eternal Peace, a major street.
As word spread among today’s demonstrators that the three had been freed, they changed the purpose of the protest to demand the release of 11 other workers whom the Government acknowledged on Tuesday that it had arrested. All 11 own motorcycles and had been part of a band of several hundred motorcyclists who joined student demonstrators over the last 10 days. [Source]
Also from the Los Angeles Times, “China’s leadership sponsors own rally” and “Students in Tiananmen Square Weighing Decision to Go or Stay”
[This series was originally posted by CDT in 2009 to mark the 20th anniversary of the protests. 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.]
