Key figures in Tiananmen massacre

1 Jun 2009, 11:23 am   -   Source: AFP
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Chinese army marches in 1999 (Getty Images)

Chinese army marches in 1999 (Getty Images)

The following are brief profiles of the 10 people - students, politicians and others - who played key roles in the drama that unfolded in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989.

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The following are brief profiles of the 10 people - students, politicians and others - who played key roles in the drama that unfolded in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989:
   
THE STUDENTS
   
-- Wang Dan, the moderate (born 1969). A student from the elite Peking University, he was replaced as leader of the movement by more radical protesters. After his arrest in July 1989, he was sentenced in 1991 to four years in jail. He was released in 1993, but arrested again in 1995 on subversion charges and sentenced to another 11 years in prison. In 1998, he was deported to the United States. He continues his campaign for democracy in China in the West.
   
-- Chai Ling, the muse (born 1966). The tiny woman was known as the "general commander" of the protest headquarters at Tiananmen Square. After the crackdown, she was put on the list of the 21 most wanted students, but after 10 months on the run she managed to escape to France. She now lives in the United States, where she works as an internet entrepreneur.
   
-- Wu'er Kaixi, the rebel (born 1968). A member of the Uighur ethnic minority, he became a celebrity overnight after he interrupted Premier Li Peng during a meeting between student leaders and politicians aired live on state television on May 18, 1989. He was able to flee China after the June 4 crackdown and now lives in Taiwan.
   

THE POLITICIANS
   
-- Deng Xiaoping, the patriarch (1904-1997). The most influential of the leaders, the chairman of the Central Military Commission and father of economic reform tilted the balance in favour of a hard line and ordered the army to fire on protesters after six weeks of rallies that left the government paralysed.

-- Zhao Ziyang, the disgraced reformer (1919-2005). As general secretary of the Communist Party, he supported dialogue between the government and the protesters. On May 19, 1989, he visited the students on Tiananmen Square, and, in tears, urged them to leave. This was his last public appearance. He was relieved of his duties in June and placed under house arrest until his death.
   
-- Li Peng, the hardliner (born 1928). He was made prime minister in 1988 and also a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party's Politburo, the heart of political power in China. Announcing martial law on May 19, he paved the way for the crackdown.
   
THE INTELLECTUALS
   
-- Fang Lizhi, the veteran dissident (born 1936). Even if this famous astrophysicist did not participate directly in the Tiananmen movement, his ideas were a clear inspiration. He had been thrown out of the Communist Party in 1987, and shortly after the crackdown in 1989, the authorities issued an arrest order against him. He escaped into the US embassy and was granted political asylum in the United States in 1991.
   
-- Liu Xiaobo, the mediator (born 1955). The author was popular among the young for his criticism of traditional Chinese values and further joined the students in a hunger strike on Tiananmen Square. On the night of June 3 and into the early hours of June 4, as the army proceeded to clear the square, he attempted to negotiate an
orderly evacuation. He was later arrested and spent a year and a half in jail without ever being formally sentenced.
   
THE ARTIST
   
-- Cui Jian, the rocker (born 1961). The "father of rock" in China appeared several times on Tiananmen Square in 1989, and one of his works, Nothing to My Name, became the unofficial fight song of the student movement.
   
THE UNKNOWN HERO
   
-- On June 5, the day after the crackdown, a young man placed himself in front of a column of tanks, preventing it from passing down the Avenue of Heavenly Peace in the heart of Beijing. At one point he even mounted the front tank to appeal to its crew, but bystanders eventually dragged him away. Photos and footage of the "Tank Man" immediately made top news around the world, and he went down in history as a symbol of peaceful and unarmed protesters
confronting military repression. His name remains unknown to this day.

 

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