ABC news. Mikhail Gorbachev visited China in 1989 and found a revolution looming. What he saw changed history. ციტატა: „The talks Monday and today have been largely overshadowed by continuing student protests in Tian An Men Square outside the Great Hall. About 50,000 people were gathered in the square this morning as the meeting between Deng and Gorbachev began and thousands more were marching toward the centre of Beijing in the fourth day of a hunger strike that has grown to include more than 2,000 students demanding a dialogue with Chinese leaders on ways to expand democracy here.“
Amnesty International. What really happened in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. ციტატა: „On 13 May, hundreds of student protesters in Tiananmen Square went on hunger strike in order to push for talks with Communist Party leaders. It is estimated that one million people joined the protests in Beijing to express their support for the students on hunger strike and to demand reform.“
Britannica. Tiananmen Square incident. ციტატა: „From the outset of the incident, the Chinese government’s official stance was to downplay its significance, labeling the protesters “counterrevolutionaries” and minimizing the extent of the military’s actions on June 3–4. The government’s count of those killed was 241 (including soldiers), with some 7,000 wounded; most other estimates have put the death toll much higher. In the years since the incident, the government has generally attempted to suppress references to it. Public commemoration of the incident is officially banned.“
britannica. Tank Man. ციტატა: „The man made a sweeping gesture with one of his shopping bags as if to say, “Get out,” and, when the lead tank’s driver attempted to move to his left, Tank Man immediately jumped in front of it again. The lead tank proceeded forward, finally stopping within arm’s reach of Tank Man, at which point the driver turned off the engine. The man then climbed onto the tank, and he could be seen attempting to communicate with the crew inside. After about a minute a crewman emerged from a hatch on the turret, and there was a brief verbal exchange that continued as Tank Man jumped back onto the street to one side of the vehicle. Bursts of automatic-weapons fire could be heard in the distance. A short time later the lead tank’s driver restarted the engine, and the tank resumed its advance. Tank Man immediately repositioned himself in front of the tank, which again crawled to a stop. Two crewmen then appeared from hatches in the turret and gestured for the man to move out of the way. At this point a man on a bicycle approached Tank Man, and two additional men took him by the arms and hurried him across the avenue and out of sight.“
foreignaffairs. The New Tiananmen Papers. ციტატა: „By honoring Hu, the students expressed their dissatisfaction with the corruption and inflation that had developed during the ten years of ‘reform and opening’ under the country’s senior leader, Deng Xiaoping, and their disappointment with the absence of political liberalization. [...] The students occupying the square declared a hunger strike, their demands grew more radical, and demonstrations spread to hundreds of other cities around the country.“
foreignpolicy. ‘I Do Not Want Red Square to Look Like Tiananmen Square’. ციტატა: „Beijing and Moscow had mended fences, embarking on a road that by the mid-1990s would take them towards "strategic partnership." The high point of this rapprochement was then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's visit to Beijing in May 1989, just days before the June 4 massacre in Tiananmen Square.“
Anderlini, Jamil. Tiananmen Square: the long shadow. Financial Times (1 June 2014). ციტატა: „The extraction missions, aided by MI6, the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service, and the CIA, according to many accounts, had scrambler devices, infrared signallers, night-vision goggles and weapons.“ ციტირების თარიღი: 2 June 2014
History.com. Tiananmen Square Protests. ციტატა: „By the end of May, more than one million protesters had gathered in and around Tiananmen Square. They held daily marches and vigils, and images of the events were transmitted by media organizations to audiences in the United States, Europe and across the world.“
Los Angeles Times. White House: China should account for Tiananmen victims. ციტატა: „A 2005 study in the Stanford Journal of East Asian Affairs concluded that at least 3,000 deaths in Beijing was a likely tally based on available sources.“
Tiananmen: The Massacre that Wasn’t. liberationnews. ციტატა: „The Chinese government’s account acknowledges that street fighting and armed clashes occurred in nearby neighborhoods. They say that approximately three hundred died that night including many soldiers who died from gunfire, Molotov cocktails and beatings. But they have insisted that there was no massacre.
Kristof too says that there were clashes on several streets but refutes the “eyewitness” report about a massacre of students in Tiananmen Square: “the students and a pop singer, Hou Dejian, were negotiating with the troops and decided to leave at dawn, between 5 A.M. and 6 A.M. The students all filed out together. Chinese television has shown scenes of the students leaving and of the apparently empty square as troops moved in as the students left.”“
Ohio State University. Chinese official said 10,000 died in 1989. ციტატა: „Estimates on the number of casualties in China’s June 4 crackdown on the 1989 pro-democracy protests vary widely between sources. One widely used figure is the number announced by the Red Cross Society of China early on June 4, which estimated 2,700 dead.“
Timeline: What Led to the Tiananmen Square Massacre. ციტატა: „“[T]he vast majority of student demonstrators are patriotic and sincerely concerned for our country. We may not approve of all of their methods, but their demand to promote democracy, to deepen the reforms and to root out corruption are quite reasonable,” says Zhao.“
history.state.gov. Tiananmen Square, 1989. ციტატა: „On the night of June 3 and 4, the People’s Liberation Army stormed the Square with tanks, crushing the protests with terrible human costs. Estimates of the numbers killed vary. The Chinese Government has asserted that injuries exceeded 3,000 and that over 200 individuals, including 36 university students, were killed that night. Western sources, however, are skeptical of the official Chinese report and most frequently cite the toll as hundreds or even thousands killed. Similar protests that had taken place in other Chinese cities were soon suppressed and their leaders imprisoned.“
the-independent. At least 10,000 people died in Tiananmen Square massacre, secret British cable from the time alleged. ციტატა: „Written on 5 June 1989 by Sir Alan Donald, the then-British ambassador to China, the hitherto secret cable has now been placed in the UK National Archives at Kew, where it was found by the news website HK01.
The ambassador said his account of the massacre of the night of 3-4 June was based on information from a source who had spoken to a “good friend” in China’s State Council, effectively its ruling cabinet.
The State Council member, Sir Alan said, “has previously proved reliable and was careful to separate fact from speculation and rumour”.“
Tiananmen Square online searches censored by Chinese authorities. The Guardian. ციტატა: „Officially, the Chinese government considers the Tiananmen protest a "counter-revolutionary rebellion," and its subsequent crackdown – the declaration of martial law, troops firing indiscriminately at unarmed demonstrators – as necessary for maintaining social stability. Many one-time protesters have since been consigned to the margins of Chinese society. Some have spent long stints in jail; others have fled the country. A large number still face regular harassment by security agents.“
