Home > Tiananmen,
15 Years
On > Profile
Tiananmen, 15 Years On
Where Are Some of the “Most Wanted” Participants Today?
 |
Photo courtesy of Open
Magazine. |
Yan Jiaqi
By
the time the 1989 protests came to a head, Yan Jiaqi had years of experience
in reform politics, working both inside and outside the system. In 1976, for
example, he took part in demonstrations that followed the death of Premier Zhou
Enlai, and in 1978 he published an essay in one of the Democracy Wall samizdat
magazines. In the early 1980s, Yan switched from philosophy to political science.
In 1985, he was named the first head of the Institute of Politics at the Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). One Western academic dubbed him “China’s first
political scientist.”
Yan’s response to the events of spring 1989 was swift. He organized protests
over the closing of the reformist World Economic Herald in Shanghai, and signed
on to public letters criticizing the government’s handling of the student protests.
After his attempts to convince China’s leaders to take a softer line failed,
Yan took his place with the students. On the night of June 3, he was in the Square
for the opening ceremony of the newly-founded “democracy university,” an institution
created by student protestors and headed by student leader Zhang Boli. Yan was
named honorary president. “It was already very late,” Yan recalled. “It was probably
around 10 p.m. Shots had already been fired, but we couldn’t yet hear them in
the Square… I went home to bed. I was awakened at one or two in the morning by
the sound of gunfire. At the time, I lived behind CASS, not far from Jianguomen.
I could see what was going on [in the streets below] very clearly. The sound
of gunfire was very loud.” For Yan, the government’s decision to use force meant
the die had been cast. “A few people came to my house that morning and said that
many people had been killed in Tiananmen Square. I decided to leave Beijing.”
Yan made it to Hong Kong on June 22, 1989, then on to France, and some five years
later to the U.S. From his home in Brooklyn, New York, he writes regularly for
Chinese-language publications in the U.S., Japan, Europe, and Hong Kong, and
continues to push for democratic reform in China.
More Profiles:
Wang
Dan
“ The future for democracy in China is dependent not just on political institutions
but on the growth of a vibrant civil society.”
—May 25, 2004 |
Feng
Congde
“Tiananmen was the beginning of the end of the communist camp. It was a wake-up
call to Chinese inside and outside China.”
—May 2004 |
Zhang
Boli
“1989 stands out as a beautiful moment. We stood up. It wasn’t easy.
Overturning the government’s official verdict isn’t important; what’s important
is what we did. History will judge us properly.”
—June 2, 2004 |
Liu
Gang
“We didn’t failfailure is the mother of success. There’ll be more chancesand
we have more experience.”
—May 2004 |
Zheng
Yi
Zheng worked with other intellectuals to craft statements of
support for the students including the famous “Declaration of May
16.” |
Wang
Chaohua
“I jumped into the center of the movement. I thought I could
make a decision for myself....But this...decision had repercussions
for others, including ones I love dearly.”
—May 26, 2004 |
Li
Lu
“Once in [Tiananmen] Square you did anything and
everything that needed doing.” |
Zheng
Xuguang
“Within the movement we consistently adhered to the
principles of peace, reason and nonviolence.”
—1993 “Peace Charter” |
Zhang
Ming
Accused
of inciting subversion and attempting to overthrow the socialist
system, Zhang was sentenced in January 1991 to a three-year term. |
Xiong
Yan
“We believe, no matter whether the government does or does not, that history
will recognize this movement as a patriotic and democratic movement….”
—May 1989 |
Wang
Juntao
“Tiananmen changed Chinese history. It was a benchmark in Chinese
political development, furthering the liberal trend of the 1980s and
destroying the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party.”
—May 2004 |
Ma
Shaofang
Ma Shaofang, the former Beijing Film Academy student who
was No. 10 on the most wanted student list, has remained politically
active in China. |
Wang
Youcai
“The develop-
ment of a democratic system is crucially
important. Democracy is the only way to avoid a second Tiananmen.”
—May 2004 |
Yang
Tao
Authorities charged Yang Tao had been an instigator of a “counterrevolutionary
rebellion,” had “advocated bourgeois liberalism,” and “wantonly
attacked Marxism.” |
Han
Dongfang
“1989 was the very first time the Chinese people themselves directly
faced the regime. Before that time, there was only hope.
—May 2004 |
Zhou
Fengsuo
“It was the one time I experienced the beautiful
character of the Chinese people longing for a democratic China
where we could freely speak our minds.”
—May 2004 |
Zhang
Zhiqing
Zhang Zhiqing, No. 16 on “Wanted List 1,” disappeared from view shortly
after June 4, 1989. None of the other students on the most wanted list
has heard from him since. |
Yan
Jiaqi
By the time the 1989 protests came to a head, Yan Jiaqi had
years of experience in reform politics, working both inside and
outside the system. |
Lu
Jinghua
“Tiananmen 100 percent changed my life. Even since ’89, I’ve tried
to make people understand what life without human rights is really
all about.”
—May 24, 2004 |
Fang
Lizhi
“June 4, 1989 was one of the most important events of the
last century.”
—May 2004 |
|
| |
 |
Reports
 Nipped in the Bud: The Suppression of the China Democracy Party
Slamming the Door on Dissent: Wang Dan’s Trial and the New “State Security” Era
Leaking State Secrets: The Case of Gao Yu
China: Enforced Exile of Dissidents" Government "Re-entry Blacklist" Revealed
Further Reading

Chinese Scholars Detained
Human Rights Watch Campaign Document
Tiananmen
Mother’s Campaign
Off-Site Link
Dr.
Jiang Yanyong’s Letter and Petition
Off-Site Link
|