Fall 2014

Viewfinder: 1989 in Tiananmen Square

– The Wilson Quarterly

Terril Yue Jones shares gripping, never-before-seen photos of China’s democracy protests in May and June of 1989.

Terril Yue Jones was a reporter with the Associated Press during China’s 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square. You can read his memories of that time (and his reflections on the ways China has changed since) here.

Terril was kind enough to share his personal photos of the protests at Tiananmen — including many images that have never been publicly seen until now.

Protesters fill Tiananmen Square, May 1989.

Students from around the country, some carrying rolled-up banners, arrive in Beijing’s train station to join the protests, mid-May, 1989.

Student protesters from Tianjin Textile Engineering Institute march away from the train station (seen in the background); mid-May, 1989.

Students from Tianjin Institute of Finance march in mid-May, 1989, carrying a banner that roughly translates as “Intolerable.”

Protesters sing and play the accordion in Tiananmen Square; May 15, 1989.

Some demonstrators borrow a phrase from the American Revolution: “Liberty or Death;” May, 1989.

Beijing citizens surrounded and blockaded scores of People's Liberation Army trucks entering Beijing after martial law was declared on May 20. The raucous but peaceful crowds brought food to the soldiers and pleaded with them to leave and not harm students.

Students pledge to persevere at Tiananmen Square; May 1989

Terril Yue Jones (center, with notepad) talks with demonstrators.

Cheerful students camping out between two buses on Tiananmen Square, across the street from the entrance to the Forbidden City.

Student leader Li Lu holds a symbolic marriage ceremony with his girlfriend Zhao Ming on the steps of the Heroes’ Monument on May 21, 1989. Other student leaders include Zhang Boli speaking to the crowd, and Chai Ling at far right.

A view of the increasingly squalid conditions on the Square on May 25, as protests have thinned out. The tomb of Mao Zedong is in the background

The headpiece of the “Goddess of Democracy” before the full statue was assembled; May 29, 1989.

The fully assembled “Goddess of Democracy” statue was erected in Tiananmen after protesters brought in the pieces, one by one; May 30, 1989.

The ‘Goddess’ was constructed to directly face Tiananmen Square’s giant Mao image.

Tired protesters take a nap in the Square.

Curious citizens crowd around buses parked outside the Beijing Hotel to block the military from entering Tiananmen Square; June 2, 1989.

Curious Beijing citizens crowd around buses that were parked outside the Beijing Hotel to block any attempts by the Chinese military to force its way into Tiananmen Square; June 2, 1989.

Beijing residents clamber atop a public bus to get a better view of the scene as the atmosphere in the city gets extremely tense on June 2, 1989.

A man waves a banner as soldiers begin to amass near the Great Hall of the People, on the west side of Tiananmen Square, hours before the Army launched its assault on the Square.

Thousands of young, unarmed soldiers jogged toward Tiananmen Square the night of June 2, only to be turned back by energetic crowds who poured into the streets to protect the students occupying the Square. This was a major humiliation to the government and set the stage for the Army to force its way into Tiananmen Square 24 hours later.

After soldiers begin appearing on the east edge of Tiananmen Square the night of June 3, 1989, a youth urges calm by both Beijing citizens and the People's Liberation Army.

Beijing residents examine buses that were burned overnight after the Chinese army forced its way into Tiananmen Square; June 4, 1989.

Soldiers in trucks patrolled Beijing in the days after June 4, often firing their rifles, as this soldier is doing here, to clear the streets.

Photo by Terril Yue Jones and Associated Press

Up next in this issue

Rise of the Post-Khomeini Era

– Haleh Esfandiari

1989 was a watershed year in Iran: constitutional changes, a fatwa against Rushdie, reconstruction from the Iran-Iraq War, and the death of Ayatollah Khomeini.