Everyone, look. This is a famous picture.
The 20th century’s most famous picture, Tank Man.
It is a symbol of Chinese people’s courage
fighting against the Chinese Communist Party’s tyranny on June 4th, 1989.
I would like everyone to take a look, and remember the time of this photo.
I hope everyone won’t forget that the day before this photo - 1989’s June 4th morning, around 6am
Also in Beijing, West Changan Street, about 800 meters away from Tiananmen, a massacre was happening.
There, the Chinese Communist Party’s army used tanks
to chase down students from behind, resulting in many casualties.
I was there at the time. I was one of the survivors.
In 1989, I was a senior at Beijing Sports University and an athlete.
At that time, I attend this large-scale pro-democracy student protest.
At that time, we all had endless hopes for the country
we were hopeful that the government at the time, Chinese Communist Party
would be able to continue to rightfully reform, fight corruption
and be able to give the people more political and speech freedoms.
We hope, one day, we will be able to truly walk towards democracy.
But, the government then, those stubborn rulers, those powerful individuals.
They ignored our voices, they didn’t adhere to our desires.
They decided to use armed forces to crackdown on our peaceful democratic movements.
June 3rd 1989, the highest authorities put forth a final call, to use military force.
They used 200,000 soldiers, from all sides, to surround Beijing.
Approximately 10pm on the evening of June 3rd, these authorities ordered to open fire.
They used submachine guns, machine guns, and fired towards thousands of Beijing’s city residents.
They forcefully, from all corners of Beijing, advanced onwards towards the city.
Thousands of residents and students went on the streets, they tried to use their own bodies to block these troops.
But, these tragic occurrences were just the beginning.
Approximately until about 2am, the troops from all sides continued through the streets, rapidly killing.
Resulting to massive student and resident injuries and deaths, on the way to Tiananmen Square.
At that time, I, along with the remaining approximately 3000 students, we fenced around Tiananmen Square.
We staged a sit-in there, in the middle of the Square, with our monument.
The army started to surround us, bullets flew over our heads.
Targeting the top of our monument, causing sparks.
Rows of tanks, from all sides, slowly started approaching us
pushing over the Goddess of Democracy statue
crushing the tents that my fellow classmates were previously living in.
Lastly, approximately around 4am of June 4th, armed soldiers chased us, crossed over us towards the monument and forced us to leave.
Finally, under the tanks’ force, we left from Tiananmen’s southeast side
walking along West Changan Street, we were ready to pass through to go back towards our school.
We walked to the West Changan Street Liubukou area, this was around 6am, the sky was already quite bright.
On West Changan Street, after a night’s bloodbath, was very empty
because the army had already completed clearing out Tiananmen Square.
The student queue was quietly and orderly walking on
West Changan Street, on the bicycle and pedestrian lanes.
When we walked there, we did not expect to hear explosions from behind us.
Poison gas grenades, released from soldiers in tanks, had exploded among our crowd of students.
There was one exploded right next to me.
There was a student that I was with, a younger girl from my school, who I met during the evening’s events.
She was very scared, and asked if she could stay by my side.
I was probably the only boy she knew there.
I said, “No problem, I’m a man. With me, I will protect you and keep you safe.”
We walked along Liubukou, hand in hand. Coincidentally, a grenade was next to us that had exploded.
A cloud, within 2-3 meters, green and yellow, surrounded us.
The girl, because of the toxic gas, fainted on the ground. I didn't think much of it at the time
except that the first thing I must do is pick her up and move her somewhere safe.
We were all facing west at the time. When I was helping the girl go towards the side of the road for safety
from the corner of my eye, I saw tanks storming towards us.
The front of the tanks’ barrels seemed as if already pressing onto my head.
I wasn’t able to think more about it, only to keep pushing the girl towards the rails for safety.
I was still standing on the bicycle lane, and fell to the ground.
And just like that, my body got crushed by a tank. At the time, it felt like extremely tight pressure.
I knew that, wow, this tank is crushing me.
I felt that the tank was dragging my body along the road "dong dong dong dong" for some time.
And then, the tank tore both my legs. I collapsed and rolled to the side of the road.
It is this very precious photo, capturing my state as I leaned there peacefully.
I am very grateful for this photographer
to capture this scene, to capture the reality of how tanks crushed people.
I would really like to find this photographer. I would also really like to find the people
who were there next to me, the person who provided emergency care, to help stop blood loss.
If it wasn’t for this person, perhaps I would not have been able to survive.
After all these years, I always think about wanting to find these people. I hope one day, I can, along with them
together recall that day’s events.
After the 6/4 Massacre, I lost both my legs. Actually, from that point onwards
the Chinese government, Chinese authorities, tried to conceal this history and the truth.
It’s because, in fact, they know the army and tank’s actions are unforgivable offenses.
So that is why they think of any possible ways, to utilize the government’s mechanics, to forget this history.
Sadly, due to this pressure, the female classmate I was with at the time has also
denied the realities of what happened when she was with me.
There are also a lot of people, my friends and comrades, because of the pressure
they have chosen to stay silent or let go of the truths.
I can understand. Because of the Chinese government’s rule and resulting pressures from it
it would be difficult for these people to have a job, or to move forward in educational opportunities.
I can understand my female classmate’s actions.
After I lost both my legs, because I am an athlete, I returned to the Paralympic sports arena.
I thought I could continue my activities, so I participated in the 1992 All-China Disabled Athletic Games.
At these games, I was the gold medalist for two wheelchair competitions.
Originally, for 1994, I was supposed to represent China at a competition
called Far East and South Pacific Games for the Disabled.
But, ultimately, the Chinese government cancelled my qualification for the competition, because they knew
if I went to go participate, the reason for my injury would be revealed to even more people.
They always want to cover this truth, they don’t want people to know that
a tank crushed students in Beijing, around Tiananmen.
6/4 Massacre has been about 29 years ago.
These 29 years, we haven’t seen the Chinese government make any good changes.
It still strictly maintains control in China
so that 6/4 is a forbidden, unspoken topic. People are not able to talk about it.
On the internet, on all sorts of media platforms, people cannot search and find anything about the events of 6/4.
Even searches of my own name, on China’s internet compared to US’s internet, are completely different.
China’s internet compared to the rest of the world’s internet is completely different.
In these 29 years, the Tiananmen mothers who lost their children
still are not able to freely mourn their children who lost their lives.
Every year, there’s always a lot of people that use their own ways
to express their commemoration of this 6/4 history. They don’t want to forget.
They are all thrown in prison for doing this.
After all these years, it has always been like this.
So, in China, if you want to think truthfully, speak truthfully, and chase the truth, you will pay a huge price.
One lucky thing is, 9 years ago, with the help from my friends from overseas, I came to the United States.
Right now, I live in San Francisco.
If I have the opportunity, I would go join various activities, just like today’s.
I will go to various venues - universities, youth exchange programs
to share my experience, to share what I know about 6/4.
I hope everyone never forgets this history
because in the landscape of these 29 years, 6/4 still has not been in the light.
Those killers, the ones who gave the orders, never received blame and were never held accountable.
We also don’t know where that Tank Man, Wang Weilin, is.
And we also don’t know exactly how many people were killed and crushed by the Liubukou tanks.
We also don’t know, on that evening 6/4, how many lives in Beijing were lost.
All of these are still kept as secrets.
So, today I am here, in front of everyone, with so many scholars, so many human rights activists
I hope everyone will be able to, when given the opportunity
go ask the Chinese government, go ask China’s current leader
Ask them about the current situation about human rights in China.
Ask them, what actually really happened in 1989?
Thank you everyone.