Testimony of Du Dongxu, widow of Ma Chengfen △ Ma Chengfen, female, a retired soldier, was born in 1934 and killed at the age of 55 by martial law troops at 11:00 p.m. on June 3, 1989, as she was sitting outside the No.4 Dormitory for Retired Officers of the PLA Political Bureau. The bullet struck her in the right side of her abdomen, making a wound 4-5 centimeters wide. She died on the morning of June 4, at Hospital No.304. Her ashes are buried at Jinshan Cemetery, with costs paid for by her family. (64memo反貪倡廉´89)
Testimony of Du Dongxu, widower of Ma Chengfen:
My wife was a retired veteran of the army. In 1934 she was born in Hebei Province. In 1949 she entered the military, and in 1951 she went to fight in the Korean War, serving three years without losing her life. When she returned to China, she was taken out of active service... In her old age she was senselessly killed by a bullet of the so-called People’s Army. Ten years ago, in the 1989 Democracy Movement, a vast number of China’s students and citizens rose up to protest corruption and to demand freedom and democracy, in the interests of the country’s future. They also asked to have a dialogue with Li Peng, who was premier at the time. Li Peng not only refused to listen to the appeals of the people; on June 3 he unconscionably ordered tanks and troops into the city to use violence to stop the unarmed protesters. (Memoir Tiananmen´89)
We live in the No.4 Dormitory for Retired Officers of the PLA Political Bureau. This is in Baishiqiao neighborhood, on Fuxingmenwai Avenue, across from the Academy of Water Conservancy Sciences at Muxudi. Our house is about 200 meters away from the main road. On that day, retired cadres (several dozen) had gathered outside our building, outraged that the troops had opened fire on the people. At approximately 10:00 p.m., a military vehicle traveling from west to east suddenly came into the alley and mercilessly started shooting. My wife was sitting on the steps of the building, chatting with a group of old ladies and the elevator attendant. (I was standing about two meters away from them, talking to a retired cadre.) In the commotion, a bullet hit my wife in the lower right abdomen. Blood poured out of the wound, which was 4-5 centimeters in diameter. My wife instantly fell to the ground, gasping for breath. Her life was hanging by a thread; she needed to be rushed to the hospital for emergency care. However, cars were not allowed on the streets. We could only borrow a flatbed tricycle. (六四檔案 - 89)
We took my wife to Hospital No.304 at a little past 11:00 p.m. Because there were so many people arriving at the hospital with bullet wounds, it was past 3:00 a.m. on June 4 when my wife was finally taken into the operating room. After an hour or so of hastily performed surgery, she was taken to a hospital room without being given supplemental oxygen. (I had already explained to the medical staff that she had been hospitalized for the previous two months for heart disease.) At that point, I didn’t actually think the situation was serious. I thought that my wife had escaped the disaster. But little did we know that in fact she had already stopped breathing by the time they put her in the hospital bed. This came as such a shock to me and my children. I was so distraught that my own heart trouble started to recur. The doctor sent me back to the emergency room for treatment; it took me two hours to recover. Through connections at the retired officers’ dormitory, my wife was cremated at Babaoshan Crematorium. Three years later, at my own cost, I had her remains buried at Jinshan Cemetery in the western suburbs of Beijing. (六四檔案´89)
It has now been ten years since the June Fourth Massacre. As friends and family members of June Fourth victims, we write letters to the authorities every year, appealing for justice in the resolution of the June Fourth issue. In my own capacity, for the first two years following June Fourth, I myself wrote to China’s leaders and the People’s Liberation Army Political Bureau, asking for an explanation. It is an absolute fact that my wife was killed senselessly, but to the authorities, the significance of this fact has disappeared like a pebble thrown into the sea. Not only have I been denied a response, but I have also been repeatedly barred from contacting other June Fourth victims’ families. Furthermore, the authorities continually make the brazen claim that "Not a single person died in Tiananmen Square." On the morning of June 4, when I left the emergency room and waited outside the hospital for a ride, I heard a nurse walking past me say, "I was utterly shocked; a tank near Wukesong was pulverizing a person into ground flesh!" At Hospital No.304 there were several dozen dead. There were even more dead at Fuxing Hospital and the Railway Hospital. This does not even include those who were killed on the street, or the bodies that were taken away by military vehicles or the corpses buried on the spot. If these were also included, the total number of those killed would be truly astounding. (Memoir Tiananmen - 89)
Du Dongxu
1999-01-31
Testimony of Fang Zheng, wounded △ Fang Zheng, male, born October 14, 1966 in Hefei City, Anhui. In 1985 Fang was accepted to the Beijing Academy of Physical Science as a student of sports physiology. He graduated in 1989.
Testimony of Fang Zheng, wounded:
I was a senior about to graduate in 1989 when the student-led movement for democracy in Beijing began. During the student movement, I was actively involved as an officer of my school’s student organization. On June 3, 1989, I was in Tiananmen Square. From that night when martial law troops began the massacre in Beijing, until the early hours of June 4, other students and I held a sit-in in the Square, surrounding the Monument to the People’s Heroes. At that time, there were about 4,000 of us there, students from various universities. (六四檔案 - 89)
At around 2:00 a.m. on June 4, many of the martial law troops that had rampaged through Beijing’s suburbs converged around Tiananmen Square. Forced out by tanks and troops, the students participating in the sit-in finally left the square at around 4:00 a.m. With hearts heavy with grief and indignation, the students left the Square from the southeast corner in a peaceful and orderly fashion. I was walking at the back of the crowd. The crowd of students proceeded along in a westerly direction crossing west Qianmen Boulevard (along a road which runs north-south near the Beijing Music Hall linking west Qianmen Boulevard and west Chang’an Boulevard) and then turned into west Chang’an Boulevard and continued walking towards the west. By this time it was already daybreak, about 6:00 a.m. The students kept to the south side of west Chang’an Boulevard, walking on the sidewalk and in the bicycle lane. Just after we turned from west Chang’an Boulevard to Liubukou, many grenades were fired towards the crowd from behind. They immediately exploded among the marching students. One went off just beside me. A two-to-three meter layer of smoke quickly engulfed us. A female student walking next to me suddenly fainted, choking and in shock. I rushed to pick her up and take her to the side of the street. (64memo反貪倡廉-89)
At this time I realized that a tank was racing toward us, traveling from east to west. With all my force, I tried to push the woman towards the guard rail by the sidewalk. In the blink of an eye, the tank was approaching the sidewalk and closing in on me. It seemed as if the barrel of its gun was inches from my face. I could not dodge it in time. I threw myself to the ground and began to roll. But it was too late. My upper body fell between two treads of the tank, but both my legs were run over. The treads rolled over my legs and my pants, and I was dragged for a distance. I used all my strength to break free and to roll to the side of the road. At that time I lost consciousness. Only later did I learn that Beijing residents and students brought me to Jishuitan Hospital, where I underwent a double amputation. My right leg was amputated, leaving just two-thirds of my right thigh. My left leg was amputated five centimeters below the knee. (64檔案´89)
I was hospitalized until June 24, 1989. Sometime around June 11, the Xicheng District Public Security Bureau began an investigation into my case. After I left the hospital and returned to school, school officials continued to question and check up on me for several months. They wanted me to keep quiet about the fact that a tank had crushed students. But I refused. The woman I had pushed out of the path of the tank (she was one of the classes below me at the Beijing Academy of Physical Science) was compelled by school authorities to deny this brutal reality. Because I would not cooperate in this way, my school refused the reach a conclusion on my case and ultimately they canceled my job assignment. (64檔案´89)
But I still did not leave Beijing. In March 1992, I represented Beijing by participating in the third All-China Disabled Athletic Games in Guangzhou, winning two gold medals and breaking two records for the Far East and South Pacific region. Later because it was difficult to make a living in Beijing, I went to Haikou to earn a living, with the help of a woman from my hometown. I am still living in Haikou today. (64檔案 / 2004)
In 1994 when Beijing hosted the Far East and South Pacific Disabled Games, I was supposed to compete in the qualifying rounds to be selected to represent China in this international competition. But because I was disabled in the "June Fourth Incident," I was denied this opportunity to compete. This matter was reported in detail in the New York Times on September 5, 1994. (64memo反貪倡廉 / 89)
During my years in Haikou, the local Public Security Bureau has kept me under close surveillance. In late May 1995, a few June Fourth activists came to Haikou and I met with them. For no reason, my home was searched and everyone was detained. From that time onwards, my regular life was often disrupted by harassment by the Public Security Bureau. Public Security officers regularly come to my home and interrogate me, causing great difficulties for my life and business. (六四檔案/2004)
Since my injury, because I sit in a wheelchair, my lower back gets very sore. I experience agonizing pain in the nerves in my thighs. This has all caused me and my family infinite pain and emotional distress.
Fang Zheng
1999-01-31
Testimony of Guo Liying, wife of Yang Ruting △ Yang Ruting, male, born August 23, 1948, killed at age 41; before his death, he was the deputy department head of the administrative branch of the electrical equipment factory at the Beijing First Machine Tool Plant; he was killed on June 3, struck by bullets in his right arm and lungs; now his ashes are buried at the Beijing Wenquan Cemetery. (64檔案 - 89)
Testimony of Guo Liying, wife of Yang Ruting:
On the evening of June 3, 1989, the weather was hot and muggy. At about 11:20 p.m., Ruting bathed, changed into a new white undershirt and a pair of white shorts, put on his slippers and went out to the street entrance to catch a breath of air; because I had to work the next day (Sunday), I went to bed with our child. (六四檔案 - 2004)
Later, I heard gunfire outside, so I got up to look for my husband. I went into the compound, and heard our neighbors say that they just seen Ruting leave by bicycle. I wanted to go look for him, so I walked outside toward the western exit of the alley, got to Zongmao Ertiao, and was warned by the crowd in the street that I shouldn’t continue my search, as the gunfire outside was fierce and it would be dangerous to go out. They urged me to go home and wait, and search again at daybreak. The next day, early in the morning, our relatives and I searched many hospitals, and finally, at the exit to the Beijing Children’s Hospital, we found his corpse. Ruting was shot in the vicinity of Fuxingmen Overpass. He was struck by two bullets, one in the lungs, the other in the arm; the bullet in his lungs exited through his back and exploded there. After he was shot, he was taken by the people to Beijing Children’s Hospital, but he was beyond saving. Now his ashes are buried in the Beijing Wenquan Cemetery. (64檔案/89)
When my husband was killed, our child was just 11 years old, in his fifth year of primary school (Fendou Elementary School). Ruting’s father is elderly and weak and suffered a stroke; he’s still in the hospital getting medical treatment.
The heavy burden of life has given me severe high blood pressure and heart disease. With the warmth and help of my co-workers, relatives and friends and with the unselfish help of society at large and overseas students and friends, I’ve gotten by for ten years. I hope the Chinese government will give us justice.
Guo Liying
1999-01-31
Testimony of Huang Jinping, widow of Yang Yansheng △ Yang Yansheng, male, was born on February 27, 1959, and killed at the age of 30. He worked in the computer lab of the editorial department of China Sports News. Yang was shot at 7:00 a.m. on June 4, 1989, on Zhengyi Road while tending someone who had been wounded. The bullet, which hit his liver, exploded internally. He died without receiving treatment. (64memo.com - 89)
Testimony of Huang Jinping, widow of Yang Yansheng:
Just after 5:00 a.m. on June 4, 1989, we were suddenly woken from deep sleep by someone knocking on our door saying: "Yansheng, Yansheng, they’ve opened fire!" I heard Yansheng curse, "The fascists!" Shortly afterwards, when I turned to look for him, he had gone. He had left on his bike. I never, never thought that we would then be separated forever. That morning, Yansheng cycled to Zhengyi Road, where there was still shooting. There were many people standing at the side of the street when a truck of soldiers drove up and starting shooting at the crowd. Everyone got down and crawled, including Yansheng. Then someone in front of him shouted, "Help me! I’ve been hit!" Yansheng got up to help, but as he stood up and rushed toward the wounded person, a vicious bullet hit him in the area of his liver. He fell down, and in a faint voice, told the people around him, "I work at China Sports News. My name is Yang Yansheng..." A doctor from Beijing Hospital was there and witnessed all this. He took Yansheng to his hospital on a flatbed tricycle, with the help of some others. They took him straight to the operating room for emergency treatment. When the doctor examined the wound, he discovered that the bullet had exploded in his body. He had been hit with an exploding bullet! There was no way to save him-he had lost too much blood. The doctor at Beijing Hospital gave us an account of everything that had happened. (64memo.com / 2004)
I’ve lost my first love forever, and my son has lost his adoring father. At the time of Yansheng’s death, our child was only 20 months old. When he turned three, he asked, "Do I have a father?" How he yearned to see his father! As mother and son, we depend on each other to survive, to go on with our difficult lives. I have to bear the heavy burden of making a living, alone. My son is very perceptive and never asks for things. Sometimes I want to buy him something, but he says, "Mom, I don’t want it. I don’t want it! Save the money to pay the rent, the electricity bills, the water bills!" Even so, I had to take on a second job to meet our household expenses. (64memo反貪倡廉´89)
My son’s questions about his father bring tears to my eyes. My hardened heart bleeds. I can only numb myself to face cruel reality, and resign myself to living a life which cannot be normal. As a family member of a June Fourth victim, I have not only been denied the slightest consolation from the government, I have also been subjected to many kinds of unfair treatment. Every year, when Qing Ming (Grave Sweeping Day), June 4 or any other "sensitive" day comes around, I cannot be absent from my workplace. The police come to my home for "visits." Over these past years, I’ve gradually come to understand that as the widow of a June Fourth victim, I can only bury my pain in my heart and boldly face life. (64memo.com - 1989)
Huang Jinping
1999-01-31
Testimony of Kuang Diqing, father of Kuang Min △ Kuang Min, male, born on November 3, 1962, killed at age 27; he was a full-time technician of the production technology department of the Beijing Fork Lift Main Factory; on the night of June 3, 1989, he was killed in Muxudi, Beijing; the bullet entered from the back, piercing the liver; his family still keeps his ashes at home. (64memo中華富強/2004)
Testimony of Kuang Diqing, father of Kuang Min:
My son Kuang Min was shot and killed by the martial law troops of the People’s Liberation Army on the night of June 3, 1989, in Muxudi, Beijing. He was only 27 years old. In 1980 he enrolled in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Beijing Polytechnic University. After he graduated in 1984, he was assigned to work at the Beijing Fork Lift Main Factory. At the time of his death, he was a full-time technician in the production technology department at the plant. Since the Fork Lift Main Factory is located at the Lotus Pond, south of the Military Museum, and I live on Yuetan South Road, he had to travel through Muxudi and cross Chang’an Boulevard every day going to and from work. (六四檔案´89)
I had just been sent to Jinghai County on the outskirts of Tianjin for my work. After I received a phone call from my unit on June 5 about the death of my son, I hurried back to Beijing on June 6. My daughter-in-law told me that during the last ten days of May 1989, tens of thousands of people would go out on the streets every day to support the student movement, and after work my son and his wife would hang out in Muxudi with the local residents, on some days only briefly, on other days for a longer time. On the night of June 3, the people were dispersed, pursued and killed by the PLA martial law troops that had entered the city. My son died in the nearby Water Conservancy Hospital. His body was then transferred on June 4 to Fengtai Hospital, in an ambulance from Electricity Hospital. On June 8, I saw my son in the mortuary of Fengtai Hospital. Just one glimpse of his face made me cry so hard that I almost lost my senses. (64memo.com/89)
After those who had come with me had pulled me away, the cadre of the fork lift factory trade union and some of my son’s fellow students changed my son’s clothes. While they did that, they took pictures of his body, both from the front and from the back. They told me afterwards that he was struck by a bullet in the back which pierced his liver and belly. The entry wound was small, but the exit wound was very large, which indicates that he was hit by an exploding bullet. When I went to the cremation area at Babaoshan Cemetery on June 9 to get information, I saw soldiers standing on guard. They told me that I had to follow a certain procedure, that I had to write an explanation of the circumstances of my son’s death. If I wrote down that he had been shot, they could not complete the cremation procedure. There was also someone who said that the bodies of some of those who had been killed had been wrapped and passed off as victims of a car accident before they could be cremated. I refused to do it that way. Heaven knows, these butchers killed my son, and they expect me to cover their tracks? If they didn’t want to cremate him, I was prepared to leave his body in the mortuary forever! (64檔案 - 1989)
On the afternoon of June 12 I received notification from Electricity Hospital that the public security office had demanded that my son’s cremation take place within two days. Only then did I write a simple explanation of the circumstances of his death, stating the actual facts, and on June 13 I completed the procedure for cremation. I still keep my son’s ashes in my home. The Fork Lift Main Factory later gave me 1,000 yuan as support. I hadn’t asked for it. (64memo祖國萬歲´89)
My divorce at age 32 left me with my son as my only child, and I depended on him for my life. He married in 1987 and he did not yet have children. In an instant, a family of three fell apart: my son died and my daughter-in-law left. On whom can I depend in the future? A lonely 70-year-old man like me, old and poor, suffering from a lung condition, my life hanging on a thread-I am at a complete loss: who will support me in the future? For those despotic dictators nothing is sacred! (64memo反貪倡廉´89)
Kuang Diqing
1999-01-31
Testimony of Liu Shuqin, mother of Peng Jun △ Peng Jun, male, born in November 1959 and killed at the age of 30. Before his death he was a driver and worker in the Beijing office of the Materials Bureau of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Command Post. He was killed suddenly on June 5 near the East Gate of Chaoyang district. His ashes are kept at the Pinggu Crematorium. (64memo祖國萬歲 - 89)
Testimony of Liu Shuqin, mother of Peng Jun:
At six o’clock in the morning of June 5, 1989, Peng Jun left his home located near the East Gate Bridge of the Chaoyang District to buy breakfast. When he reached a point 15 meters south of the bridge’s intersection, he encountered a round of machine gunfire from the martial law troops and was shot twice. One bullet hit his ankle and the other bullet entered at the right of his back and pierced through the left front of his chest. At that time a few in the crowd took a flatbed tricycle to deliver him to the Chaoyang Hospital, where he died after efforts to save him failed. At the time of his death, Peng was wearing only a pair of shorts and his slippers. (64memo.com - 1989)
After Peng Jun died, he was cremated at the Pinggu Crematorium. His unit gave him a memorial and also gave his daughter a one-time compensatory donation of approximately 2,000 yuan.
Six months later, his wife took their 3-year-old child and left home and afterwards remarried. I don’t really know their address.
Three years later, in September of 1992, his father Peng Guogui died at the age of 59 because of the trauma of his son’s killing. This family, which originally had six members, has now dwindled to just my daughter and I who struggle to carry on.
Liu Shuqin
1999-01-31
Testimony of Liu Tianai, widow of Xiao Bo △
Xiao Bo, male, born in June 1962, was a native of Longshan County, Hunan Province. He was accepted to Beijing University in 1978 and received a master’s degree in 1985. He stayed on there to teach in the chemistry department. He was killed in the late hours of June 3, at Muxudi. A bullet hit him in the left side of his chest and ripped through his aorta. His body was identified on June 5, at Fuxing Hospital. He was only 27 years old. His ashes are kept in Longshan, at his family’s home. (64memo.com / 2004)
As June Fourth victims’ families, we have had to endure our suffering in silence for a long time....I only want to ask, "When can we get justice?"
Testimony of Liu Tianai, widow of Xiao Bo:
At the time of Xiao’s death, I was in my hometown in Hunan, recuperating after the birth of twins. I received news that he and an old classmate of his had arranged to meet at Muxudi on the night of June 3. Xiao had heard that the situation there was very tense. As the advisor to all chemistry students in the class of 1989, he was concerned that some of his students might be in danger. According to the friend who accompanied him, shortly after they got to Muxudi, the street lights went out. The crowd became restless, and there was a burst of gunfire. The two got separated, and Xiao’s friend ended up spending the night hiding under Muxudi bridge. When he went back to Beijing University, he discovered that Xiao Bo had not returned. He quickly gathered a group of students to search for him. They searched until June 5, when they found his body at Fuxing Hospital. (64檔案´89)
Xiao died of a gunshot wound to the chest. The bullet severed his aorta, causing him to lose a lot of blood. Fuxing Hospital had not made preparations to provide emergency care for gunshot victims, so there wasn’t enough blood for transfusions. The hospital had only prepared large quantities of eyedrops and gauze, thinking that, at worst, the troops would use tear gas to disperse the crowds. A significant number of victims died in the same way that Xiao did, because there was not enough blood. A nurse at the hospital said that before he was shot, he had helped bring another victim to that very hospital for emergency treatment. The nurse said that she was very impressed by Xiao Bo, and never thought that he would be shot himself and be brought back to the hospital on a stretcher. Before he died, he kept his hand firmly pressed against his chest wound, trying to stop the bleeding. He also told the people around him that he had a pair of new-born twins, and asked people to tell Beijing University to look after them... (64memo祖國萬歲´89)
On June 16, in deep grief, I managed to hurry from my hometown in Hunan to Beijing. I was accompanied by Xiao’s father, uncle and my younger brother. Two days later, we said our final farewells to him at Babaoshan. After the cremation, his ashes were placed at Laoshan Memorial Hall. Then in 1992, they were brought to his family’s home in Hunan. (六四檔案 - 2004)
Xiao Bo’s death struck me like a thunderbolt from nowhere. I had given birth to twins just 70 days earlier. In my state of sorrow and shock, I stopped lactating and soon after found out that my older child had developed a mild brain disorder. I searched everywhere for effective treatment, to little avail and great expense. I’ve suffered much hardship due to Xiao’s death in the so-called "turmoil." The relevant offices at Beijing University ignored my requests to use one of their empty campus apartments while I sought medical care for my child. They also warned me not to take my children for walks in the campus grounds. If anyone asked, I was not to say that Xiao Bo was the father of my children. They also rejected my requests to receive the proper subsidies for my child’s medical costs. Although I graduated from the Central Minorities University Department of Dance in 1987, I still have not been allowed to complete my application for cadre status because no one would verify that Xiao was "wrongfully killed." The whole situation causes me great sorrow. (64memo.com-1989)
It has been ten years since his death, and we still have not received an "explanation." As June Fourth victims’ families, we have had to endure our suffering in silence for a long time. We never speak a single word about these painful matters, particularly not in front of our elders and children. I only want to ask, "When can we get justice?" (64memo祖國萬歲/2004)
Liu Tianai
January 19, 1999
1999-01-31
Testimony of Liu Xiuchen, mother of Dai Wei △ Dai Wei, male, born on January 5, 1969 and killed at the age of 20. Before his death he worked as a cook at the Hepingmen Roast Duck Restaurant. At 11:00 p.m. on the evening of June 3, he was killed en route to work. His ashes have been lain to rest at Changping Cemetery.
Testimony of Liu Xiuchen, mother of Dai Wei:
On the evening of June 3, Dai was headed for the Hepingmen Roast Duck Restaurant located at Qianmen to work the night shift. While walking by the No. 7 bus line’s stop on the western side of the Minorities Hotel, he ran into the martial law troops, who opened fire. The bullet entered through his back and pierced through his chest. He was taken to the Posts Hospital, but efforts to save him failed. He had lost too much blood, and he died shortly before dawn on June 4. (64memo.com - 89)
After I learned of my son’s killing, I became mentally unstable and paralyzed in my lower body. I had to stay in the hospital for over half a year. After having undergone numerous treatments, I have managed to stay alive but my body is very weak and I suffer from many ailments; my spirits are dim and the wounds inside of me cannot be closed. (64memo中華富強´89)
At the time his sister Dai Ju had just announced that she would take the entrance exam for the police academy and had already met various requirements. But because of her older brother’s situation, she was implicated and was unable to enroll. Later on, she took the exam for No. 32 Middle School, where she was accepted and achieved superior results, performing at the top of her class. But upon graduation, she was assigned to work at her older brother’s unit, the Hepingmen Roast Duck Restaurant, where she simply uses her own labor to earn a living. (64memo.com - 89)
Liu Xiuchen
1999-01-31
Testimony of Qi Zhiyong, wounded △ Qi Zhiyong, male, born on May 15, 1956, was 33 when he was wounded. He was originally a Grade Six painter in the Beijing No. Six Municipal Construction company, but now works as a self-employed street peddler. On June 4, 1989, at 1:20 a.m., he was wounded in West Rongxian Alley, in Xidan District. He was shot simultaneously in both legs, and is a double amputee. (六四檔案´89)
Testimony of Qi Zhiyong, wounded:
It has been ten years since June 4, 1989, and the shooting which resulted in my becoming disabled. I am now 43. Both my legs were amputated, and whenever it rains or whenever I remember those fearful events, I feel both pain and numbness in what remains of my legs.
At that time I lived in Haidian District, in Honglian South Village. Our painting team had a project on Qianmen Road, at the Qinfeng Restaurant. At 3:00 p.m. on June 3, four of us cycled to work. Since the weather was hot, we planned to work in the afternoon and continue into the evening. As we came to the Telegraph Building on Xidan Avenue, near the western wall of the State Council building, there was an overturned bus, and we heard onlookers say, "The military police have just been firing tear gas." (Later, when I was in the hospital, there was a girl college student who had been hit in the right leg by a tear gas grenade.) Because the crowd was so dense, we could not ride our bikes, so we decided to leave them near the wall and walk to the construction site. (64memo.com-2004)
On the evening of June 3, we went to Tiananmen Square. We had always been too busy during the daytime to go to see the "Goddess of Democracy," so we decided to go and see it that the evening. A few people were reading the big-character posters in a leisurely fashion, and I sat down on the ground to rest. At 11:00 p.m., there was an announcement over the loudspeakers: "If you do not leave the square, you will be responsible for the consequences." I began to feel apprehensive and urged the people I had come with to leave at once. Then an armored car came whizzing into the eastern side of the square. It drove in a circle around the square and a man on a bike yelled, "Get out! They’re shooting in Muxudi District. They’re killing people!" (64檔案´89)
We went towards the north door of the Great Hall of the People and saw an armored car speed past the barriers on the road, meeting no resistance at all. The people around us, terrified, scattered in all directions and I dashed to West Rongxian Alley, to the west of Liubukou, hoping to cross the road and get my bike. Then, a big group of military police, armed with clubs and shields, came down the western side of Chang’an Boulevard. They entered from the west and headed east, and the armored car stopped when it reached Liubukou. Three soldiers, dripping with sweat, emerged from the vehicle. Immediately, four or five students surrounded them and, turning to the crowd, said, "These are the People’s own soldiers and our elder brothers-they’re under orders, and if anyone has some water, please share it with them." (64memo中華富強 - 89)
I was still hoping to cross the road to get my bike. Just then, a brick was hurled out from behind the red wall of the People’s Congress building. There was still light above the trees. I went back again into West Rongxian Alley, and suddenly heard shooting. I saw a signal flare rising to the east. It was about 1:20 a.m. on June 4. From the alley, I saw that there were no longer any crowds on Chang’an Boulevard and I heard only gunfire. I stood watching the lights of armored cars to the west. Then a friend called to me from Shipai Alley. I shouted, "Why haven’t you gone home?" He said that the alley was full of tanks; it was impossible to get there. We talked as we listened to the shots, and we thought they sounded like rubber bullets! Just as we said those words, I saw several soldiers in camouflage with assault rifles running up from the left. There was no time to hide. I suddenly fell and felt that I had been shot in the leg. I covered my left leg with my hand and blood spurted out like a fountain. I cried out for help. Several people ran over. They saw that I was alive but had been hit in the leg. A young man took off his jacket, ripped off a piece and used it to bind up my leg. Only then did we realize that my right leg had also been hit. Those good-hearted people picked me up and said they would rush me to a hospital. Then an old lady said, "Wait a minute, son, I’ll run and get a board from my house." Thus people carried me to City Hospital No.2, but for some reason it was closed. Finally, they took me to an emergency medical center. (64memo反貪倡廉-89)
It is about two kilometers from West Rongxian Alley, where I was shot, to the medical center. There we saw wounded people lying on the ground outside the door, and some people were receiving transfusions. A university student working as a volunteer, looked me over and said to a physician, "Doctor, he’s bleeding from a major artery. It’s very serious." The doctor swapped the bandage for a tourniquet. Then, fortunately, a minibus drove up and the doctor said there was no time to lose: I should go quickly to the southern part of the city, where conditions might be a little better. I was carried to the bus, which already held several wounded people. The bus drove along, and suddenly the left hand of the person on my left fell off! I tried to rouse him but he didn’t answer, and the driver said he had probably died. Then I fainted. (64memo反貪倡廉-2004)
When I came to, I was in Xuanwu District Hospital. The emergency room doctor felt my thigh and said, "I can’t find a pulse here. What’s your name?" I told him and he wrote it on my arm and said, "Get him to the fifth floor, to surgery, at once!". When I got to the operating room, it was about 3:30 a.m., and since the room was in use, I waited until 5:40 a.m. for the operation. The person who had rescued me called my younger brother, who had asked the doctor whether I had died. The doctor said, "It’s not serious. We can save him. He’s still wearing his shoes. If the shoes are there, so is the patient; if the shoes are gone, the patient is done for!" The entire operation lasted six hours, because it involved both legs, and I received 1,800 ccs of blood. A major artery in my left leg was damaged, and the doctor said I was fortunate to have a strong constitution, because if I had lost any more blood I would have died. (六四檔案-2004)
Several days passed. My left leg began to swell, and I underwent an operation to reduce the swelling. On June 13, the doctor decided to amputate due to poor circulation. He asked my mother to give her written permission for the surgery. When she heard the word "amputation," she began to cry. "I won’t sign the papers! I gave birth to a child with healthy arms and legs. When I was young, I saw Japanese soldiers, the KMT and the Eighth Route Army, too. My son-shot by the PLA-his leg about to be amputated! I won’t sign! Just go ahead and kill him! What crime did he commit?" My own feelings were in turmoil, and I couldn’t express myself clearly. Why was I suffering this way? I was born in the new society; I grew up under the red flag; from childhood I had always hoped to be a PLA soldier and defend my country. I never thought I would be crippled by a PLA bullet. (64memo.com-2004)
On July 16, I underwent a second amputation due to infection. The hot weather made my left leg ache, and thinking of my crippled legs, I did not know how I would manage. My work unit was reluctant to pay my hospital expenses and delayed paying them. On August 7, two soldiers, a policeman and two people from the hospital took me in a car to my unit, and a doctor said to the director, "Our hospital treated altogether 273 people, and only his expenses and those of one university student are still unpaid." Only then did the unit pay for my medical treatment. (64memo.com - 1989)
There was no way for the unit to arrange a job for me. I went through the formalities of resigning and each month they give me 50 yuan for living expenses and a subsidy for non-staple foods. Because of all this, my wife left me, and my seven-year-old and I son live with my elderly mother. At the beginning, when I started to walk with crutches, I was completely unaccustomed to them. As a result I fell once and broke my right arm. I was in bed another month because of that injury. After that, I set up a peddler’s stand at the entrance to our house, in order to make a basic living. (六四檔案-2004)
Qi Zhiyong
1999-01-31
Testimony of Shi Feng and Han Shuxiang, parents of Shi Yan △ Shi Yan, male, was born in Dalian, Liaoning Province in August 1962 and killed at the age of 28. He was a musician with the musical troupe of the Beijing Air Force Political Department. On June 4, 1989, he was killed on one of the overpasses. He was shot in the temple and twisted his right hand. His body was cremated at Babaoshan. (64memo.com - 2004)
Testimony of Shi Feng and Han Shuxiang, parents of Shi Yan:
Shi Yan passed the entrance exam for the Beijing Liberation Army’s School of Arts in 1978, and after graduating in 1983, was given a position with the musical troupe of the Beijing Air Force Political Department. He lived with his family in the residence compound of the troupe. At the time of his death on June 4, 1989, he was only 28 years old. (64memo中華富強 - 2004)
Because we were not by our son’s side, we heard of the circumstances through his wife. In the late hours of June 3, she discovered that Shi Yan had not returned home, and set out to look for him. She found his corpse later in the morgue of the Beijing People’s Hospital; he had been shot in the head, and his right hand was twisted. (64memo.com/89)
At the time a worker who was wearing an overcoat stood nearby, but he did not dare say anything due to official pressure. After many attempts to persuade and plead with him, he revealed a little of the circumstances. He said that Shi Yan was shot to death on a certain overpass, and that the Red Cross emergency rescue center sent him to the morgue of the hospital. At the time of admittance he was still breathing, however, he died after the hospital staff’s efforts to save him proved futile. Because the there was shooting throughout the streets of Beijing at that time, his close friends risked their lives to hurriedly take his body to Babaoshan for cremation. (64memo反貪倡廉 / 89)
Now our family is only the two of us old people relying on each other to live, we have no sons or daughters at our side. I myself am suffering from high blood pressure and heart disease, and my wife has broken her thigh bone and walks with great discomfort. For the last ten years it has been a difficult existence for the two of us. (64memo中華富強-89)
Shi Feng and Han Shuxiang
1999-01-31
More...
|
|