Declassified: Chinese official said at least 10,000 civilians died in 1989 Tiananmen massacre...

Hong Kong Free Press ^ | 21 December 2017 | Kris Cheng

[TigerLikesRooster]

Declassified: Chinese official said at least 10,000 civilians died in 1989 Tiananmen massacre, documents show

A member of the Chinese State Council estimated that at least 10,000 civilians were killed in the Tiananmen massacre of June 4, 1989, declassified files reveal.

Alan Donald, Britain’s ambassador when the Chinese government sent tanks into Tiananmen square to quell the student-led protests, sent telegrams to the foreign office on June 5, a day after the massacre. He said a person – whose name was redacted from the document – passed along the information from an unnamed member of the State Council.

The documents from the UK National Archives in London were declassified in October and obtained by news site HK01.



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.

On June 30, 1989, Beijing mayor Chen Xitong said 200 died, including 36 university students, and 3,000 non-military personnel were injured.

See also: News outlet HK01 rejects watchdog’s concerns over ‘self-censorship’ of declassified Tiananmen Massacre report

In 2014, Next Magazine reported on White House declassified files, which estimated that 10,454 were killed and 40,000 were injured. The documents cited internal files from the Chinese government headquarters in Zhongnanhai, which were passed to the Americans via sources in the martial law troops.

‘Remains collected by bulldozer’

According to Donald’s source, the army that committed the “atrocities” – as described by Donald – was the 27 Army of Shanxi Province, which was “60 percent illiterate and are called primitives.”

The source said the commander was Yang Zhenhua, the nephew of Yang Shangkun, China’s president at the time.

“[The 27 Army] were kept without news for ten days and told they were to take part in exercise. A TV film would be made of the exercise which pleased them,” Donald wrote.



The document said the clearance operation on the night of June 3 took place in four stages with another troop from the Shenyang Military Region (SMR), but demonstrators fended off the first three attacks.

“27 Army APCs [armoured personnel carriers] opened fire on the crowd (both civilians and soldiers) before running over them in their APCs.”

The document said that the SMR troops separated the students from local residents upon arrival at Tiananmen Square.

“Students understood they were given one hour to leave square but after five minutes APCs attacked. Students linked arms but were mown down including soldiers. APCs then ran over bodies time and time again to make ‘pie’ and remains collected by bulldozer. Remains incinerated and then hosed down drains.”

“27 Army ordered to spare no-one and shot wounded SMR soldiers. 4 wounded girl students begged for their lives but were bayoneted. A 3 year old girl was injured but her mother was shot as she went to her aid as were six others who tried. 1000 survivors were told they could escape via Zhengyi Lu but were then mown down by specially prepared M/G positions.”



“Army ambulances who attempted to give aid were shot up as was a Sino-Japanese Hospital ambulance. With medical crew dead wounded driver attempted to ram attackers but was blown to pieces with anti tank weapon. In further attack APCs caught up with SMR straggler trucks, rammed and overturned them and ran over troops. During attack 27 Army officer shot dead by own troops apparently because he faltered. Troops explained they would be shot if they hadn’t shot officer.”

Donald went on to say that the soldiers were using a type of expanding bullet prohibited for use in war by international law. “27 Army were using dum-dum bullets. 27 Army snipers shot many civilians on balconies, streetsweepers etc for target practice. Beijing hospitals had been ordered to accept only security force casualties.”

Donald also cited the source as saying that “some members of the State Council considered that civil war is imminent.”

‘No massacre’

Another document said the Chinese Ministry of Defence invited military attachés in China to a session on July 28 explaining what happened in the operation on June 4.

US and French attachés were not invited and the Japanese attaché declined, leaving only the Canadian and British attachés to represent the West at the briefing.

Li Zhiyun, political chief of the 38 Army, said at the session that the army did not shoot anyone, and the 200 deaths were caused by stray bullets.

“If more than 200 can be killed in a single aircraft crash, how can anybody claim that the PLA massacred the people?” he was quoted as saying. “In any case, most of the dead were rioters trying to overthrow the government.”



He claimed that fires in the square before the clearance were caused by illegal unions burning documents, and that young soldiers were only burning rubbish on the square afterward.

“Nobody was killed or wounded on Tiananmen. Nobody in China can come out and testify that people were killed on Tiananmen.”

The document also recorded that Li sneered at the video of the famous “Tank Man.”

“Look at this man’s so-called bravery,” he was quoted as saying.

The document also said: “We were then asked for questions. None were forthcoming. After long silence we were invited for cocktails which I declined, as did many others.”

[ransomnote]

I was humbled by “tank man’s” valor and have been resigned to assuming he died a brutal death. I was so impressed with those thousands of people who put their lives on the line to resist tyranny and am stunned as well as grieved to learn that so many died. I should have assumed that level of death, but I didn’t want to believe it.

[LouieFisk]

“I had no idea of the scale and brutality of the slaughter.”
—
There’s a Youtube video that’s pretty informative about what led up to it, the massacre itself and the “Tank Man”. Has a good amount of actual video of the attacks.

If you have a Youtube account you can sign in to watch it here - the login is because of the nature of the material.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9A51jN19zw

If you don’t have a Youtube account you can watch it another way. To access Youtube videos without logging in there’s a site called youtuberepeater.com - you just take the whole video address and add the word “repeater” after “youtube” and before the”.com” (without the quotes). It’s a good way to watch youtube videos that are blocked (without login) due to content.

I don’t know if the site has ads/popups or not, I use a blocker so I never see any. But here ya go:
https://www.youtuberepeater.com/watch?v=s9A51jN19zw

[shanover]

If the left could, they would love to emulate China in its barbarism. China is their utopia.

[JudgemAll]

The leftist rhetoric is clear. Blame America for past wars that were waged by leftist parties in America. They want to kill innocent Americans and clear their image every step of the way.

People think it is Democrat vs. Republicans as usual and sit at home, saying their vote does not count or they hate politics... well, there you go, they accept their condemnation and death sentence

[JudgemAll]

An illiterate dumbed down military force desperate for its biscuit because too incompetent to survive otherwise. We have those paramilitaries on an informal basis, called Black Live Matter and what not.

[JudgemAll]

I wonder what happened to the Commanders who wanted to destroy 27 Army.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Most likely, it did not end well for them. There were indeed reports at the time that some PLA armies had resisted. The Chinese leadership was divided, and there were many sympathizers across all spectrum of Chinese society. Some of protest leaders were able to escape due to helps given by people. One of them, a female leader, traveled thousands of miles to Southern China to make her escape. Some Chinese were pleased that she got away safely.

International mood was decidedly against China. However, daddy Bush sent Scowcroft to assure that U.S. will not make issue with the incident. Bush is an enabler of Chinese regime. He was one of the most instrumental figures in creating the China we face today. Some folks here will no doubt take issue with it, but it is true. There were ample opportunities to control and restrain China's growth, but they give China a free reign. After all, their dream of untold riches they can harvest from China was too much to be restrained by inconvenient facts.

[P.O.E.]

Tough to watch, but important to watch.

[kearnyirish2]

Many Western governments envy the complete control Red China has over its masses; we turned a page when we stopped referring to them as “Red China”. Now our propaganda outlets pretend they’re just like us; reminds me of the “Uncle Joe” Stalin BS from years past.

[Thibodeaux]

There has been a large shift as Chicaps have become ascendent.

No one claims the ascendency means total Chicom collapse, merely that there is change.

The growth in the Pearl River delta alone is historically important. That recent concentration of people, money, and business is without precedence in world history

To deny the phenomena is just foolish.

[kearnyirish2]

The reason Red China has so many worker suicides is that the “Chicaps” have the “Chicoms” to enslave the people. They will be no better off than the workers in “The Jungle” or “The Grapes of Wrath”, where business owners conspire to maintain workers at bare sustenance levels.

[Thibodeaux]

That is drivel, just pure unadulterated drivel derived from pure unadulterated ignorance of the reality that is China at present

[kearnyirish2]

You’re right; since they converted to capitalism they stopped blocking websites and opened their borders. /s

[PIF]

As you can see he was not facing "several" tanks as the media would have it, but an entire armored brigade. His fate, as his identity is unknown, but I'd imagine he was among the thousands that were squashed, pulped, burned, and then flushed.

[PIF]

I had no idea of the scale and brutality of the slaughter.

—

You aren’t supposed to know.

There were only “several” tanks” who might have accidentally got lost on the way somewhere. The tank man was merely reminding them that the were lost and going further would only make their problem worse ... and other lies.

If you imagine that ISIS and the like are brutal, the Chinese military makes them look like brutality amateurs; something the media wants no one to know and knowing forget. Which is why this report will never appear on cable or other TV news outlets (even if it does, it will only merit a 15 second mention), while they go back to obsessing on the really important news like the latest cooking craze.

[PIF]

Kinda think this revelation should have been added to one of the sidebar listings.

[LouieFisk]

“Tough to watch, but important to watch.”
—
Also, the timeline and background is helpful in understanding the context of the brutal murders. There are a lot of pics and footage I hadn’t seen compiled that way before, I just recall the snippets from TV reports at the time.

[The_Media_never_lie]

I will watch it in its entirety. Every white leftist should also watch it.

[LouieFisk]

“I will watch it in its entirety. Every white leftist should also watch it.”
—
Indeed. They were actually demanding the *promises* of Communism and were given it’s reality instead. Tragic.

[Tainan]

Thank you for posting this TLR.