Talking about Tiananmen

In 1989, massive protests broke out in China, led by students demanding political freedom and an end to government corruption. For weeks they occupied Beijing’s Tiananmen Square until, on June 3 and 4, China’s Communist leaders sent tanks and armed soldiers to quash the movement by force. Estimates of how many civilians were killed in the crackdown vary from several hundred to 7,000.

Two and a half decades later, with all public mention of the event effectively banned by China’s government, those who witnessed the protest’s bloody conclusion are now deciding what to tell their children about that event.

Witnesses to Tiananmen Square struggle with what to tell their kids