Wu'er Kaixi is still angry when he thinks about the June 4 tragedy that shocked the world 35 years ago, he told dpa during an interview in a tea house in Taichung, Taiwan, on a sunny day in May.
The 56-year-old prominent Chinese exile was one of key figures leading tens of thousands of students who protested on Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989, demanding democracy and government reforms.
The protest ended in a bloodbath, a subject that remains taboo in China, even decades on.
All documents and files about the truth are still kept by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime.
To this day, images of the person known as "Tank Man" - the man who stood alone in the path of the approaching tanks - are a symbol of the protest by ordinary people against the authoritarian regime.
He was the man who stood in the way of tanks sent by the authorities to crush the protests, halting their progress by staying directly in their path, a stand-off that became one of the most iconic images of the events that summer.
"The gunshots were loud," Wu'er Kaixi said, recalling the night of June 3 to 4, 1989, when soldiers arrived. The violent crackdown brought a bloody end to weeks of peaceful protest led by students calling for political and economic reform.
"We want dialogue. We want to have a say. We want to be heard," he said. The protestors demanded that the democratic student movement be recognized and that political elections be held.
Looking at today's China, under head of state and party leader Xi Jinping, these demands still seem like an impossible dream.
But the problem is not the Xi, but the system itself, says 68-year-old Wu Renhua, who was also one of the demonstrators at Tiananmen Square in 1989.
"If the Communist Party in China does not take the initiative to start democratic transformation, then eventually one day it will be overthrown by the people like the Communist regime in the Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe," Wu told dpa in a small café in New Taipei City, close to the Taiwanese capital Taipei.
Early hopes for an opening
In the 1980s, China's economic modernization gave rise to hope for reforms. Many people looked to Hu Yaobang, then general secretary of the Communist Party who worked with reformer Deng Xiaoping. But that democratic opening never came about. Hu was deposed in 1987 then died in April 1989.
Wuer Kaixi's memories are still vivid of the incidents in Tiananmen Square 35 years ago. The pro-democracy rally took place right in front of the portrait of Mao Zedong, once the most powerful revolutionary leader of the communists, whose picture is emblazoned above the entrance to the Forbidden City.
One of the greatest inspirations back then was Poland's Solidarity movement, says Wu'er Kaixi, of the trade union that challenged the government and won elections. "We were hoping, you know, a similar situation in Beijing could happen," he said.
A "bloody scene"
In May 1989, the demonstrators underscored their demands by carrying out a large-scale hunger strike. By that time, even Beijing was unable to control the protests. On May 15, the demonstrators even prevented Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev from appearing on the square, where state guests are usually received with pomp.
Shortly afterwards, around 1 million people, including workers and citizens, young and old alike, joined the students to protest together. China's leadership, faced with the demonstrations that took place before the world's press, was humiliated. The party eventually called in the People's Liberation Army.
"Early in the morning of June 4, 1989, I and about 2,000 students were guarding Tiananmen Square until we were driven away by troops," said Wu, who was teaching at a university at the time. Tanks pursued them as they ran west.
"One of the tanks, number 106, sped out from behind, killing 11 people on the spot and injuring many more," Wu says. "The scene was so bloody," he added.
Escape in an ambulance
Wu'er Kaixi also fled the square in the heart of Beijing that night "in the last ambulance," he says. In the same vehicle, a student with a serious head wound died before his eyes. "Anger is one of many feelings that I had," he says.
It is still unclear how many people were killed in the suppression of the peaceful protest, which in China is officially referred to only as an "incident." Hundreds are believed to have died. Researchers also pointed to an estimate by the Chinese Red Cross at the time, of 2,600 deaths. "The truth will be revealed one day," says Wu'er Kaixi with certainty.
Many former demonstrators left China and now live in exile. This is the only way they can talk about their experiences. "Such a massacre that shocked the world, even 35 years later, the Chinese people are still not allowed to talk about it. I feel very sad," Wu says.
The significance of June 4 is well known in China. But the people exchanged their silence for the prosperity that followed through Deng's reforms and opening. Today, people can only get into Tiananmen Square with a reservation and undergo strict bag checks. No commemorations are held of the massacre.
Arrests before day of remembrance
In Hong Kong, tens of thousands of people came to vigils held annually from 1990 to 2019 to commemorate the victims of the pro-democracy movement in 1989.
However, in 2020, Beijing tightened controls there in response to protesters demanding more democracy. The strict national security law further silenced dissent and made public remembrance of June 4 impossible.
This year, days before the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, Hong Kong's police detained several people, who were accused by the authority for posting messages on social media about a "sensitive date," reported locally as the Tiananmen Square anniversary on June 4.
In China, efforts to promote democracy face ever more repression. Some were hopeful after protests in 2022, when people in many places took to the streets with white paper against the government's tight Covid-19 restrictions.
Known as the "White Paper Movement," it was the largest collective protest calling for political change since 1989, Wu says. Even if the scale is incomparable to the 1989 pro-democracy movement because of the brevity of the protests, they were nevertheless of great value, he said.
Hope for change lives on
The people are still there, Wu'er Kaixi says. "And also the demand for government transparency, for a balance of power and for having a say in public affairs." The question now is how the government will deal with these desires, he says.
"Our ultimate goal is democracy in China, a multi-party system, freedom of expression, open elections," says Wu'er Kaixi. Although it will not be easy with Beijing's policy of fear, "pressure always works," he says.
The world has been appeasing China for the past 35 years but this will not help, Wu'er Kaixi says. "You can either be on the side of the tanks or on the side of the Tank Man. There is nothing in between."
The regime will eventually collapse, Wu says. "From ancient times to the present, there has been no regime that can last forever, especially such an evil authoritarian regime. It cannot exist forever," he says.
