THE GREAT REVERSAL The Privatization of China, 1978-1989 ...

were thirty-three burned-out vehicles outside Desheng Gate.Death in the AfternoonAt five o'clock when I got back into the city I had a chance to go down to the Beijing Hotel,where a close friend of mine had a room on a high floor and I went up there to see what wasstill going on at the square. The square was completely secure; there were two rows ofpage 182soldiers blocking Chang An Street, and behind them a row of tanks, and behind those awhole rectangle of personnel carriers. The people kept coming from the east and getting asclose as they dared to the troops and shouting at them, most of them trying to persuade themto cease and desist from killing people. Whenever 200-250 people gathered there the soldiersfired point blank and mowed them down. I only witnessed the last time this happened, but myfriends who had been there all day and kept notes said it happened at least six times. Justabout every hour on the hour it was time to shoot down the people, and they counted fiftybodies carried out of there assumed dead, not to mention the wounded. The army wouldn'tallow any ambulances to go in, so the people who brought the bodies out were these pedicabmen, some of whom have little freight bikes. They would rush in even while the firing wasgoing on and pick up the casualties. At the time I saw this happen, the firing was absolutelyintense and it lasted five minutes. How anyone survived it, I don't know. The only warningthe victims had was that when the soldiers were about to fire, they ran forward a few steps,then aimed and fired. So during that second when they ran forward, people could drop to theground. But each time, of course, people were killed, people were wounded, and some whoran away were shot in the back. It was a most gruesome sight. The killing was absolutelyunnecessary because the whole of Chang An Street was under control . The army hadcleaned out the square and there was no reason to think that 200 people, most of whom hadcome only to talk could in fact threaten armed men. The response from the people that lasttime was to set fire to the last bus that still sat unburned in front of the Beijing Hotel. Flamesand smoke billowed out and blew down in the soldiers' faces and obscured the people whowere shot, so it was hard at that time to tell how many were killed or wounded.I left the hotel about 10:30 that night and went back up Wangfujing toward the Palace Hotelto try to find a taxi or some way to get home. A young man came out of the Peking UnionMedical College (PUMC) Hospital with his lacerated hands all bandaged. He asked if I couldhelp him get home. He lived beyond where I lived, and he said that he had been shot at thetime when I was watching and that his bicycle had been completely destroyed. We were ableto find a pedicab and I took him home. On the way, of course, we had time for a longconversationpage 183