Tiananmen Square - 1989 revisited - part 11

The eleventh part in a PBS piece published in 2001 by Andrew J. Nathan and Perry Link:

May 15

Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in Beijing for the first Sino-Soviet summit since 1959, but the hunger strike forces the government to cancel plans to welcome him in Tiananmen Square. His escort is blocked by protestors on nearly every street in Beijing. "[F]or the Chinese government, [this was] a big loss of face, very scary," says Jan Wong. "… They were aware of what was happening in the Soviet Union -- and so were the Chinese people -- that the Communist Party in the Soviet Union was more or less imploding. [The Party leaders] were very frightened in China."

June 5



Tim White