by Liao Yiwu
We have published the “List of Victims of the June Fourth Massacre” several times so that the world will not forget those people who sacrificed themselves for Chinese democracy and freedom and those innocent people who were deprived of their right to live. We do this also so that the world will pay attention to the families of those killed in the massacre and those disabled people who were fortunate to have survived their injuries.
Ordinarily, the work of collecting and publishing the names of victims would be the job of the Chinese government. Indeed, some Chinese government leaders pledged to do so when they met some foreigners visiting China. However, that pledge has never been kept. Because of this, we, as members of a victims’ group, and as mothers who have lost our sons and daughters, have dedicated our meager strength to collecting and preparing the names of the dead and disabled. Naturally, our strength is unequal to the task, and we hope that more people will participate in this work.
Judging from the information above, the 202 June Fourth victims that we are releasing today represent only a fraction of the total number of actual victims. We will keep up the search.
APPENDIX TWO
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List of 202 People Killed in the Massacre
Collected by the Tiananmen Mothers (1989–2011)
Provided by Ding Zilin and Jiang Peikun
This marks the first time the full updated list of Tiananmen victims, edited and in some cases expanded here from the original, has been published in English.
1. Lü Peng, male, 9, third grader at Shunchenggen Elementary School in Beijing
On June 3, around midnight, this mischievous child, who had not gone to sleep at his bedtime, snuck out of the house without his parents’ knowledge to join in the patriotic demonstrations of the grown-ups. Near the Fuxingmen Bridge intersection he was shot in the chest by martial law troops firing wildly. The angry crowd put Lü’s body on the roof of a convertible, parading it up and down the street as a demonstration of how even small children were in danger during the Chinese military’s murder of the innocents.
2. Xia Zhilei, female, 22, university student in southern China
A little past four a.m. on June 4, Xia followed other students as they retreated from Tiananmen. Reaching Dongdan, they were met by gunfire. Staggering and falling, Xia shouted, “Hurry! Hurry! Find a place to rest. I think I’ve been shot.” She held her chest tightly as blood kept gushing out from between her fingers. In the confusion and darkness, martial law troops charged the group from all sides. People had no choice but to keep walking and carry the unconscious girl with them. A few minutes later, momentarily recovering consciousness before dying, Xia said to those around her: “Classmates! My blooming season is over.” Xia Zhilei means “summertime flower bud,” which withers and dies very quickly.
3. Liu Junhe, male, 56, small-business owner in Beijing, personal details unknown
“Fresh, thin-skinned, thick-fleshed watermelons!” Liu would shout again and again. “If they aren’t sweet or crisp, you don’t have to pay!” Early on the morning of June 4, he was at his vendor’s stall as usual next to the watchtower on Qianmen Avenue. Suddenly a line of army trucks drove by. With a rat-a-tat, the streetlights were shot out and the slaughter reached its climax in the dark. One after another, demonstrators fell to the ground, while others scattered in all directions. As Liu rushed to pack up his cart, he was hit in the face by a random gunshot. Blood spurted from his neck. Shortly after, he died at the Beijing Friendship Hospital.
4. Jiang Jielian, male, 17, sophomore at the high school attached to Renmin University of China
Jiang left home at 10:30 p.m. on the night of June 3. About forty minutes later, while he was standing outside the building at Fuxingmenwai Dajie No. 29, he was hit by wild gunfire from the People’s Liberation Army martial law troops. Bystanders immediately brought him to the nearby children’s hospital. His death certificate stated that he was dead on arrival.
5. Wang Nan, male, 19, sophomore at Yuetan High School in Beijing
After going out with his camera to “record history,” Wang was hit in the head by a stray bullet around midnight at the southern end of Nanchang Street. Those nearby shrieked and wanted to help him, but martial law troops fired shots in the air to stop them until he was dead.
As they did with many victims, soldiers carelessly buried Wang in a field in front of Beijing Middle School No. 28 on the western side of Tiananmen Square. Three days later the decaying bodies began to smell. After the school made a request to the authorities, all the bodies were allowed to be dug up and quickly cremated.
6. Xiao Jie, male, 21, journalism student at Renmin University of China
Xiao participated in the Tiananmen hunger strike and saw many of his fellow students injured in the bloodbath on the streets. With feelings of grief, indignation, and fear, he bought a train ticket home to Chengdu so that he could leave the Beijing nightmare as soon as possible.
However, at 2:10 a.m. on June 5, while he was about to cross the street at the Nanchizi Street intersection, Xiao accidentally stepped on a red warning line that the martial law troops had painted on the street. A soldier yelled “Halt!” but he continued, panic-stricken. Gunfire struck him from behind. He spun halfway around and fell. A red flower erupted on his chest. The crowd screamed and rushed forward. They laid him out on a three-wheeled flatbed cart and rushed him to Gong’an Hospital. At 2:55, emergency treatment having failed, he stopped breathing.
7. Xie Jingsuo, male, 21, sophomore in the light industry college of Beijing Lianhe University
As he was recording history with his camera at the Liubukou intersection in Xidan during the early morning of June 4, Xie was attacked by a ferocious band of martial law soldiers, who rained blows on him with their clubs. Lying there with an assault rifle pressing down on the left side of his chest, Xie screamed for mercy. Two shots were fired. The crowd took him to the emergency treatment center, but it was already too late.
8. Xiao Bo, male, 27, lecturer in chemistry at Peking University
Xiao Bo, a precocious student, tested into the Peking University technology and physics department at the age of sixteen
Late on the night of June 3, disregarding his own personal safety, Xiao passed through streets filled with heavy gunfire to Muxidi to help his students return to campus, when a stray bullet penetrated his chest. He was immediately carried to Fuxing Hospital for emergency treatment, which proved ineffective. He died soon after, on his birthday, leaving twin sons not quite three months old.
9. Jin Ying, male, 18, Beijing, occupation unknown
On the evening of June 5, Jin went out with a colleague and never returned home. His family visited all the major hospitals in Beijing, but they heard nothing about him until seven days later when someone found him by chance at the Erlong Road Hospital in the western district of Beijing. The mortuary personnel at the hospital explained to his family that he was so small and thin that they thought he was a child. His body was covered with small white flowers: after breathing his last, he had been dropped in a flower bed in Muxidi. Jin had been struck by three bullets. Judging from all the blood he had lost, he must have struggled for some time.
10. Lu Chunlin, male, 27, graduate student at Renmin University of China
Just before he died—late on the night of June 3, at Muxidi in the city center—Lu raised his blood-soaked body and asked passersby to send his ID card back to his school. University officials identified his body, and he was cremated. His relatives took his ashes back to his hometown in Jiangsu Province for burial.
11. Zhang Xianghong, female, 20, student in the Renmin University of China international politics department, specializing in the international Communist movement
Along with her elder brother, his wife, and several other people, Zhang left the home of relatives in Zhushikou at eleven p.m. on June 3, but martial law troops separated the group. The trailing light from flying bullets made webs of fire. Running hand in hand, Xiang and her sister-in-law
hid in bushes to the west of Daqianmen. A bullet struck the main artery on the left side of Xiang’s chest and went out through her back. The crowd carried her to a city emergency medical center, where she was treated. Early in the morning of June 4, after heartrending screams, she died.
12. Cheng Renxing, male, 25, English major in the foreign languages department of Central China Teacher’s College in Wuhan; graduate student at Renmin University of China with a double major at the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe Studies Institute
Cheng and several classmates were battling the siege at the flagpole in Tiananmen Square on the morning of June 4. When the tanks rolled in, he was shot in the stomach. He screamed in pain and was taken to Beijing People’s Hospital. There were too many people waiting, and he died from loss of blood. The family lost their only university student, an award winner and an excellent scholar, a good leader and a member in good standing of the Communist Youth League.
13. Wang Yifei, male, 31, employee of the Datong Company in Zhongguancun, Beijing
On the night of June 3, Wang was suddenly hit by a bullet at the entrance of the headquarters of Academia Sinica in Sanlihe. It went through his lung on the left side of his chest. He died on the spot.
14. Yang Yansheng, male, 30, employee at Sports News in Beijing
Yang was shot in his lower abdomen with a dumdum bullet (a bullet that expands more than usual upon hitting an object) while helping injured people at the Zhengyi Road intersection on the morning of June 4. He went down on his knees as his intestines splashed out. Like many other wounded, he was taken by the crowd to Beijing Hospital for emergency treatment, but he could not be helped.
15. Zhang Jin, female, 19, graduate of the Beijing Foreign Trade Center’s foreign affairs service school and trainee at the International Trade Center
Zhang was caught in the crossfire around midnight on June 3; she was struck from behind as her boyfriend grabbed her and ran with her into a nearby alley. Her head instantly exploded. She was taken to the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications hospital, but she was already dead.
16. Duan Changlong, male, 24, graduate of the Tsinghua University chemical engineering department, specializing in applied chemistry; class section leader
Duan left home on his bicycle to “witness history” and came upon a confrontation between a large crowd of unarmed civilians and heavily armed soldiers. Amid a hail of bullets, people ran in all directions or were cut down. Just as Duan turned around, a bullet hit him on the left side of his chest. An examination revealed that he was shot with a small-caliber weapon at extremely close range. His ashes were interred at the Wan’an Public Cemetery in the western suburbs of Beijing.
17. Wang Weiping, female, 25, intern at Beijing People’s Hospital department of gynecology and obstetrics; recent graduate of Beijing Medical University
On the night of June 3, Wang was hit in the neck by a bullet while bravely rushing to the front lines to rescue the injured. She was taken to one of the Beijing Medical University hospitals for emergency treatment, but died there. Her ashes were interred at the Wan’an Public Cemetery with the simple inscription on her headstone “Born December 21, 1964. Killed in an accident June 3.”
18. Wang Jianping, male, 27, driver for the Beijing Gas Company
Wang joined the blockade of military vehicles on the night of June 3. He was shot on the left side of his chest at the Xidan intersection. He died the following morning from loss of blood. After his cremation, Wang was carelessly buried for some unknown reason in a deserted field in the suburbs of Beijing.
When he was killed, he left behind twin girls, only eight months old.
19. Wang Peiwen, male, 21, student in the youth work department of the China Youth College for Political Sciences
Wang was a demonstrator retreating from Tiananmen Square early on the morning of June 4. He was in the first row of a long column of students, passing through a human wall of troops and their dark gun barrels. Feeling lucky to have escaped danger, he was knocked down and crushed by a tank charging into the Liubukou intersection. His so-called remains were a mash of human flesh and blood pressed into the pavement at the intersection.
20. Dong Xiaojun, male, 20, student in the youth work department of the China Youth University of Political Studies
Dong was a demonstrator retreating from Tiananmen Square at the tail end of a long column of students early on the morning of June 4. A tank came up behind him. Dong was knocked down and crushed. His remains were scraped together bit by bit and, after cremation, were laid to rest at his family home in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province.
21. Yuan Li, male, 29, engineer at the Beijing National Electronic Industry Automation Research Center
Yuan had traveled to Germany as an engineering expert and was preparing to make a trip to the United States. A little past eleven p.m. on the night of June 3, he left his house and walked to Muxidi. Troops attacked the crowd. Amid the wild shooting, a bullet hit Yuan in the throat and came out the back of his neck.
With no identification on him, he was pronounced dead at the Navy General Hospital and listed as “Anonymous Corpse no. 2.” For more than ten days, Yuan’s family looked for him everywhere, visiting forty-four hospitals all over Beijing. Eventually they found out the circumstances of his disappearance. They brought his body home on June 19.
22. Ye Weihang, male, 19, junior at Beijing No. 57 High School; class leader; student association cadre
Ye was shot at Muxidi in the early morning. He was listed as “Anonymous Corpse No. 1” after the Navy General Hospital determined he was dead. He was found to have three bullet wounds: an open wound in his left arm, a closed wound in his right chest, and a closed wound at the right rear side of his head. On June 5, Ye’s family learned the reason for his disappearance. They recovered his remains and had them cremated, and his ashes rest at home.
23. Wu Guofeng, male, 21, student in the industrial economics department of Renmin University of China
During the 1989 student movement Wu was elected a member of his university’s Capital Autonomous Federation of University Students preparatory committee. He participated in the five days and nights of the Tiananmen hunger strike.
On the evening of June 3, disregarding repeated warnings from the school, Wu grabbed his camera and rode his bike to the scene to record history. The army butchered him, although it is not known exactly where. According to forensic evidence, after he fell to the ground with a gunshot wound, he was shot again at close range and, lying face up, stabbed with a bayonet. He had grabbed the bayonet in his death throes, enraging his executioner.
24. Wang Chao, male, 30, an employee of the Beijing Zhongguancun Sitong Company
Wang was killed the night of June 3. The place and details are not known. He was at first listed as “Anonymous Corpse No. 3” by the Navy General Hospital.
25. An Ji, male, 31, editor of Township Construction, a magazine of the Ministry of Construction’s construction technologies research center in Beijing
On June 6 at midnight, seven young people were going home after a meeting. When they passed through the Nanlishi intersection, they were attacked by troops. All five of the young men were shot down amid heavy gunfire. The two frightened young women knelt and begged loudly for mercy over and over, and their lives were spared. Besides An Ji, the names of the other three murdered men were Wang Zhengqiang, Wang Zhengsheng, and Yang Ziping. Yang Ziming survived, as did the two women, Yang Yuemei and Zhang Xuemei.
26. Wang Zhengsheng, male, 20, employee at the Beijing North China Material Supply Station
Wang was killed at the same time as An Ji. (See entry no. 25.) He was shot in the back and sent to the hospital along with his elder brother Wang Zhengqiang, who, though seriously wounded, recovered from his wounds.
27. Yang Ziping, male, 26, worker at Beijing Machinery Factory No. 1
Yang was also killed at the same time as An Ji. (See entry no. 25.) He was shot in the back. Yang was sent with his elder brother
Yang Ziming to Fuxing Hospital. Yang Ziming was seriously wounded but recovered from his near-fatal wounds.
28. Qian Jin, male, 21, student at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing
On June 3 at about ten p.m., Qian was riding a bicycle with a classmate surnamed Yuan at the Beifengwo intersection, heading in the direction of Muxidi. While turning toward home, Qian ran into a barrage of gunfire sweeping across the street like a fan. He and Yuan were shot along with others in flight around them. The crowd took them to the Beijing Railway General Hospital for emergency treatment. Qian was wounded in several places, and an artery had been severed. He died on the morning of June 5 from loss of blood.
29. Liu Hong, male, 24, graduate student in environmental science at Tsinghua University
Liu was in the long column of students retreating from Tiananmen to Qianmen early in the morning of June 4, when soldiers shot him in the abdomen. He fell to his knees and his intestines spilled out. His classmates tried to stuff his viscera back inside him, but they fell out again; this happened several times. Liu’s classmates could only press a small washbasin upside down on his wound. He died in their arms as they carried him to the hospital.
30. Zhong Qing, male, 21, student in the precision machinery department at Tsinghua University
On the night of June 3 in Muxidi, Zhong ran back and forth as gunfire swept the area. When he was finally hit, half of his face was blown off. Many of his classmates could no longer recognize him. A little later, after searching the pockets of his trousers, they were able to determine his identity.