'No one expected AK-47s': Journalist Jan Wong on reporting from the Tiananmen Square massacre

Canadian reporter Jan Wong says it's a memory that just doesn't fade.

The former Globe and Mail Beijing correspondent is referring to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre she witnessed 30 years ago today. What started as an idealistic student movement ended when Chinese soldiers opened fire on peaceful protestors, killing hundreds — perhaps thousands — of people. 

Wong, now a journalism professor at St. Thomas University in New Brunswick, described her personal experience at the time in Beijing to CBC News in 1989:

A man took my right arm and another man came from behind me and they started dragging me toward the car. As soon as they started punching me, I knew something was wrong and I started screaming. One of the men said in Chinese, "ma'am we have something to discuss with you." He said it in a very nasty tone. That's all he said. That's why I knew something was wrong.​​​​​​"

Thirty years later, on the anniversary of the massacre, Jan Wong spoke with Stephen Quinn, the host of CBC's The Early Edition, about what happened in China then and what's happening there now.

What happened after the men took you?

They were plainclothes police. I screamed in English and I think that's why they dropped me. I have always regretted I didn't just shut up and go with them because it would have been a great story. But I went back to the street to alert soldiers about what happened to me and they laughed. That's when I realized they were plainclothes police.

It was just one of the many crazy surrealistic events happening at that time. But the most surreal was when I heard they were shooting their way into the square and so, like hundreds of thousands of other people in Beijing, I went down to Tiananmen Square. It was a mix between a happy street festival and a tense vigil waiting for the soldiers to get there. No one expected the violence because we had had seven weeks of peaceful protests. No one expected tanks. No one expected AK- 47s

What was it that sparked the massacre and caused police to go in shooting?

It took seven weeks for them to crack down, because the local head of the military garrison refused to move the protesters. He checked himself into a hotel and feigned illness to avoid it. So, it took time for China's paramount leader Deng Xiaoping to bring in different military regions to support him. We did not know what was going on, so everyone was lulled into this feeling like nothing bad is going to happen.

Thirty years on, what do we know about the number of casualties?

Only the Chinese government itself knows. The Chinese Red Cross estimated 3,000 dead. British intelligence recently leaked a document that said 10,000. It was a dense crowd with soldiers firing point blank. The bullets were the size of a man's thumb and would go through 10 people at close range.

That night when they were shooting, ambulance workers went straight into the gunfire to rescue people. So did pedicab drivers who didn't have the protection of a vehicle around them. They just bicycled in to help the wounded and dying. It was unbelievable to watch.

And what is the official Chinese position now? That this never happened?

Yes. The position is a bunch of hooligans created disturbances and had to be put down by force. The Chinese position is there was no massacre. And besides there being no massacre, you better not talk about a massacre or you will be arrested. Every year at this time they get very tense. They won't let reporters go there, they detain them. People don't go there on the anniversary and everyone knows you're just asking for trouble and will get sentenced to years in prison. It isn't a joke. It's not like they detain you for two days. It will be years.

Has anything changed about the country since then?

I think it's gotten much more repressive. In 2019, it's a different country. It's rich. It's very powerful and it's arresting two Canadians in retaliation for Canada's arrest of the Huawei executive. We are dealing with a powerful country that doesn't care if Canada likes them or not.

This interview aired on The Early Edition on June 4 and has been edited for clarity and structure. To hear the complete interview with Jan Wong, click on the audio link below.