Tiananmen: The People Versus the Party

Student Demonstrations Begin on April 15, 1989

Clip: Episode 1 | 59s  | Video has closed captioning.

On April 15th 1989, thousands of Chinese students gathered in Tiananmen Square to mark the sudden death of a liberal politician, Hu Yaobang. Former student Zhang Jian, then just 19 years old, recalls how he heard the students call for political change and democracy – and in the process, he himself became a central figure in the student movement.