China's Dark Hours

In the tense early-morning hours of June 4, hope died and fear was born. Thousands of combat troops stormed Tiananmen Square, transforming the Woodstock-like encampment of young students calling for democracy into the bloodiest killing ground in Communist China's history. The images of defiance and devastation, the voices of determination and despair, shook the world. Here, protesters attacked troops with poles and rocks. There, a student lurched, his dazed face soaked with blood. Everywhere, the bodies fell, how many is still not known, while fires blazed, signaling the dawn of China's uncertain new world.

"Our call for democracy has reached the living rooms of largely apolitical people. It has planted seeds of the ideas of freedom and democracy and human rights."

-- A student leader

"We are not afraid to die. But we have already lost a lot of blood. We must leave the square."

-- Hou Dejian, a popular songwriter

"The sound of gunfire terrified me, but the sight of wounded people made me very angry. The massacre was a very cynical idea."

-- A scholar

"Tell the United Nations, tell the world what has happened in China. Tell them that the Chinese government is killing the Chinese people."

-- A worker

"China is dead."

-- A youth