A Peaceful Appeal for Freedom 25 Years Ago Still Echoes Today
Published on April 25, 2024
A senior official drove by. Then the anti-riot police turned up. They rained down punches and kicks, and threw dozens of people into vans. One gray-haired woman fainted as the police dragged her away, her back scraping the ground. City officials told the rest of the dazed crowd in Tianjin, a megacity in eastern China, they would need to go to Beijing to appeal if they wanted the prisoners released. So they did—although the Tiananmen massacre a decade earlier still scarred them. Ultimately, 10,000 people congregated quietly in Beijing on a day in 1999, now remembered as the April 25 appeal—the largest protest in communist China’s recent history....