You are using an outdated browser.
Please upgrade your browser
and improve your visit to our site.
Skip Navigation

Tiananmen: Looking Back

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the massacre in Tiananmen Square. To mark the occasion, TNR has taken a look back at what our writers said at the time. See what Hendrik Hertzberg, Simon Leys, and the editorial staff were thinking as the events of June 1989 unfolded.*

Also, we compiled the nine profiles of Chinese dissidents that were posted on The Plank during last summer's Beijing Olympics. Read about political prisoners held for crimes ranging from "inciting" petitions to the government, to starting a website intended to combat human trafficking.

*Note: Wu'er Kaixi, the democracy activist (and Kennedy friend) who participated in Tiananmen and is profiled in the Notebook article linked to in our retrospective, turned himself in to Chinese authorities today in Macao.