Shen Tong was one of the leaders of the student’s protests on the Tiananmen Square in 1989, 20 years ago. He left China after the bloody crackdown on June 4. Now he lives in New York and is the founder of the software company Vfinity. You can find here our email conversation about his involvement in the protests and about his life.

1. Why did you join the protests?
Long family tradition of political awareness, free thinking. Observer of 1976 Tiananmen Incident, 1978-79 Democracy Wall Movement, and the aftermath of the government crackdown. Believed that reform can be and need to be deepened especially for government transparency and strong rule of law.

2. How did you become one of the leaders?
Three previous involvement in nation-wide student movements (1985, 1986, 1988), accumulated to leadership position in 1988, then a campus group Olympic Institute before the break-out of 1989, then elected into student federation standing committee April 20th, 1989, 5 days after the death of Hu Yaobang.

3. You co-chaired the committee on dialog with the government. Could you describe it a little bit? What were your demands and what about the reactions of government?

Demands:
- The 35th Item of Chinese constitution which guarantees freedom of assembly, speech, and demonstration. And its implementation for greater democracy for university campus and for society at large.
- highlighting major issues of the ongoing Reform and Open Door Policy in the 1980s

Government reaction was cautious but positive in early May.
-A well-prepared and well-organized televised dialogue was held between 12 government ministers and 1 party representatives with 12 students dialogue delegates and 20 student organization observers was held May 14th, the night before Gorbachev's China visit, but was stopped abruptly after 2 hours.
- As the internal power struggle deepens in the central Communist Party, another televised dialogue took place between the Prime Minister Li Peng and student Hunger Strike leaders; then 2 surprise visits in Tiananmen Square by general secretary of communist party Zhao Ziyang, and premier Li Peng in late May.

4. Would you describe the protest of students as antisocialist?No. The focus was government accountability and greater political and civil liberties. There was very little emphasis on any economic policies even with the 27% inflation of the previous year. There was however a general sentiment that communism was not the only way anymore for China.

5. What is your the most pleasant memory from Tiananmen Square?Very little. The sentiment and feeling were more excitement, exuberance, worries, sometime despair, and often sheer exhaustion.

6. Did you think it could end with the bloodshed?No. I always knew from the very beginning that the punishment would be harsh from a government that never forget and never forgive. But not in my wildest dreams that I thought they will bring in combat troops and open fire for hours on end to peaceful demonstrators in the center of Beijing.

7. Could you describe the moment when the crackdown began and what happened then?
Deafening sound of rows of tanks and trucks (personnel carriers) rolling into the city toward Tiananmen. Nearly un-interupted sound of gun fire. Foot soldiers with loaded guns and billy clubs. Many soldiers don't seem to know what was happening in Beijing, and wasn't even aware in some cases that they were in the center of Beijing.

8. What was your reaction?
Trying to organize the Beijing civilians who defied the martial law and curfew warning and trying to block the advances of the troops toward Tiananmen in order to protect the students. I was worried that in the middle of chaos, the demonstrators may impulsively turned away from our strict non-violence principle. Thought the shots had to be rubber bullets. Trying to calm the crowd down so not to provoke more violent reaction from the marching troops.

9. In your opinion how many people were killed?

I've seen 5-6 people shot dead on the spot or wounded in the part of the Changan Ave I was at - Xiadan Cross, 2 miles West of Tiananmen. Among the numbers from various sources, I tend to think 2,600 released in the early morning by Beijing Red Cross through Radio Beijing was possibly the most accurate early estimate given the city wide street network that Beijing Red Cross developed along the student marshall system for what's known as "life line" for hunger strikers and exhausted demonstrators to quickly access various hospitals in the City since late May. If anyone knew the casualties, Beijing Red Cross would.

10. You can find many people on the internet who are saying there was no crackdown, no casualties and these are only the Western myths. What would you say to those people?
It was not just any crackdown, it was a massacre. Talk to anyone of the hundreds of "Tiananmen Mothers" who lost their children (college and high school age) and still could not publicly mourn of their dead children today. Do a simple Web search of videos and photos of dead bodies on the streets on Beijing in early June 1989 taken by Chinese people's cameras. Talk to anyone of the hundreds of peaceful demonstrators who were injured, even crippled for life during the night of the massacre.

11. Did the protest make any difference in China?
Short term
- forcing government to re-establish legitimacy by economic reform and nationalism
- a set-back in civil and political liberties in the last 20 years compared
to 1980s

Longer term impact not clear

89-64 became a symbol of any serious political alternative to CCP; and a symbol of peaceful and powerful protest in China and worldwide

12. You left China shortly after the crackdown as I know. Was it difficult?Very difficult. I can not talk about the details of my escape. I was in hiding for 1 week after the Massacre. During that time, great many people, including people in the government, came together and organized a very well executed rescue mission, resulting in my flying out of China to Tokyo then to New York, avoiding long and tortuous journey of many other dissidents going through South china and mostly through human trafficking mafia.

13. Would you be willing to join this kind of protests today?
Yes. It is not only a right thing to do, but after 89, I'm duty bound.

14. Your company participated in the Beijing Olympics. Was this the problem for you as the Beijing Olympics was also the propagandistic event of the Communist Party?
No. One of customers of our Beijing sales office is an ad agency that housed advertisement graphics for major corporations such as Microsoft that are used during the Beijing Olympic. That's the extend of the Beijing Olympic participation. Our technology is a video search and workflow software platform. It's a generic technology that any media professional could use. It's not surveillance software. Using VFinity is like using telephone, but not like using telephone wire tabbing technology. Our main customer base are broadcasters, universities, in China, they are mostly government owned.

Slovenská verzia vyšlav denníku Pravda 05. 06. 2009 a nájdete ju tu