this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2025
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Video shows Gen Xu Qinxian explaining why he refused to deploy troops to crush 1989 student-led demonstrations

Rare footage of a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) general who defied orders to lead his troops into Tiananmen Square and crush the 1989 student protesters has been leaked online, offering a highly unusual glimpse into the upper echelons of the military at one of the most fraught moments in modern Chinese history.

General Xu Qinxian’s refusal to take his troops from the PLA’s prestigious 38th Group Army, a unit based on the outskirts of Beijing, into the capital has been the stuff of Tiananmen lore for decades.

The six-hour video recording of Gen Xu’s court martial hearing the next year sheds light on the rare act of defiance. In the video, Xu said he refused because he did not want to become “a sinner in history”.

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[–] qaz@lemmy.world 178 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

For anyone else that is interested in what came of him:

Xu was expelled from the CCP and sentenced to five years in prison. He lived the rest of his life exiled from Beijing and died in 2021 at the age of 85.

[–] markko@lemmy.world 138 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

A much happier ending than I expected.

[–] IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world 30 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

No kidding. If this happened in North Korea the trial would have lasted 15 minutes and the execution would have been a public spectacle.

[–] axh@lemmy.world 20 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Can't make a public spectacle of something that "never happened".

[–] zqps@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 weeks ago

You're clearly not well-practiced at doublethink.

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 16 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

In Qing Dynasty, the entire family and close relatives would've gotten publicly executed.

[–] drmoose@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yay CCP is slightly less cruel than a medieval monarch

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Somebody did something to make thing better, we need to do it again

(Xinhai Revolution 2025 Edition)

[–] drmoose@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

Sometimes I day dream how cool free China would actually be

[–] LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 2 weeks ago

If I'm understanding correctly he was a general. He was powerful enough to merely be court martialed. I doubt the same mercy extended very often to individual soldiers who refused orders.

[–] AstaKask@lemmy.cafe 92 points 2 weeks ago (18 children)

Good man. Too bad China kills good people. It's a horrible empire.

[–] Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world 86 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

It seems like all empires are horrible to me. Humans suck, especially when they have power

[–] nogooduser@lemmy.world 19 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Yeah.

There’s lots of instances throughout history that prove that humans with power suck.

I like to think that it’s because nice people aren’t the type to accumulate power rather than power corrupts nice people who do get power.

[–] Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 16 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I think we make the mistake of letting people govern groups of people that they are too distant from to care about. Leaders are essential, but they have to care about the people they lead. I dont think its actually possible to care about people a thousand miles away the same way as the people in your community. I think this is why the largest countries that are controlled by the fewest people have the most problems. Its a delegation issue essentially.

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[–] Natanael@infosec.pub 4 points 2 weeks ago

Power corrupts insecure people

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[–] AugustWest@lemmy.world 30 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

A good point. Though I was surprised to read this particular dissident only got 5 years in prison and exile from Beijing.

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 28 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Seems like standard procedure to higher ups in China. They did something similar to Xi Jinping‘s father when he spoke out against a violent solution for the protests. Too bad Xi learned all the wrong lesson‘s from his dad‘s political exile.

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 39 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

He went to prison for 5 years and then lived into his 80s.

[–] RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com 11 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

They killed him in the slowest way possible 😔

[–] Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

We put him in the time machine but it only goes forwards at normal speed!

[–] Tja@programming.dev 4 points 2 weeks ago

I build a time machine that allows you to travel into the future at 60 seconds per minute.

[–] axh@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

With a clear continence.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Too bad China kills good people.

He wasn't killed, he was court marshalled and released five years later. He died in '21 at the ripe old age of 85

[–] angrystego@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)
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[–] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 88 points 2 weeks ago (13 children)

Don't worry, I've been told by users that it didn't happen, and that if it did, it wasn't what we saw, and it wasn't that bad, and that, if it was, they deserved it.

[–] Credibly_Human@lemmy.world 14 points 2 weeks ago

It is really crazy that this weird china apologism is so common here.

Its the type of shit you'd expect to see more on reddit, but instead its on lemmy way more.

[–] Tja@programming.dev 7 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

It's all AI anyway. If you saw tank man before, you are being lied to by western propaganda.

[–] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 22 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

Ai in 1989 was so advanced lol

[–] Tja@programming.dev 6 points 2 weeks ago

That's what the CIA is trying to hide! Don't fall for it!

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[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 11 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Imagine if 2020 had AI becoming this popular.

Pretty sure there would be conspiracy theories that accuse the George Floyd's murder video of being "AI"

The future is so cooked.

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[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

Thats my take on them as well.

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[–] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 44 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

General Xu was 100% correct. The entire CCP and high ranking PLA officers should have been thrown into a courtroom and sent to prison for murder.

[–] ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 40 points 2 weeks ago

Qinxian made a decision that saved countless lives, much like Arkhipov in the 60s.

[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 33 points 2 weeks ago
[–] thatradomguy@lemmy.world 24 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Great, now reveal all epstein files without black outs.

[–] helvetpuli@sopuli.xyz 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

It turns out they, or many of them anyway, were done with Word.

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[–] aesviation@lemmings.world 23 points 2 weeks ago

Modern journalism headline

[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 21 points 2 weeks ago

Time to change some of my challenge responses on some of my equipment to include him as the greatest chinese citizen. I have the standard remember Tiananmen Square response. Always fun to let them port scan and attempt to brute force with those responses.

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