Rare Footage of Chinese General's 1989 Tiananmen Court-Martial Leaked Online
A six-hour video of the court-martial hearing of General Xu Qinxian, who refused to deploy troops to Beijing and suppress the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, has been leaked online. The footage has attracted over 1.2 million views on a YouTube account.
Xu Qinxian was the commander of the People's Liberation Army's 38th Group Army near Beijing. On 18 May 1989, he disobeyed orders to impose martial law and passively relayed the order to his superiors without carrying it out.
As a result of his defiance, Xu was expelled from the Chinese Communist Party and sentenced to five years in prison. After his release, he lived in exile from Beijing until his death in 2021 at the age of 85.
In the court-martial video, Xu states that he did not want to become "a sinner in history," reflecting his conscientious decision against the crackdown.
