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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[–] markko@lemmy.world 118 points 19 hours ago (3 children)

A much happier ending than I expected.

[–] IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world 27 points 14 hours 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 17 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] zqps@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 hours ago

You're clearly not well-practiced at doublethink.

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 12 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

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

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

Yay CCP is slightly less cruel than a medieval monarch

[–] LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 8 hours 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.