A newly released video from Chinese General Xu Qinxian’s court martial shows rare People’s Liberation Army (PLA) dissent during the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, The Guardian reported.
The six-hour video shows Xu, who led the 38th Group Army, explaining in detail why he refused orders to send his troops to Beijing to enforce martial law against student protesters. Xu says in the footage that he viewed the demonstrations as a political issue to be settled through political measures, not through military force. He explains that he feared authorizing military action would lead to widespread bloodshed and underscores that he did not want to become «a sinner in history» if the crackdown decision was wrong.
In May 1989, Xu was told to mobilize about 15,000 troops. He deliberately chose not to lead the deployment, emphasizing that his decision was driven by his strong opposition to the use of force.
Even though Xu’s refusal to execute the order has long been an urban legend in China, the video has become the first direct record of what he said and his motivations. Xu, for example, questioned whether the Central Military Commission had sole authority to impose martial law, suggesting that China’s legislature should have been involved.
After the crackdown, Xu was expelled from the Communist Party, spent five years in prison and was not allowed to live in Beijing until he died in 2021.
