I Covered the Tiananmen Square Massacre. It Still Weighs on Me.

The New York Times · Nicholas Kristof · 2026-10-30 10:00 UTC

The day that changed modern China also taught me how to recognize true courage.

The day that changed modern China also taught me how to recognize true courage.

As I pedaled my bicycle toward the gunfire and Tiananmen Square, dodging people in crowds fleeing in the opposite direction, I kept thinking: What a crazy occupation this is.

For weeks during the spring of 1989, the question preoccupying the world had been whether the student-led Tiananmen demonstrations paralyzing China would end with a democratic revolution or with massacres. That night, June 3, the phone began ringing in the apartment in Beijing I shared with my wife and fellow New York Times correspondent, Sheryl WuDunn. We had our answer: Tens of thousands of army troops were forcing their way into central Beijing, mowing down crowds of unarmed protesters and bystanders who tried to resist.

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