Tiananmen Anniversaries

The Diplomat: How Iran’s Democracy Movement Can Win: Reflections From a Tiananmen Survivor

By: JIANLI YANG - Jan 13, 2026 “Drawing on lived experience from Tiananmen, I have come to believe that 4 concrete conditions determine whether an autocracy like China or Iran has a genuine chance of meaningful democratic change.” Across Iran today, the streets pulse...

RFA: Lessons from testing AI on the truth of Tiananmen

American and Chinese AI models give starkly different responses, showing that a model can only be as effective at establishing and recognizing truth as its creator. By Jianli Yang and Deyu Wang 2025.06.09 Last week marked the 36th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen...

Foreignpolicy.com: Why China Hasn’t Seen Another Tiananmen Movement

Online culture and censorship have broken the ties that once spurred protesters. BY: JIANLI YANG Today, June 4, marks the 36th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre—a moment of both tragedy and hope. It was the bloody end to a nationwide democracy movement that...

The Things I Saw in April – June, 1989 – Part 5

Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a series of articles written by someone deeply involved in the events leading up to June 4, 1989. The events in this installment begin after the replacement of Zhao Ziyang with Li Peng as China’s prime minister, and the latter’s...