The 2026 Human Rights Essay Contest is open to students of all ages and offers $4,000 in prize money. The focus for this contest is on the sentencing of human rights activist Jimmy Lai to 20 years in prison and how this sentencing should impact US-China relations. The deadline to submit has been extended to July 15th. For more information, visit humanrights.catholic.edu.
Chen Guangcheng: At that time, the chairman is Zhao Deyang. Zhao Deyang went to Tiananmen Square. He warned them: “If you continue to stay there, maybe some bad thing will happen,” like that. So I think he got some news from Deng Xiaoping, right? And then later, you know, the government stopped asking him for permission and worked with Deng Xiaoping directly.
Will Deatherage: Okay, gotcha.
G: So later he lost the job. [The] CCP put him under house arrest in Beijing.
W: Wow.
G: And then, you know, the CCP spread rumors. They said the students were violent and killed people and destroyed property. And the CCP cut the phone lines, including the US Embassy’s phone lines.
W: Wow.
G: [For] several days. And the CCP moved weapons into Beijing from other provinces. And a lot of people, and even some CCP officials disagreed with that. But Deng Xiaoping did. And they used the military and weapons to kill the people in Beijing.
W: How many people, Guangcheng?
G: Different sources have different numbers. In the US document, more than 30,000 people died.
W: 30,000?
G: Yeah, 30,000. And the students were running and tried to hide from the bullets. A lot of people, you know, died. Some people sent a lot of people to different hospitals, and even the hospitals had no room to let them use. And, you know, my friend, his name is Fang Zheng. Now he lives in California. And his schoolmate, she [was] still on the street, and the tank almost hit her. And Fang Zheng pushed her out of the way and the fuel and the tank cut his leg.
W: Oh my gosh.
G: Yes. And then the CCP controlled him [for] a lot of years. And later he came here and lives California now. That is the big proof to tell the whole world the CCP killed the people, right? Of course, the CCP said no one died in Beijing.
W: Right. So their official number is zero, right?
G: Yeah, yeah. The CCP said it’s zero. And at that time, I remember I lived in [my] hometown.
W: Yeah, yeah. Where were you?
G: [The] CCP used their mouthpiece to show some video. They said, “No one died. We just asked the students to leave. And you can see, we just used tanks and the pickup trucks to block off Tiananmen Square. No one [was] there.”
W: Yeah, Guangcheng, in your hometown, how did people react? Did people believe the CCP?
G: No. In fact, at that time, you know, a lot of the farmers talked to each other. They believed the CCP killed the people. And they believe the CCP had become corrupt.
W: So this event, it sounds like it actually made people more angry at the CCP. Is that right, Guangcheng?
G: Yeah, a lot of people [became] far more angry about that. But they know that is negative. Since the Tiananmen Square happened, the people lost their hope. They lost the faith in justice.
W: Had the Communist Party done anything like that before in the ’80s? I mean, that’s a lot of people that they killed. Did they have a reputation for being violent and killing people at that point, or was that the big moment where they started really getting violent with their own citizens?
G: I think that CCP prepared to kill the people before. They didn’t give them time to leave.
W: Right.
G: You know, Some information said, before the CCP let the military go to Tiananmen Square, they had the soldiers drink something and then give them the weapons and [told] them, “Oh, some people [are trying] to change our political system. You should protect our country now.” So the soldiers, they didn’t know what it is. They just go there and ask them to do something like that.
W: Right. Wow.
G: Yeah, so that’s what the CCP did. So I believe the CCP decided to kill the people.
The 2026 Human Rights Essay Contest is open to students of all ages and offers $4,000 in prize money. The focus for this contest is on the sentencing of human rights activist Jimmy Lai to 20 years in prison and how this sentencing should impact U.S.-China relations. The deadline to submit has been extended to July 15th. For more information, visit humanrights.catholic.edu.