By Uyghur Times Staff
June 3, 2025, 6:00 PM ET
On June 4, 1989, Chinese troops opened fire on unarmed protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, killing hundreds—possibly thousands—of students and citizens who were peacefully demanding democracy and reform. The massacre shocked the world and marked one of the darkest chapters in modern Chinese history. While many died that day, others were imprisoned or silenced in the years that followed—inside and outside China. Among them was Li Wangyang, a steel worker turned activist who paid the heaviest price for his dissent.
Li Wangyang (李旺阳), born on November 12, 1950, was a labor rights activist and a key member of the Workers Autonomous Federation. He served as chairman of the Shaoyang branch of the organization during the 1989 pro-democracy movement. For his role in the protests, Li was arrested and sentenced to 21 years in prison—the longest sentence served by any Tiananmen-related activist. His charges included “counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement” and later, “subversion.”
After two decades in prison, Li was released in 2011. But his suffering did not end. In June 2012, just a few days after a television interview in which he once again called for vindication of the Tiananmen protests, Li was found hanged in a hospital room. Authorities in Shaoyang initially declared his death a suicide, later changing it to an “accidental death” following an autopsy. However, photos of his body and the surrounding scene raised widespread suspicions of foul play.
His death sparked mass outrage in Hong Kong, where as many as 25,000 people marched in protest. Politicians and civil society groups, including Pan-Democrats and even some establishment figures, questioned the official explanation and demanded an independent investigation. The uproar put pressure on Beijing, especially as it coincided with the planned visit of then-Communist Party General Secretary Hu Jintao for the 15th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover from Britain to China.
To this day, Li Wangyang’s death remains unresolved. He stands as a symbol of resilience and the brutal lengths to which the Chinese government has gone to suppress calls for justice and remembrance of Tiananmen. His voice, once defiant even after decades of imprisonment, has been silenced—but not forgotten.
