Dissidents in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre

The 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, commonly known in mainland China as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led demonstrations in Beijing (the capital of the People's Republic of China) in 1989. More broadly, it refers to the popular national movement inspired by the Beijing protests during that period, sometimes called the '89 Democracy Movement. The protests were forcibly suppressed after Chinese Premier Li Peng declared martial law. In what became known in the West as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, troops with assault rifles and tanks fired at the demonstrators trying to block the military's advance towards Tiananmen Square. The number of civilian deaths was internally estimated by the Chinese government to be near or above 10,000.

Dissidents included student leaders, intellectuals and other citizens.

Student leaders
On 13 June 1989, the Beijing Public Security Bureau released an order for the arrest of 21 students who they identified as leaders of the protest. These student leaders were part of the Beijing Students Autonomous Federation which had been an instrumental student organization in the Tiananmen Square protests. Prominent leaders such as Wang Dan, Wu'er Kaixi and Chai Ling topped the list. Immediately after the release of the list, only 7 out of the 21 Most Wanted escaped China, with assistance from the Hong-Kong based organization Operation Yellowbird. Though decades have passed, the Most Wanted list has never been retracted by the Chinese government.

Official release
The Beijing Public Security Bureau issued the 21 Most Wanted list with the following description: "The illegal organization "Beijing Students Autonomous Federation" instigated and organized the counter-revolutionary rebellion in Beijing. It is now decided to pursue 21 of its head and key members, including Wang Dan. After receiving this order, please immediately arrange investigation work. If found, immediate arrest the targets and inform the Beijing Public Security Bureau."

Photographs with biographical descriptions of the 21 Most Wanted followed in this order on the poster: The 21 most wanted student leaders faces and descriptions were broadcast on television as well and were constantly looped. Arrests were also broadcast, such as that of Most Wanted No. 21 Xiong Yan.

Not all of the 21 most wanted are as well known as Chai Ling or Wang Dan. Others such Zhang Zhiqing have essentially disappeared. After his initial arrest in January 1991 and subsequent release, nothing further is known about his situation and where he lives now. Zhang Zhiqing's role and reason for being listed on the list of 21 most wanted is generally unknown; this is the case for many others on the list such Wang Chaohua. Other dissidents that are not as well known to the public include Zhou Fengsuo and Wang Zhengyun. Zhou Fengsuo was a physics student at Tsinghua University and a member of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Students Autonomous Federation during the protests. Fengsuo was turned in by his sister and arrested on June 13, 1989, in Xi'an. He was imprisoned for one year before being released in 1990 due to international pressures, along with 97 other political prisoners. Leaving China for the United States, he attended the University of Chicago. Steady in his activist roots he co-founded Humanitarian China, an organization that promotes rule of law in China and also raises money for Chinese political prisoners. Wang Zhengyun was a student of the Central University for Nationalities and was the only member of the Kucong ethnicity minority group to be studying at a university. Zhengyun was arrested in July 1989 and released two years later. He was sent back to his village in the Yunnan countryside. In December 1998, Wang was one of 19 dissidents, including Zhai Weimin, who staged a hunger strike to protest the oppression of CDP members and other dissidents.

Ma Shaofang and Yang Tao are another pair of dissidents that lack public attention despite their constant activist efforts. Ma Shaofang was a student of the Beijing Film Academy during the protests and turned himself in on 13 June 1989. In October 1990 he was sentenced to three years in prison for counterrevolutionary incitement. In May 1994, he participated with Wang Dan and other dissidents in a petition to the National People's Congress calling for a reassessment of 4 June. He has had issues in attempting to open a business and has had a series of short lived jobs ever since and is living in Shenzhen. Yang Tao, who was at one time the head of Beijing University's Autonomous Student Federation, remains in China today. He was initially charged as being an instigator of the counterrevolutionary rebellion and imprisoned for one year on 16 June 1989. In 1998, he wrote an open letter asking for the release of Wang Youcai. His continued efforts landed him in prison in 1999 after lobbying for the government to reverse the labeling of the protest as a "counterrevolutionary rebellion". He was originally arrested on charges of "incitement to overthrow state political power." However, he was indicted on amended charges of tax evasion on 23 December due to lack of evidence and on 5 January 2003 was sentenced to four years in prison. He was released in May 2003. Yang too has had trouble earning a living.

Aftermath
Each of the 21 students faced diverse experiences after their arrests or escapes; while some remain abroad with no intent to return, others have chosen to stay indefinitely such as Zhang Ming. Only 7 of the 21 were able to escape, the remainder of the 21 student leaders were apprehended and incarcerated. Zhou Fengsuo was turned in by his own sister and arrested on 13 June 1989 in Xi'an. He was imprisoned for one year before being released in 1990 due to international pressures, along with 97 other political prisoners. Some served longer sentences than others, such as Wang Dan, one of the most visible leaders during the protests topping the most wanted list. Wang Dan continued his activist efforts after his parole release and was subsequently sentenced to 11 years for subversion. Liu Gang, who was arrested in Baoding in mid June, attempted to organize his fellow prisoners in defiance, by conducting a hunger strike. He had his arms lashed behind his back in a harsh position for several days while in prison. Many of those who initially escaped from the most wanted list were assisted by Operation Yellowbird and fled to the West. Those who escaped remain in exile today and have opened up about their experiences. Zhang Boli, number 17 on the list wrote a book titled "Escape From China" that details his experience during the protests and his escape. Those who escaped, whether it was in 1989 or after, generally have had difficulty re-entering China, even up to this day. The Chinese government prefers to leave the dissidents in exile. Those who attempt to re-enter, such as Wu'er Kaixi, have been simply sent back, but not arrested. In 2009, Xiong Yan, number 21 on the list, returned to China with a visit to Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, in order to mark the 20th anniversary the Tiananmen protests. Xiong Yan spent 19 months in jail, after his release he fled to the United States where he keeps in touch with Tiananmen activists and participates in pro-democracy events. Xiong was invited to the southern Chinese enclave by the Hong Kong Alliance, which has been holding annual candlelight vigils on the 4 June anniversary Tiananmen protests. Many of the 21 who are in exile have joined human rights organizations or are now engaging in private business.

Arrests and punishment
Chinese authorities carried out mass arrests. Many workers were summarily tried and executed. In contrast, the students—many of whom came from relatively affluent backgrounds and were well-connected—received much lighter sentences. Wang Dan, the student leader who topped the most wanted list, spent seven years in prison. Many of the students and university staff implicated were permanently politically stigmatized, some never to be employed again. Some student leaders such as Chai Ling and Wuer Kaixi were able to escape to the United States, the United Kingdom, France and other Western nations under Operation Yellowbird that was organized from Hong Kong, a British territory at the time.

Smaller protest actions continued in other cities for a few days. Some university staff and students who had witnessed the killings in Beijing organized or spurred commemorative events upon their return to school. At Shanghai's prestigious Jiaotong University, for example, the party secretary organized a public commemoration event, with engineering students producing a large metal wreath.

According to the Dui Hua Foundation, citing a provincial government, 1,602 individuals were imprisoned for protest-related activities in the early 1989. , at least two remain incarcerated in Beijing and five others remain unaccounted for. In June 2014, it was reported that Miao Deshun was believed to be the last known prisoner incarcerated for their participation in the protests; he was last heard from a decade ago. All are reported to be suffering from mental illness.