Fact check: Was China's Tiananmen massacre a US-led myth?

In 1989, widespread protests erupted across several Chinese cities, posing one of the biggest challenges to Communist Party rule. Tensions culminated in April, when a large group of students gathered in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, demanding freedom of expression and an end to corruption. Their protests grew over the following weeks as thousands of citizens joined them in the square.

On the nights of June 3 and 4, the Chinese government forcefully suppressed demonstrations in central Beijing, resulting in numerous deaths and injuries.

The Chinese government described the unrest as a "counterrevolutionary insurgency" and claimed it was engineered by foreign adversaries who sought to exploit "certain policy mistakes and temporary economic difficulties" to subordinate China.

Thirty-five years after the event, these accusations continue to circulate online, most recently in a viral thread on X, formerly Twitter, on June 3. The posts contain a collection of various claims about the uprising, suggesting that the Chinese army's violent crackdown on protesters was part of a Western misinformation campaign against China— repeating the Chinese government's allegations about foreign influence fueling the unrest.

The author, Andy Boreham, a New Zealand journalist working with the state-affiliated media outlet Shanghai Daily, has been described by Chinese state media outlets, such as the Global Times, as a journalist challenging misinformation about China. However, sources like the Australia-based think tank ASPI call him a "foreign propagandist" for the Beijing government.

Though Boreham deleted his posts roughly a day after publishing them, they reached approximately 3.7 million users and were shared over 5,000 times. The posts ignited debates about the extent of violence used by armed forces and whether the events at Tiananmen were distorted by the US. DW obtained a PDF version of Boreham's posts and investigated some of the claims made in the tweet thread.

Was there a massacre in Tiananmen Square?

Claim: The Tiananmen massacre was a myth. ''This probably won't shock you, but the idea of the 'Tiananmen Square Massacre' is a US-led myth,'' reads one of Boreham's posts.

He does not deny that there were casualties in the 1989 uprising, but his tweets focus on the alleged "Tiananmen Square Massacre," which he said did not occur, claiming Western officials and media fabricated the event.

DW Fact Check: Misleading.

Although multiple eyewitnesses and foreign reporters doubt deadly clashes occurred in Tiananmen Square itself, they confirm that scores of people were killed in the areas surrounding the square in central Beijing.

''The claim that there was not a massacre in Tiananmen Square depends on a narrow definition of 'Tiananmen Square.' Demonstrators did leave the square in the early morning hours, but, of course, many were killed near Tiananmen Square,'' Joseph Fewsmith, professor of international relations and political science at Boston University, told DW.

The number of casualties varies dramatically depending on the source. A state report published in the Government Gazette of the State Council about a month after the riots, cites at least 200 "non-soldier casualties," while other reports show higher numbers. For example, a New York Times field correspondentestimated 400 to 800 deaths shortly after the clashes.

Some sources, such as a secret diplomatic cable released in 2017, have cited 10,000 killings in the events surrounding the Tiananmen uprising, but reporters present in China at the time generally doubt this figure.

The term ''Tiananmen Square Massacre'' is often used by officials, including US Foreign MinisterAnthony Blinken, refering to "tens of thousands of peaceful Chinese pro-democracy protesters who were brutally assaulted.''

''There are no reliable estimates about how many people were killed in those events, not only in Beijing, but also in other cities, and not only protesters but also onlookers," Klaus Mühlhahn, sinologist at Zeppelin University, told DW. ''But the fact that the army killed scores of unarmed people is beyond question.''

Did leaked cable confirm Chinese government's account?  

Claim:  WikiLeaks documents state there was no bloodshed in Tiananmen Square.  Boreham's tweet thread contain screenshots of an article by the British newspaper The Telegraph from 2011 about a leaked cable from the US embassy in Beijing published by Wikileaks. Titled 'Wikileaks: no bloodshed inside Tiananmen Square, cables claim,' the article cites an eyewitness account of the events at Tiananmen Square made by a Chilean diplomat.

Boreham adds more screenshots of the same article to his tweet, highlighting the parts about the army negotiating with the students protesting in the square and allowing them to leave peacefully.

DW Fact Check: Misleading.

Like the first claim, the focus of this tweet is Tiananmen Square. The leaked cable is available on Wikileaks, and mentions the Chilean diplomat's testimony on the killings and shootings he witnessed that night — parts that were not reflected either in the Telegraph article or Boreham's tweets: ''Although he did not actually witness any large scale shootings on the square proper, [the diplomat] saw many casualties brought into the square and did not doubt that hundreds of people in Beijing were killed by the army on June 3 and 4.'' 

Were the majority of casualties soldiers? 

Claim: Most casualties were soldiers. ''Of the 300-400 who were killed that night, more than half were soldiers,'' reads one of Boreham's tweets. ''It's fair to say that soldiers were massacred, and they fought back,'' he adds in the next tweet.

DW Fact Check: False.

According to Chinese official data, the number of soldiers killed was only a few dozen, compared to an estimated 200 civilian deaths. The New York Times estimates that about a dozen soldiers and policemen were killed, along with 400 to 800 civilians. There seems to be no evidence proving that the number of troops killed during the riot was more than the number of civilians.

Conclusion: The claims Boreham makes in his tweets are misleading or false. Several prominent Western media outlets have already reported that the most deadly clashes may have occurred outside Tiananmen Square, and the events in the square itself might not qualify as a massacre.

However, there is little doubt that a violent crackdown by the Chinese government did occur and killed many civilians. "Armed forces acted against unarmed students while the latter also defended themselves, "Mühlhahn told DW, "but that does not mean that the actions of the Chinese government can be justified in any way."