Li Peng’s biggest, in fact, only legacy in the public mind will be his role in Tiananmen. Initially it was a small group of students. But as the students began to increase in numbers, they were joined by workers demanding a dramatic overhaul of the way the Communist Party in China functioned. Announcer: “For weeks, hundreds of thousands of Chinese students and workers had defied their authoritarian leaders and camped out in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.” “In the history of communist China, there has never been anything like this.” I think that was what tipped the balance towards a crackdown, was this idea that it was no longer just a bunch of students letting off steam. This was a very serious counter-revolutionary situation. “Premier Li Peng declared the social order of Beijing is in chaos.” “This army was launching into an unarmed civilian population as if charging into battle.” “At least 500 people died in the bloodbath.” Li Peng, he was the guy whose voice was on the radio and on loudspeakers around Beijing ordering everyone to return to their homes. And so he was the public face of the martial law. On the night of June 3, the army began moving down the Avenue of Eternal Peace, shooting everything that stood in their way. Hundreds of people died that night. And no one ever talks about it publicly. Even the words “June 4” are basically taboo in China. You cannot talk about this, never mind question the official version of what happened. There were two diametrically opposed views of Li Peng: In the official Communist Party version of events, he performed an honorable and necessary service to the country, to the party and to the Chinese people by restoring what they saw as stability. But in the eyes of many other people, at least those who remember what happened on June 3, June 4, 1989, Li Peng will probably be remembered as the “butcher of Beijing.” “I was in all these places and seeing the deaths, the bloodshed and the people dying next to me.” But I think you have to remember that in many ways Li Peng was an accidental leader. He was a party functionary who happened to be in this position at a time of crisis. And he basically did what he was told to do by the people who were really calling the shots, who were the party elders — though he certainly backed that decision with great vigor, and to his dying days showed no sign of any remorse.