Take a look at china in the spring of 1989 it was still the time of the cold war the berlin wall would only fall later that year and in may the soviet Union Leader Mikhail Gorbachev was visiting communist leaders in beijing that is the reason why we have so much video and photographic evidence of the student protests on Tiananmen Square that ended in a military crackdown on june 4th because foreign media had been allowed into communist china to cover the soviet summit they stayed for what looked like the beginning of a revolution. It has been 30 years since the crushing of that Student Movement 30 years since we 1st saw this iconic image estimates of the number killed range from a few 100 to more than 2000. Mathias ballinger walks us through the events leading up to that historic crisis he speaks to a father and son the father a high powered official at the time and the son a protester. Who was a book publisher in hong kong youre back in 1909 i was a 4th year student in university. So i wasnt very interested in society. That year he was living in beijing. Were to sit down i just went to chatham and square to have a look everybody went there i didnt expect anything special about bush. In april we all bank of former general secretary of the communist party dr impromptu memorials at the square became the focus for student rallies the reform minded leader had been ousted 2 years before well of course he is were not historians but we firmly believe time will bring justice to him. Just students saw him as a victim of the corrupt party soon they started raising more issues who are Living Standards human rights corruption and. The public mourning turned into the biggest anti party demonstrations in chinas history. For i had had an argument with my father and he had already said if the students continue this might lead to bloodshed what i dont i was like all the students nobody thought about bloodshed she told the shuttle to. His father bow to him was then a high ranking official. Puts is not so when we didnt know this would end in such a tragedy sequel freedom but i knew it was a very difficult situation that might bring many conflicts to like to talk. About or have been a close aide to jobs the young the successor to. Jobs the young was also very formal and want to dialogue with the students but you had to write. The conservative Prime Minister favored a hardline approach. And i wasnt interested in my fathers work especially what he was doing in the government to me he was part of that negative phenomenon i thought the communist party of the people for what the son did not know was that another man was in control behind the scenes. Behind chinas Economic Reforms fishley retired from most due to. Chair a whole country near the students knew that it was done shopping who had ousted oh you know about until years before. The end of april and dung made a decision they labeled the demonstrations and counterrevolutionary to moil via the Party Newspaper people stayed and ignited this room and. More than 1000000 people took to the streets students and citizens in light of god. The god they sang the internationale and read from the constitution to remind the party of its own would of the. Not at all if the government thinks it can suppress says it acts like a donkey trying to scare away a tiger. And over the next few weeks the students became more and more confident they demanded negotiations with the polity some went on a Hunger Strike they want to not have sympathy around the world. But when i came home there was a pessimistic atmosphere in which is i learned the government was getting nervous and preparing something i started to become more and more afraid that i mean. I want to show that youre kind of have hopped. On may 18th being instructed the government to clear. The reformers in the party of national. Unity that night the young appeared on the square chinese t. V. Broadcast what became his last appearance. And we have come too late. To fill out. The taliban up not the real story after. His sympathy for the students cause cost him his job to spend the rest of his life under house arrest. Once and i knew that investigate me within the party purges began. Close aide was the target. I didnt know they would investigate me and prisoners. He was detained a week after jobless for meanwhile the troops tried to enter the city but they were blocked by civilians several times i. Was. On the night of june 4th the troops were back this time with the order to use and its necessary bob who was watching from there up. When they started shooting i thought they would shoot in the air or use rubber bullets it but we should all then i saw somebody with a bullet hole in his belly people were rushing the wounded on bikes into the hospital she you know thats when i understood they were really killing people. In the sure quite how common the people who lost their lives that night remains unknown to date canon and square is a Tourist Destination and well guarded and with restricted access most people in todays china are too afraid to talk i think its right. There what i for you or for me the events of 989 are still like an open wound. Who left the country shortly after he became a publisher of critical books about the communist party many of them about 1909 so today when i saw my father again in 1997 we found that we agreed on many things to show that something im very happy about and that most people my age envy me for him one of the most of them dont have a connection to their parents i dont have this problem thats great luck or do what i dont want to do and here i was here. Lives in beijing and as a vocal critic of the party humane is under constant surveillance. You can tell what i expelled me from the party they liberated me my brain and my mouth are free today. Father and son cannot talk often about who is allowed to visit once a year and some years not at all. Joining us now is mathias bowling there from hong kong the only territory that is a part of china where people are allowed to commemorate what happened mathias give us a sense of what the day has been like how do people feel there. This is a very important day for Hong Kong Civil Society a lot of organizations are here they rally this is also to remind or to talk about hong kongs own problems in maintaining its freedom this has been going on for 30 years in 1809 homecoming was a british colony and people were watching closely what was happening in beijing because they knew they would be returned to Mainland China 8 years later so ever since then june 4th has been a very important day in hong kong im not fields of course now outside of china we will see a lot of Media Coverage on tiananmen today why chance the government in beijing come to honest terms with what happened on june 4th. Well we can only guess that because they very rarely say anything about it the only thing they say is that we should all be grateful for them shooting the students because china has been stable since then and growing i think this scene of a government shooting its own population if this was widely discussed in china the digital mysie of the party would be washed away quickly and people would not accept this government anymore so silencing the the the remembrance of the event is vital to the maintenance of power for the communist party in china they make reference to this in your answer just now about the way the economy. Was booming in the 1990 s. After what have. And in Tiananmen Square did this incident on june 4th have an impact on government policy and Decision Making on how the leadership wanted to run the country. It did and 1st of all the economy was slowing down due to western sanctions and also due to certain cautiousness in the government because any. Dynamics in the economy might have an impact on other things it took them 2 years to get back on track to get the economy back on track to growth and when they figured out how to increase oppression of Public Opinion and still let the economy float a little bit. Is there a situation mightiest where you think its possible for the government in beijing to admit fully what happened in chatham and and include it in part of its history. As long as the communist partys seen as its most important principle to stay in power no matter what as long as they are not ready to. Make a transition into a system that would maybe be less centralized that was less reliant on the top much of the party to govern the country unless this is happening and we have no signs that this would be happening any time soon i dont think they would be able to do that to acknowledge their mistakes their crimes but he is pulling their thank you. Thats it for now be sure to check out our other stories on dot com for slash asia or on facebook and twitter we leave you with pictures of the crackdown on tiananmen protesters in 1900. Thank you for watching ill see you next time. Maz. To. Earth. Home to moods of species. A home worth saving. Given those are big changes and most start with small steps but global ideas tell stories of creative people and innovative projects around the world body is the key to the climate least managed solutions and resources should. Interactive content teaching the next generation above the took such action. Channels available to inspire people to take action. And were determined to build something here for the next generation the idea sfi environment series of global 3000 on and all mine. Partys over and its back to business u. S. President donna trump meets with British Business leaders to discuss a potential u. K. U. S. Trade deal after the break 6 also coming up im going to machall speaks to the captains of german industry one hoping for more support from the government but is industry also willing to do its bit to keep the economy growing. But come to do business Asia Monica Jones of berlin good to have you with us and were starting with Saudi Arabians soybeans like the ones you see behind me help feed the world spot they could also be a sign of trouble on the horizon china is said to stockpile around 7000000. 00 tons of american produced soybeans according to media reports and they were purchased as part of a truce in the trade conflict between beijing and washington last december normally theyd be used to feed chinese livestock traders say china aims to store the soybeans a move that could mean that beijing is buckling down for a drawn out conflict with washington. All right china stockpiling soybeans is this a sign that it is also preparing for patrik to trade war with the United States lets hear listen to water the finance