Thousands of students from China's pro-democracy movement planned to use the state visit and the obligatory media coverage for their purposes. They had assembled and camped in Tiananmen Square for two weeks in late May and early June. Among their demands were the rights to free speech and a free press, and they erected a statue-modelled on the Statue of Liberty though with both arms supporting the torch­ that they named the "Goddess of Democracy." Their cause and the images they employed thus resonated with audiences around the world.

     However, this hopeful demonstration came to a sudden and horrifying end. On the night of June 3 and into the early morning hours of June 4, the army launched an assault on the unarmed civilians in the square. The military stormed the area with tanks and machine guns. firing into the crowd at random. Hundreds of young students were killed and thousands wounded in the attack. Scenes of brutality and chaos were broadcast from Tiananmen Square, and there were reports of students and civilians being imprisoned in other parts of China.

     The fear inspired by the government's crackdown was so powerful, almost immediately, students and demonstration organizers stopped talking to the media. The excitement and generous spirit with which interviews had been granted just two days before had eerily disappeared. An official news blackout was imposed, and in addition to sources drying up, reporters and crews themselves were being threatened and interrogated. In a tragic distortion of intentions, the televised interviews and pictures were also used by Chinese officials to identify and incarcerate many of the students involved. The Chinese citizens outside Beijing never really saw or heard the true horror of what happened. They received "official" versions from the state-run news organization. These broadcasts described scenes of violent student protesters and angry dissidents attacking innocent government authorities.

     The Western media was not so easily manipulated. Even though human-rights violations were thought to be commonplace under Communist Party rule, the topics had received little consistent or significant mention in the mainstream media. Tiananmen Square, however, received continuous coverage during the first day of the massacre, representing one of the earliest efforts by U.S. news media to devote non-stop air-time to a breaking international news event. Seldom before had live television so graphically exposed the abuse of  individual rights and disregard for human life. In one of the most dramatic moments of the event, audiences were able to watch a Chinese government official physically unplug the satellite transmitter carrying CBS's broadcast. As CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather stood by, registering his protest, television screens suddenly carried nothing but blurred static until New York transmission opened its own feed to network affiliate stations.

     China experienced nearly three years of economic sanctions and scorn from the international community after the massacre, yet the Chinese government continued its hard-line policies toward all civilian dissent. On subsequent anniversaries of the military attack, Beijing has maintained an official position of denial and repression. Each year on June 4, a heavy police presence stifles the city and international news broadcasts commemorating the event are interrupted and blocked. Hotels have all been instructed to unplug their satellite connections to CNN.

     Despite the government's attempts at censorship, the images broadcast from Tiananmen Square cannot be erased from public memory. However, the anger of the international community seems to have dissipated over the years, as evidenced by Beijing's successful bid to host the 2008 Olympics. When that announcement was made in 2001, hundreds of thousands of people once again flocked to the square-this time to celebrate before the television cameras. Nevertheless, few who watched the coverage will ever forget the sight of a lone student standing defiantly against a column of army tanks, or of soldiers clubbing demonstrators until they were bloody and lifeless, or the panic-stricken faces of the people in the square. Although the Chinese government would like to strike Tiananmen Square from the record books. television has ensured that its lessons will be taught for many years to come.