Tiananmen Square Document 11: Cable, SITREP No. 28: Ten to Fifteen Thousand Armed Troops Stopped at City Perimeter by Human and Bus Barricades, 1989

The tension in Beijing had increased sharply by the late afternoon of June 3 when ten to fifteen thousand fully equipped troops in large truck convoys moved toward the city center. Unlike the previous units, these troops were helmeted and armed with automatic weapons suggesting, as this cable does, "that the force option is real." The document describes the movement of these troops toward the vicinity of Tiananmen Square from several different directions, noting that, "The population appears hostile to PLA movements into the city."

To access the document, please click here.

Original source: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB16/documents/index.html#d11