Forbidden City

Confrontation between troops and students begin in earnest. Alex describes himself as “grounded” because for once he is not able to talk Ted and Eddie into letting him accompany them into the square to see what’s going on with the demonstrations. Instead, they tell Alex he should stay at the hotel with Lao Xu. They promise to correspond with him over the two-way radio.

The two men take separate locations and spy distinct types of activity, both of which they related to Alex, who franticly writes down what they are seeing. Soldiers push their way through the crowd, swinging clubs at anyone in their way. Tear gas is used in an attempt to disperse the crowd. There is shouting, hysteria, and confusion. The streets are jammed, so no one can get in or out.

A strange occurrence happens with the two-way radio, and suddenly Alex begins picking up another frequency. Through the crackle of this frequency and a number that Ted and Eddie hear a student shouting through a megaphone—“Twenty Seven!”—the reporters come to the conclusion that these student demonstrators are being caught in the middle of a giant power struggle between different forces that want to gain power in the Party.

Again, Alex and Lao Xu are left behind at the hotel as the two elder reporters go out to survey the scene at Tiananmen Square. Alex continues to listen to the two-way radio, to ask and report back. He discovers who it is that he has connected with via the other frequency, an American journalist for ABC who happens to also be headquartered at the same hotel.

Alex and Lao Xu try to pass the time reading and playing chess but neither of them can properly concentrate. Lao Xu strains to listen to Eddie and Ted as they narrate what they see the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) doing. Lao Xu’s father fought with the army, and he is reluctant to believe the worst of them. Alex and Lao Xu are both glued to the radio as Eddie and Ted, from different points in the square, narrate the army’s arrival via personnel carriers. Rather than moving out of their way, the protesters throw things at the tanks, including Molotov cocktails, which causes a fire under the carriers. The protesters help the soldiers out of their tanks, and Alex listens to his father cheering on the students.

But then things turn suddenly black. The army begins to open fire on the crowd. Civilians are being pursued and gunned down. Foreigners are being pursued. Alex tries to warn his father. Over the radio, he yells for Ted to get out of there, to return to the hotel. Alex listens to his father saying that the tanks are coming, that they’re getting closer, taking aim. Alex hears Chinese voices yelling, then his father shout to stop before giving a final scream. The line goes dead.

Horrified, Alex hurries out of the hotel, pushing his way through the crowd. Lao Xu refuses to let him go alone. They are barely out of the door when they find themselves staring down a military unit, guns aimed at them. Rather than run, Lao Xu shouts at them in Chinese and English, demanding to know what they are doing. Alex can see now that Lao Xu was never a spy, as he was always a friend, even though he was also a true believer in the PLA. Despite this, he is gunned down while Alex watches. Others in the crowd are also hit. A woman shot in the head collapses onto Alex, who finds himself covered in her blood. Reluctantly leaving behind the body of Lao Xu, Alex manages to get onto a bus, where he pulls his camera out of his backpack, deciding that as his father’s son, he should do all he can to record this. The bus is stopped by another army unit and everyone inside scrambles. As he runs away, Alex is shot in the leg. He feels himself being vaguely pulled then carried before everything goes dark.

When he wakes up, he is wearing neither pants nor shirt and isn’t sure where he is. Alex is lying on a small brick framed bed and wonders if the PLA has captured him. But then a small, elderly woman appears, bearing tea. She offers him food and checks the crude bandages that have been wrapped around his leg. The elderly woman, Nai-nai, calls her granddaughter, one of the students that Alex met on the square. Xin-hua, the woman’s granddaughter, explains that her friend who is a medical student fixed Alex’s leg. Alex discovers that the friend she is referring to is the red-hatted student he spoke to days ago, whom he mentally nicknamed Hang and whose real name is Xiao Nie. The students tell Alex to rest. They promise they will help him find his father, or what became of his father, though Xin-hua tells Alex that the army has begun burning the bodies so that they can say this slaughter never happened. The students ask Alex for his help bringing this to the world’s attention, making the most of the footage he captured.

Alex spends the next day continuing to recover and wondering how he will ever make it back to the hotel. The square lies between where he is presently and where he hopes Eddie has made it back to, hopefully with some information about his father. For a brief moment, Alex entertains the idea of taking the back streets he became so acquainted with during his bike rides back to the hotel. But then he realizes that there are barracks throughout the city, and he is scarcely mobile with his leg injury.

He continues to be attentively cared for by Nai-nai and his student rescuers. Xiao Nie gives him more painkillers and antibiotics to stave off infection. He also performs acupuncture on Alex.

Xin-hua reports what she has learned through conversation and the scant news that is still trickling into China from the outside world. It is estimated that at least 2,600 students and civilians have been killed so far. The PLA is out patrolling the streets. Civilians are being forced to show papers. Those that challenge or refuse are beaten or shot on sight. The army has forced their way into hotels, rounding out reporters and foreigners and in one location killing two doctors who tried to resist. A woman on a balcony who called the PLA “fascist” was shot by a moving tank, her body falling off the balcony and into the street.