Xu Qinxian

Xu Qinxian (August 1935 – 8 January 2021) was a Chinese major general of the People's Liberation Army.

Xu Qinxian was born in August 1935 in Ye County (now Laizhou), Shandong Province.

He was sometimes mistakenly thought to be related to General Xu Haidong.

After the outbreak of the Korean War, he volunteered for the army and was initially rejected because he was underage.

He was allowed to enlist after he bit his finger and wrote an appeal in blood.

Xu spent 8 months at a People's Liberation Army communications school in Fushun, Liaoning.

He later saw combat in the war, starting off as a telegraph operator in a tank regiment in the 38th Group Army.

After returning from Korea, Xu worked as a radio operator and rose through the ranks to command a communications battalion, and serve as a regimental chief of staff.

The 38th Group Army was a key unit defending Beijing and was based in Baoding, Hebei, about 90 miles south of Beijing.

It was the largest, most-mechanized, and best-trained unit of its size in the Chinese military.

He was then hidden away overnight from searchers sent from the 38th Group Army, whose leadership was replaced before 4 June.

In the 1980s, Xu commanded the 1st Armored Division, and was deputy commander and then commander of the 38th Group Army.

As commander of the 38th Group Army, he refused the order to use force against demonstrators in Beijing during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.

As a result, Xu was court-martialed, jailed for five years and expelled from the Chinese Communist Party.

After serving his sentence, he was exiled to Shijiazhuang, Hebei, where he spent the remainder of his life.

Xu was a protege of Defense Minister Qin Jiwei, who would also later have reservations about enforcing the crackdown during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

In March 1989, Xu was wounded in a grenade training accident and sent to the Beijing Military Region (BMR) Hospital in the capital.

According to Chinese journalist Yang Jisheng, Xu was actually hospitalized with kidney stones.

While hospitalized, Xu watched the student movement unfold and was moved to tears by media coverage of the student protestors' hunger strike in Tiananmen Square.

According to Yang, Xu was recovering from an operation to remove kidney stones when he was visited on 17 May by Li Laizhu, the deputy military commander of the BMR.

Xu was informed of an impending mobilization and declaration of martial law on 19 May, and was asked to express his support as an army commander.

Xu said he could not comply with a verbal order to mobilize and demanded to see a written order.

When told by Li that it "was wartime" and an order in writing would be provided later, Xu responded that there was no war, and reiterated his refusal to carry out a verbal order.

Xu called the BMR's political commissar to inform them of his refusal; privately he told friends that he would rather be executed than to be a criminal to history.

On 18 May, President Yang Shangkun heard of Xu's refusal and could not sleep for days.

He consulted with the paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping, who said that a soldier like Xu could not disobey the order.

Xu was then arrested in the hospital and taken to be court martialled.

According to The Tiananmen Papers, Yang sent Zhou Yibing, the commander of the BMR, to Baoding to persuade Xu.

Xu asked Zhou whether the three principals of the Central Military Commission had approved the martial law order.

Zhou replied that while Deng Xiaoping, the chairman, and Yang Shangkun, the vice-chairman, had approved, Zhao Ziyang, the first vice-chairman, had not.

Without Zhao's approval, Xu refused to act on the order and asked for sick leave.

His request was not granted but he still refused to report to duty.

This face-to-face meeting with Zhou was corroborated by a PLA General interviewed through an associate by The Sydney Morning Herald.

According to that source, around 20 May, General Zhou Yibing, the commander of the Beijing Military Region personally delivered orders to Xu at his unit's headquarters in Baoding, Hebei, for his troops to march against the student protests in Tiananmen Square.

Xu asked Zhou if the order had been approved by Zhao Ziyang, the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party at the time.

When told by Zhou that Zhao had not agreed to the orders, Xu refused to march.

According to Wu Renhua, Xu was recalled to BMR headquarters in mid-May and given verbal orders by BMR commander Zhou Yibing and BMR political commissar Liu Zhenhua to enforce martial law against the student demonstrators in Beijing.

Xu did not immediately object, but returned to Baoding to arrange logistics for his troops to move to Beijing.

He then called the BMR to say he could not command his troops because of his injury and returned to the Beijing Military Region Hospital, where he was arrested.

According to Gao Yu, Xu was summoned to the BMR headquarters a day after refusing his marching orders and had his car hijacked.