Words that Killed Thousands - April 26, 1989

On April 26, 1989, the Chinese Communist Party published a single front-page editorial, and a movement that was fading became a massacre that killed hundreds, possibly thousands. But the story of that editorial is far more complicated than a hero-versus-villain narrative: a terrified leadership, a reform-minded general secretary on a plane to North Korea, students who were called conspirators before they had a chance to be anything else, and a playbook for silencing dissent that governments are still using today.