Shen was chosen to co-chair a student group that sought to meet with the government.

Peaceful protests spread across the country, first among university students, then among people from all walks of life, with Tiananmen Square at the epicenter. Then the April 15 death of Hu Yaobang, a former Communist Party general secretary, brought out crowds to honor him and press for more of the political and economic reforms he’d begun. Shen Tong, shown in a 1989 photo in Boston, Massachusetts, was a student leader in China's pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. At the time, “I didn’t think I was political-minded,” he said. Shen was 20 and finishing his third year at Peking University. universities and all using American first names to mask their identities – are relatively close in age to what Shen himself was that fateful spring of 1989. Shen and the seven students participated in a radio discussion organized by VOA and led by Jim Stevenson, host of “Daybreak Asia” and a co-host of “China Focus.” The students – all from mainland China, all educated at U.S. Shen shared his perspectives on Tiananmen, on what he considers the futility of a government trying to revise history, on his optimism about the prospect of reforms, and on the power that people of all ages can exert by raising questions – albeit “from a safe place” – about everyday issues. “China missed a major opportunity to move forward,” said Shen, now an activist, author, entrepreneur, angel investor and U.S. This week, the University of Maryland student was among seven young Chinese natives seeking a fuller picture from Shen Tong, a student leader during the massive, peaceful demonstrations leading up to Tiananmen. “I heard the gunshots and asked my parents, and then they told me it was firecrackers,” said Cici, who was 5 at the time.

Almost a Revolution by Shen Tong