they could be the future of. granting opportunities global news that matters d. w. made from minds. their lawyers. rock n roll it. up about the sinful with us down into by the church. i know the evil feeling that you feel when you think. your past years of music. stopped no one is more popular than jesus was the. rock and religion clash that brings many parallels to light in order to really soak your reconcilable up college the devil and you can live. june 17th g.w.

. bush tax cuts. on to fulfill 989 chinese troops attacked pro-democracy demonstrators on beijing's tiananmen square a brutal crackdown to end 7 weeks of peaceful protests. the day after the massacre fountains of demonstrators were arrested sentenced and jailed dozens were executed. but mysteriously some managed to go underground and escape. this is the story of operation yellow bird a covert effort to spirit chinese dissidents out of the country to safety and into exile abroad. for years it was believed the cia was pulling strings now after years

of silence the masterminds of operation yellow bird have started to reveal the details of their story a story in which france played a key role teaming up with some odd bedfellows allies. full of the dissidents smuggled out of china recounts the dramatic events that changed their lives forever. the story of operation yellow bird began in beijing on april the 15th 989 the day saw a vast up pouring of grief over the death of a leading communist party official. who your bank had pushed for democratic reform as for many important them only in tendencies in opposing. but yes before his death

he was ousted from the party's top position of general secretary. now all hopes of political liberalization appear dashed. his state funeral was attended by high ranking leaders of the party which by now had maintained its all solitary and grip on power for 40 years. in the front row intention of paying the country's senior leader and as prime minister at leapin these 2 men had forced yob on from office because he dared to advocate a more transparent political system. outside the great hall of the people a group of students cross the police line on tan and square carrying a petition. down and beg the prime minister to come out and talk but their request was ignored. a wave of outrage spread across china what began as a display of so. a thief or reform minded official now turned into an angry protest

. the battle had begun pitting the chinese people on that course for political and economic reform against communist party hardline as. demonstrations by students and intellectuals rose up in major cities across the country. and were young philosophy professor side chango joined the protest movement he was ready to fight against the censorship of his articles and for economic reform such unquote was $34.00 he had a son and was close to his parents and siblings. working on his 1st book he sensed the political times was turning. or was something

wrong with it we all felt that we were at a historic turning point. so up are there we carried on to the end and one launching a process of democratization in china. for all attempts at reform would be suppressed for a very long time. to fix global. after a decade of economic liberalization china's students were receptive to foreign ideas and they were galvanized by the democratic reforms underway in the communist countries of eastern europe initiated by mikhail gorbachev when the soviet leader arrived in beijing for a state visit or made at 15th 1909 the world was on the threshold of a new era the cold war was ending. students

in china wanted to be part of this historic shift towards democracy and freedom convinced that time and come they occupied chinaman square longfield as the new center of the ruling party. movement organized and lead as a marriage to one us where crushing a 21 year old freshman at one of the country's most prestigious universities on the square he delivered impassioned speeches it was agreed that if the government proposed talks her she would lead the negotiations. moving while i was 27 at the time she worked hard to support her young daughter and her parents with him she lived reading across a gentleman square one morning she stopped her bike to talk to protesters. and she agreed to work for a dissident radio station a move that would change the course of her life.

losing quote read out articles for broadcast increasingly harsh in my condemnation of government officials and their lavish lifestyles i don't want cast i'm a star seeing too so i'm just a make up my the burqas or the center the leg or speak or one of the people continue to make a sock so that's who i am really active that's right yeah my cousin my personality i want to choose more people to know that. soon follow is no longer returning home and evenings to her parents who are looking after her baby instead she stayed with her new friend. being in

a tent. by now thousands were camped out on talent square. people in 300 cities joined the general strike. the protests were now a national crisis. china's leadership was under pressure and it was divided on how to proceed communist party hardliners wanted to restore order immediately by arresting and jailing the protest leaders who they branded as counter-revolutionaries. but moderates advocated a softer line among them young jockey a young political scientist and government advisor he hoped to mediate and calm the situation. here on the record schiff we tried to find a peaceful solution for the party leadership was under immense pressure the 1st i tried to persuade the students to leave the square where they were then i changed my mind to the grounds that the communist party didn't alter its stance or good that i would side with the students in terms of the what order which is inside the

church. and made a head one month after who yonks death. and hundreds of others began a hunger strike. after 5 days the government relented it agreed to meet a student delegation. she left the hospital where he had been admitted for treatment and went directly to talks with the prime minister knee pain. and i immediately. wrote that. the meeting was broadcast on national television and viewed around the world the events in beijing have been headlining international news. now the whole world

watched a young student berate the prime minister an intolerable insult to china's rulers 2 days later leaping declared martial law. that killed. the army was deployed in towns took up positions across the capital ready to intervene if students defied orders to leave chinaman square. the reform minded political scientist made a life changing decision. until then he'd have to quiet like with his wife and 15 year old son now he resigned from all of his posts and joined the students on a scrap from that moment it was made by the state as an insurgent. says it you know i shall i was deeply troubled by martial law thing that same evening i issued a statement calling dung shopping

a dictator and demanding his resignation. on june the 3rd 1892 weeks after the government imposed martial law. paying all the troops to take control of beijing and clear tiananmen square. residents poured out onto the streets to help protesters are wrecked barricades together they set fire to public buses to block the army advance. then any early hours of june the 4th soldiers began firing into the crowds. charging the city and i was just curious speech on the square as soldiers in the streets behind us john started cheering on the room. as though you were sure. within moments the dreams of an entire generation turned into a nightmare. if

you a mark or to my left i saw tanks attacking students so if you could it really was like a war scene thing far more like a. scene like a surrealistic movie i'm sure that. the protesters were stunned they'd never anticipated such a minor offense. would have expected the police club where we expect there's some blood shed that we didn't expect or. life lost one not even a person. in the bloodshed left beijing reeling. students trying to count the dead estimates vary from several 100 to fountain's.

function mock up sufficient frankly after what i'd experienced in beijing i didn't give a damn anymore about democracy freedom victory and all 50. images of the military crackdown sent away for shock and horror around the world. while the military secured control of beijing it also used force to crush protests and other chinese cities. and then public outrage western government slapped sanctions on beijing. a government. led to survive most shoot at the young people it is racist you know certainly and it stands against them in the name of freedom. so this will. such

a government has no future so if you know about it in. china secret police now know which to relentless hunt for activists that released photographs of the most wanted offering rewards for information leading to their arrest. they were now china's public enemy number one. when i see myself on the top of the list it's like number 2 i said well ok i think they're going to make an example. of that they will try really hard to arrest me the rumor i heard in beijing is that they do not want to. arrest me a life. they keep it locked high heat. eaten up on you know you.

look at those clothes and before a guinea like this is not it the noted one of the many yeah the one of the only the name of the core of how old i am where i am leave in this my in my youth i live in the trees and the wood of my whole i'm the tall home as my face iran the face and the steel libya will come askin a white skin or something. it wasn't long before a 2nd list was compiled this one with the names of intellectuals accused of instigating a rebellion by the college that we were scared of being arrested you must care of being killed without i want finding out of. sight chango received a warning from a friend of a police contacts 40 officers were on his trail. ceasar lashing

that's china for you they should they do so if it decides you are the enemy you're the enemy there's nothing you can do about it. but for. hong kong then still a british colony offered a potential escape route for activists warning for their lives it became the center of a network to smuggle dissidents out of china code name operation yellow bird among the key organizers john shand a successful film producer. a young pro-democracy barrister. the baptist cleric to humane and albert hole co-founder of the alliance in support of patrick are sick democratic movement in china. after the resecure. recover you know from the shock every game to think. about what we should do to help that this is the news to leave. the main lead in order to escape from

persecution any no other to a state from. the hazard of being jailed of course you know we all live a long call we have no network with invented chart or what we do. the producer john charm worked his contacts hong kong's entertainment industry have ties to triad gangs and economies underworld these crime syndicates were always willing to smuggle human cargo for cash and listed their chinese counterparts to cool nice escape routes across the water to hong kong. from one day to the next the foundations of a smuggling network were put in place the 1st step involved getting the dissidents to southern china. from there they would be ferried to hong kong. and a final step flown into exile. abroad. it was

a race against time. the hong kong group gave triad networks in beijing the names of people to be smuggled out of the country he said the kits were equipped with state of the art technology to dodge police and government agents. and they knew how to pass on secret instructions to the fugitives. you know how the people coming to me now do you see the ok i knew how rude danger we we should be give you some dropped by you really stand a lot we have a make a schedule because one make a schedule what time you pick up you know like you know we're literal words that i was told to go into hiding will my wife and her belongings is in any way to be contractors on. the operation proceeded quickly just a day after the massacre on channel square

a plan was already in place to get work out of the country he was still in a state of shock when the network contacted him a man arranged to meet him and told him to leave beijing by train. beijing to his base in the daytime is probably one of the most. secured place there are more soldiers and police in the pages than the travelers. but we did manage to get out of our train wherever it is going with and here if there is a train leaving beijing we should beyond that and then the president for a passport helped us to get on the train and then we realized that train is going south so so also this. fugitive's the situation in beijing was growing increasingly dangerous. police released images of fast track trials in executions. on the city streets and squares notices encourage people to turn in

protesters to police with promises of laundry boards printed alongside contact numbers. looting hot only narrowly managed to escape before fleeing she risked returning home to her parents' house to say goodbye to her baby daughter she had no idea it would be 5 years before she saw her again. aware of all holding my daughter that is coming when i see a hole in the money right away and children called and you better by i juz are trying to i'm verse strong inside tears come out but i was still told my daughter said bye bye i don't want to see the freaks i don't want to see face i just say bye bye i understand that i'm verse save i was told what this store i didn't send. meanwhile time chung will had managed to slip out of his hometown of all harm with

the help of several men from the operation albert network his family stayed behind as he raced south the police hot on us heels. of that. we weren't scared when we were on tenement square feet. or so free but when you're running for your life then you're scared scared to death while for the good. in beijing a renowned scientist also feared arrest. finally she was an outspoken dissident who'd had contact with u.s. diplomats but when he arrived at the gates of the u.s. embassy he was the nationally turned away. president george h.w. bush had visited beijing earlier that year and strove to maintain bilateral dialogue even after the massacre nevertheless he granted fang asylum at the u.s. mission. he stayed there for a year until china allowed him to move to the u.s. . yes the deal was negotiated by the us ambassador

a former cia operative. china's suspected the cia was smuggling its most wanted dissidents out of the country. at the same time galloper activists in hong kong began organizing the 3rd step of the operation. they needed to find host countries for the rescue dissidents. the lawyer martin was tasked with persuading representatives of various governments to accept the refugees. the 1st concert i went into was the u.s. consulate. i saw a lady there not the consul general. she was interested to help but only the top leaders of the student movement. she was very interested in big names there with. the week i see and child rearing and so on so i asked her what about the people who are not so well know who are dangerous

that. were our relationship with china which was just getting. there we were having a real growth in if you're in. trade. and it's the level of good answer. except that it would be the go. with chinese. if we started getting people out. under the table. it was impossible for us consol to make such a decision without the backing of the government in washington clearly the

impression given to me was that they would not be welcome in the states. so i just stood up and left. the dissidents who made it to southern china and were taken to safe houses owned by members of the network some were even put up uncomfortable her touts the maffia picked up a tap. others had to sleep in student apartments under beds on the floor they always had for instructions on the next most dangerous leg of their scape crossing the border to hong kong. their yellow but activists were running out of time the 1st dissidents would be arriving from the chinese mainland any day now chinese secret agents were hot pursuit but so far no arrangements were in place to transfer the fugitives to 3rd party countries western states were reluctant to anger china. reg somebody i knew

a french diplomat in fact he viciously came out and met me in the street and i. said look we need help because. when these people are brought in to hong kong. we need some form of government to get them. is the canadian he said the australians the canadians and even the americans were stalling for time and we were their only hope that. we would need to consider allowing the dissidents to travel on to france because they probably could not remain in hong kong. if you know as you know my immediate answer was yes it was a gut reaction i hadn't thought it through over the hill but when you are familiar with the cumbersome workings of bureaucracy and you choose to play it safe and would rather risk an administrative hitch and choose to delay such a matter to. the french

consul general was really sort of the. he only was. judged him on time and made a decision with wide ranging implications. in hong kong he was the only diplomat willing to take a risk to put his career on the line france could pay a high price for his decision 1st he confided in his press attache course was forced upon. the v.a.r. as well as all this was a cry for help that we could neither respond to nor ignore spoke of a low our decision was spontaneous or souls the liquid he was in line with my own deepest convictions are all human life in higher regard than a trick they are given when a thought. the whole point is your you make such a decision because your listening to your hardly quickened are conscious of history of. the pro-democracy activists in

hong kong france is not was an important victory bad had a new ally a western ally in. the network and with the now complete. and that continued on grass to many chinese cities operatives in hong kong prepared for the arrival of the 1st diffidence. to prepare the most dangerous part of their escape the sea crossing from mainland china organizers used a code derived from medical terms. if a dissident was held up by police informant spoke of arthritis of scapegoating to plant was described by the code word heart disease. after a 2000 kilometer journey where cars she waited on the shore scouring the sea for

a light signal from a boat that would smog. out of china 2 attempts had already failed i learned as much later they said this is going to be the last attempt. if they do it become much more dangerous because the chinese authority has already realized i was alerted that i could be there and they have deployed much have year. border patrol. including helicopters so has to work. it was at the seashore 9 o'clock noble. 930 no boat. 10 o'clock no boat. but 1035. there agreed a signal appear on the horizon and i see. his flashlight and i say wow

they're here wow great and i forgot to flashback and they say we're ok yes i have supposed to flash back and i did. and then you flashed back again so. i start to. walk into the water walk toward the light that time at that moment i turn my head back and look at time again. and then i think i know stepping into what i don't know when would i be able to touch that soil again. what signs from all the time had also come to leave china he escaped one afternoon on board a small place but hidden with dissidents behind the truck door chinese spies were already infiltrating the smuggling network and then traps.

pretty awful stuff can something china the accomplices assigned to escort her never arrived. i thought though there are several members of the network will haunt. a meeting had been arranged at a hotel but it turned out to be a sting operation. to go where you know the police were waiting for them on time they were all arrested all the people on the large. at the time neither the french president francois mitterrand know his foreign minister who down to mach had any notion that that diplomatic representatives in east asia were involved in human smuggling. consuls on pm on time they needed to inform his appearance of the foreign ministry in paris fast.

montagnier put his trust the network of experts on china working for the administration and paris and it worked. they secured a tacit green light from the highest level of government. secretly especially units was formed in paris its job was to prepare for the refugees arrival and provide them with assistance as they settled in france. code named and lease it was stopped by just a few china experts. the oh did police was made up of one or 2 diplomats and a handful of people who hardly knew each other in total 5 or 6 people all this happened on the periphery and in hong kong for example everything was arranged outside of administrative and governmental departments and because as one foreign minister aptly put it discretion is the cornerstone of efficiency 60.

elise was the french wing of operation yellow but its main task was finding secret accommodation for newly arrived dissidents because to begin with they would need to remain in hiding. all it all see if also there were secret funds of the foreign ministry and they had to be used for something the dissidents need a place to stay after they arrived here and organize and that wasn't easy hokum york real estate agents you needed to find solutions so he consulted experts who are also in a position to care for the new arrivals. and help them adjust to. the french branch of the yellow bird network prepared to receive the dissidents the 1st group of refugees was just to ride. 1000 kilometers away in hong kong.

where cause she was one of the few to arrive on one of the mafia speed boats. these boats were used to smuggle all types of goods and were faster than the coast guard's boats we picked him up in a small harbor you know. the 1st arrivals were put up on the network. were taken to vice consul montana's home. located up on victoria peak and offered a commanding view over. the news given his notoriety i was asked to take him to my place. above all because he was determined to fight on to place he wanted to convene a press conference in hong kong. that could have been exceedingly dangerous so we kept him at my house under the watch of an armed guard who ensured that he didn't flee. and then when i arrived in the home of

french consulate general i took my 1st bass hot water bass and then i realized my body was all cut by the oysters feel that i have to swim to the boat and then i was so keen to see you water it was. open and pleaded out. however at that time i think i have filtered a sense of. security at the same time. last. only forwards at all or parliaments at all and we were hidden in a very large ass the owner was famous and rich. country that cemented his that joshua was elated he was put up at the home of one of the biggest bosses of one of the most powerful mafia triads and on kong there. are not certain whether the

young young jackie was aware of that fact. yes yes. only cost us. reference who wasn't charge of finding accommodation for other dissidents to you in hong kong. gone nobody can buy like the whole idea i was given the job of finding secret and safe apartments and houses out a copy for a while so tended to the dissidents daily needs your guard sometimes i offer them comfort or advise them on how to cope with their stress their fears for their future her situation to be buggered. for the refugees the period of waiting in hong kong was a relief. but they were also plagued by and science the over the next step getting across hong kong's border to freedom. to that and

delivered needed the cooperation of the british or farsi who controlled hong kong's pulled its. security it is simple talk it was crucial to persuade the british to play along it is ridge so i went to a friend who was the deputy political advisor to the governor joined you cause he but as i said i have where kai she's staying at my house. there are 2 options would. do if either he goes public and holds a press conference or single. or we find a way to smuggle him to france fool who basically put it that you will feel. those facilities to the british knew the chinese leadership psyche and immediately understood that beijing couldn't be made to look like the loser in the deal did it must never emerge that the dissidents had come through hong kong. so our unity was immediately formed to with the so-called special grange and piggy. immediate all

the species the ranch. and agent with the special branch of the hong kong police force was immediately summoned to a meeting at the house of the french consul. together john martin lee jump him on tanya and. devised a strategy. yes he should granted we had a rigorous protocol concerning the identity of the dissidents here you know as well as the identities under which they would be exiting the colony and one of. the 2 french diplomats were asked to supply the dissidents with fake identity papers. i led to his we gave them a loss a process that's a document with a photograph of the person who's been assigned a fictitious name like you put effort to this will teach their key to the documents states that the person has lost his passport and is

a french citizen is that way they could leave hong kong with the city police needed to be on call for the travel costs falls off once a bank took photographs of every dissident he needed to take precautions. and all twerking that you have to call them the more you tried to make them look very ordinary the like a stereotypical trying to use person almost like a caricature that they're not quite in a green cap and blue boiler suit through the bottom of not a far cry from the idea either equally or did they use that these little rupie. we needed to make them blend in that it was the me use makeup to make them look more photogenic can i give them a more modern look foot to should make up the. year. difference diplomats also gave the refugees a 2nd set of identity documents bearing their real names and they were given a valid visa to enter from. on the day that the poncho jockey and this wife felt

relieved to believe in hong kong but their son was still in beijing. we were reading the newspaper in hong kong and saw our read headline. the paying was calling for my execution. it was clear we had no choice the same day we were very sad. as your winds us or want to also have a. we knew we'd be leaving a few days later just so this is the i remember standing at the window looking out at the mountains on young fives i thought. those are the mountains of china. i had to cry. i didn't want to leave china my family my family all my loved ones my future i never wanted to leave china and i'd never dreamed i would have to leave it

i wept for a very long time look a little down. on the day of departure a member of the british secret service met the tiananmen fugitives for a final briefing. searchings how or where they are good my wife and i were given reforms of the hong kong police force. we were told to wear their fists to disguise and sing as we went through customers and boarded the plane with origins. thing for the. did he go on the day a telegram was then dispatched with the names of those who had left he said he said that gave our friends in paris time to make arrangements to welcome them and he's a king. as soon as they landed in paris the difference took out the new travel papers someone contacted by members of the elise group on the plane before disembarking others were approached by french secret service agents on the tarmac.

a few 1000 pounds off air and that's when we finally arrived in france we felt strange almost bizarre or if we were glad to be alive that was the most important thing on a on it there but we weren't receptive to the people who welcomed us. we weren't interested in who they were things i. said of you know i lost it but also we weren't interested in paris or the landscape on the boat. we couldn't take it in the morning at that moment exists the done the world didn't exist for us. all this is a time long. we were very anxious about all friends when we were trying to figure out how many people had died of the other hand the bad news is keep coming. this person and

that person get arrested or they're all friends and they were. but you know it's a very strange feeling when we learn someone is arrested. we're sad but also relieved. because that means they're not go. on french soil the chinaman dissidents were now political refugees their lives were no longer in danger but they had to remain in hiding. in hong kong marginally in al but her continued to fight for human rights. to this day china refuses to allow the 4 rescue dissidents to return. desperate to see his parents worker she has tried numerous times to turn himself into chinese authorities are brought but each time they have refused to arrest him. our lives in new york 5 years after she fled china she was reunited with her daughter who no longer recognized her. such ongo is haunted by the loss of his parents who died before he

could say goodbye. young jackie son was smuggled out of china a year after his parents fled rather than joining them in washington he settled in paris. hype or hysteria. artificial intelligence in daily life certainly has its perks but also its downside. is this new technology actually intelligent or just cleverly programmed scientists attack on that question with surprising

results the world did it. to minutes g.w. . for the father it was the beginning of a long ordeal. for the son a traumatic memory. for both of them is an open. and square. 30 years after the bloody chinese capital a father and son tell their story. today in the day one to talk. to me.

not everyone who loves books has to go in the same place d.w. literature list 100 plus street place. blame. for your views live from birth land political leaders in germany brace for crisis talks as fashions are raised over the survival of chancellor angela merkel's government it follows the shock resignation. of the leader of her social democrat coalition partners andrea nala also coming up u.s.

president donald trump and his wife a lot yeah absolutely do pay for a state visit hundreds of thousands of demonstrators are expected to turn out.