The Underground Railroad that Rescued Hundreds of Chinese Dissidents
Operation Yellowbird
The Tiananmen Square massacre of June 4, 1989, was a turning point for modern China. It was the day the state made its citizens aware of their place in society. The day tanks rolled over students, soldiers fired into crowds, and media branded peaceful protesters as traitors.
What happened in the years following, however, is a testament to the humanity of the Chinese people. It’s humanity that remains hidden behind propaganda, military parades, and a wall of censorship. But it’s real nonetheless.
The night of the massacre, a Hong Kong underworld boss phoned a business executive, asking “What can we do?”. State media at the time was broadcasting a list of most-wanted individuals. At the top of this list were the “black hands,” or alleged foreign agents secretly responsible for masterminding the protests. What these “black hands” needed now more than ever was a way out of China, a lifeline of sorts.
That June, a small group of Hong Kong elites decided to establish an extraction operation, moving select individuals from mainland China to the British-controlled city. The British government, for its part, was wary of angering China before Hong Kong’s 1997 handover. Extractions would thus only be allowed covertly, without…
