Bian Hanwu was a young Shanghai resident. Following the bloody June 4, 1989 Tiananmen crackdown in Beijing, citizens and students in Shanghai blockaded the Guangxin Road railway intersection in protest. On the night of June 6, train No. 161 ran over protesters, killing several people on the spot and triggering a massive public uprising in which citizens torched the train. In the wave of arrests that followed, Bian Hanwu was detained and swiftly blamed for the unrest. After a summary trial lacking due process, he was sentenced to death. On June 21, 1989, Bian Hanwu was executed by the tyrannical CCP regime alongside Xu Guoming and Yan Xuerong, becoming one of the first Shanghai civilians put to death after the 1989 democracy movement.
On June 21, 1989, Xu Guoming, Bian Hanwu, and Yan Xuerong, who had been sentenced to death in the Guangxin Road crossing incident in Shanghai, were executed. They had been sentenced to death in the first instance on June 15, and the West German ambassador to China had called for the three not to be put to death.
In June 1989, the Shanghai High People's Court rejected the appeals of Xu Guoming, Bian Hanwu, and Yan Xuerong, upholding the death sentences; the three were executed on June 21. The specific date of the second instance was reported to be around June 20.
On June 16, 1989, after three people in Shanghai were sentenced to death, the West German ambassador to China expressed hope that the authorities would not carry out the executions, but the three were still executed on June 21.
On June 15, 1989, the Shanghai Intermediate People's Court sentenced Xu Guoming, Bian Hanwu, and Yan Xuerong to death in the first instance, to be executed immediately, with political rights stripped for life; only 9 days elapsed from the case on June 6 to the verdict.
After the Guangxin Road crossing incident, Shanghai police arrested those involved, including Xu Guoming, Bian Hanwu, and Yan Xuerong. English-language materials say 11 people were arrested at the scene; the claim of dozens of arrests and nighttime raids from June 7 to 9 could not be verified.
At 20:43 on the evening of June 6, 1989, Train No. 161 traveling from Beijing to Shanghai entered the Guangxin Road railway crossing in Putuo District and plowed into a crowd gathered to mourn the victims of June Fourth and protest the massacre, killing 6 people and seriously injuring 6 others. The tragedy enraged the people at the scene; tens of thousands gathered in protest, train carriages were set on fire, and Beijing–Shanghai railway traffic was cut off. The incident is known as the "Guangxin Road Crossing Incident" or the "Shanghai June 6 Incident."
On June 15, 1989, Xu Guoming, Bian Hanwu, and Yan Xuerong were sentenced to death in the first instance by the Shanghai Intermediate People's Court for June Fourth, and were executed by firing squad on June 20, faster than in Beijing.
To remember is to refuse to give in.