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Escape from China: The Long Journey From Tiananmen to Freedom
Who can forget the images, telecast worldwide, of brave Chinese students facing down tanks in Tiananmen Square as they took on their Communist government? After a two-week standoff in 1989, military forces suppressed the revolt, killing many students and issuing arrest warrants for top student leaders, including Zhang Boli. After two years as a fugitive, Zhang -- the only leader to elude capture -- knew that he must bid his beloved country, as well as his wife and baby daughter, farewell. Traveling across the frozen terrain of the former Soviet Union, where peasants rescued him, and through the deserted lands of China's precarious borders, Zhang had only his extraordinary will to propel him toward freedom. As told in Escape from China -- a work of great historical resonance -- his story will renew your faith in the human spirit.
288 pages, Paperback
First published June 5, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 23, 2011
What an amazing story. I learned a lot about Tiananment Square and the conditions in China during this time period. Zhang Boli has certainly endured a lot to fight for what he believed in. I gave this a high rating because of its ability to be inspiring.
September 18, 2025
A book written by one of the Tianamen Square protestors and his escape from China after the govt wanted to incarcerate him for the protest. He had many challenging times over two years before he was able to get into America. Well written and interesting read.
September 19, 2023
One day I was forced off the highway with car troubles. While mechanics fixed my vehicle, I wandered through a nearby shopping area and discovered this deeply discounted book on a remainder table. I remember IM’ing my friend, who responded that it had decent reviews on Amazon, so I bought it.
Good move! Actually, I shouldn’t have needed to check beyond the book itself. On the first line of the foreword, Chinese dissident Wang Dan writes, “Misery, like prosperity or triumph, is the spiritual property of a nation. To forget a nation’s suffering is to create new misery in its place.” That is precisely what I think is the problem with China’s up-and-coming generation today: They are in denial about what their government has done to them as a populace, as evidenced most recently by their outrage over criticism that the PLA had abused some protesting Tibetan monks. Chinese coworkers of mine indignantly claimed in their email threads that not only were these charges false, but the stories about Tiananmen Square were as well.
Escape From China, for those able to accept it, tells what I believe really happened at Tiananmen Square. It’s good reading, and about a significant topic. That topic is not just the historical events of June 1989 but also what happens when the tools of persuasion collide with the tools of coercion. The latter are, of course, always deployed by authoritarian governments when push comes to shove.
Good move! Actually, I shouldn’t have needed to check beyond the book itself. On the first line of the foreword, Chinese dissident Wang Dan writes, “Misery, like prosperity or triumph, is the spiritual property of a nation. To forget a nation’s suffering is to create new misery in its place.” That is precisely what I think is the problem with China’s up-and-coming generation today: They are in denial about what their government has done to them as a populace, as evidenced most recently by their outrage over criticism that the PLA had abused some protesting Tibetan monks. Chinese coworkers of mine indignantly claimed in their email threads that not only were these charges false, but the stories about Tiananmen Square were as well.
Escape From China, for those able to accept it, tells what I believe really happened at Tiananmen Square. It’s good reading, and about a significant topic. That topic is not just the historical events of June 1989 but also what happens when the tools of persuasion collide with the tools of coercion. The latter are, of course, always deployed by authoritarian governments when push comes to shove.
February 20, 2016
Very interesting...freedom at any cost.
April 25, 2025
What is the cost of peace? In the past forty years, China has enjoyed an unprecedented surge in prosperity, emerging from the ruins of the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) and establishing herself as an economic and geopolitical superpower on the world stage. In mere decades, rural towns have been transformed into burgeoning megacities that rival the likes of New York and Tokyo. But, of course, behind this economic “miracle” is a regime of silence, control, suppression, and, at one point, bloodshed.
Zhang Boli’s book Escape from China is a memoir about his participation in the infamous Tiananmen Square protests, followed by his harrowing two-year-long escape from the clutches of the Chinese government. In this gripping tale of cat-and-mouse, we are exposed to the gritty resilience of the human spirit as well as the strife of love and loss. And finally, as we might expect, we witness some of the deep spiritual longings that emerge from the soul of a wanted man without a home, searching for “a better country” (Heb. 11:16).
A week after the bloody dawn hours of June 4, 1989, the Chinese government releases the names of the twenty-one most wanted student leaders to the entire nation, with orders to turn them in to the police immediately. Their names and pictures are broadcast on every television and plastered on the walls of every railway station and airport. Zhang Boli is one of them. It is a nationwide manhunt, and there is nowhere to hide.
Forced to leave his wife and daughter, Zhang seeks shelter from friends and distant relatives. Exiling himself deep into the wild countryside of northeast China, the ex-student who once earned a living as a journalist transforms into a peasant, enduring the fierce winters in complete solitude and supporting himself by farming rice. Over the next two years, he has close-calls with the police and even an encounter with the Russian KGB. He experiences the angst of loneliness, the pain of abandonment, and the incessant fear of capture and death.
Read my full review here: https://www.jacobnie.com/blog/2025/25...
Zhang Boli’s book Escape from China is a memoir about his participation in the infamous Tiananmen Square protests, followed by his harrowing two-year-long escape from the clutches of the Chinese government. In this gripping tale of cat-and-mouse, we are exposed to the gritty resilience of the human spirit as well as the strife of love and loss. And finally, as we might expect, we witness some of the deep spiritual longings that emerge from the soul of a wanted man without a home, searching for “a better country” (Heb. 11:16).
A week after the bloody dawn hours of June 4, 1989, the Chinese government releases the names of the twenty-one most wanted student leaders to the entire nation, with orders to turn them in to the police immediately. Their names and pictures are broadcast on every television and plastered on the walls of every railway station and airport. Zhang Boli is one of them. It is a nationwide manhunt, and there is nowhere to hide.
Forced to leave his wife and daughter, Zhang seeks shelter from friends and distant relatives. Exiling himself deep into the wild countryside of northeast China, the ex-student who once earned a living as a journalist transforms into a peasant, enduring the fierce winters in complete solitude and supporting himself by farming rice. Over the next two years, he has close-calls with the police and even an encounter with the Russian KGB. He experiences the angst of loneliness, the pain of abandonment, and the incessant fear of capture and death.
Read my full review here: https://www.jacobnie.com/blog/2025/25...
September 2, 2025
extremely interesting I really learnt a lot from reading this book. im so glad I found the ebook on libby and used pocketbooks to read it out loud for me. I had to read it all in one go it was that good. I definitely recommend reading it.
June 1, 2025
Slecht geschreven, wel een indrukwekkend verhaal
May 18, 2011
I started reading this book in Canada, and finished just before arriving home. Wow. Amazing what Zhang has seen between the Tiananmen square and on the way to get out of China. Suddenly one's own problems seem small again.
I hope this will never be ruined as hollywoodianizing this book - some things are just better read as books.
I hope this will never be ruined as hollywoodianizing this book - some things are just better read as books.
March 8, 2010
This copy is hardback
July 13, 2010
I learned a lot about the Tiananmen Square incident. Very interesting, but the language is awful.
August 11, 2016
An amazing true story.
A must read especially at the time of the anniversary of the Tienanmen square slaughter.
A must read especially at the time of the anniversary of the Tienanmen square slaughter.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews