Xu Qinxian

Xu Qinxian (; August 1935 – 8 January 2021) was a Chinese major general of the People's Liberation Army. As commander of the 38th Group Army, he refused the order to use force against demonstrators in Beijing during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. As a result, Xu was court-martialed, jailed for five years and expelled from the Chinese Communist Party. After serving his sentence, he was exiled to Shijiazhuang, Hebei, where he spent the remainder of his life. A video recording of the entire military trial leaked in 2025.

Early life Xu Qinxian was born in August 1935 in Ye County (now Laizhou), Shandong Province. He was sometimes mistakenly thought to be related to General Xu Haidong.

After the outbreak of the Korean War, he volunteered for the army and was initially rejected because he was underage. The 38th Group Army was a key unit defending Beijing and was based in Baoding, Hebei, about 90 miles south of Beijing. It was the largest, most-mechanized, and best-trained unit of its size in the Chinese military.

On 18 May, President Yang Shangkun heard of Xu's refusal and could not sleep for days. He consulted with the paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping, who said that a soldier like Xu could not disobey the order. Xu was then arrested in the hospital and taken to be court martialled.

According to The Tiananmen Papers, Yang sent Zhou Yibing, the commander of the BMR, to Baoding to persuade Xu. Xu asked Zhou whether the three principals of the Central Military Commission had approved the martial law order. Zhou replied that while Deng Xiaoping, the chairman, and Yang Shangkun, the vice-chairman, had approved, Zhao Ziyang, the first vice-chairman (and the General Secretary of the CCP), had not. Without Zhao's approval, Xu refused to act on the order and asked for sick leave. His request was not granted but he still refused to report to duty.

Xu's defiance fanned fears in the CCP of a rebellion among the military and heightened the belief that the student protesters were a serious threat that had to be eliminated. At his trial, he remained defiant, declaring that "the People's Army has never in its history been used to suppress the people, I absolutely refuse to besmirch this historical record!" including that the order to militarily crush the protests was given orally, without a paper trail. Xu talked about his life after Tiananmen, confirming his expulsion from the party, and his treatment as if he was the deputy commander of a military region. Xu also said he had access to news and was able to travel between Beijing and his home in Shijiazhuang. He expressed no regrets about his actions during the Tiananmen protests. The interview provoked government ire and Xu was confined to Shijiazhuang for the rest of his life,

Xu was married and had a son and a daughter.