Male, 21, worker at Beijing Dongfeng Television Factory and a third-year student in industrial business management at the adult evening school of Beijing Institute of Technology. From: Beijing.

On the evening of June 3, 1989, Wu was walking his girlfriend home. He was shot in the neck near the Muxidi overpass. The bullet exited on the left side of his back near the spinal cord. He was still alive when he was brought to the hospital, but he died in the early morning of June 4, after massive blood loss. On June 4, Wu’s family, very worried about him, went to every hospital searching for him. In the afternoon, they finally found his body at Fuxing Hospital. When they heard that martial law troops were coming to take away bodies to wipe out evidence, his parents rushed to get a death certificate that stated he had died from an illness, to ensure there would be no problem with cremation. [HRIC note: Victims of martial law troops were considered “rioters” and not allowed to be cremated.] In a borrowed jeep, they transported his body on June 6 from the hospital for cremation. Wu’s ashes are buried at Babaoshan Public Cemetery area no. 2, row no. 3, in the western suburbs of Beijing.

Wu was said to have loved life and was known to help others. He actively participated in the 1989 Democracy Movement and had posted an appeal at the entrance to his factory, urging workers to support the students. After martial law was declared, Wu wrote a testament in Tiananmen Square, saying: “I’ve made preparations to stay with the students. I will not hesitate to die—for democracy and freedom.” [See below for his testament in the Chinese original and English translation.]

Wu’s father, Wu Xuehan (吴学汉), and mother, Xu Jue (徐珏), were members of the Tiananmen Mothers before they passed away.