Operation Yellowbird

Operation Yellowbird
Part of the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests
ObjectiveFacilitate the escape of Chinese dissidents from mainland China to British Hong Kong
Date ({{{year}}}-{{{month}}}-{{{day}}}) ({{{year}}}-{{{month}}}-{{{day}}})4 June 1989 – 30 June 1997
Executed byMI6, CIA, The Alliance, triads
Operation Yellowbird
Traditional Chinese黃雀行動
Simplified Chinese黄雀行动
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinHuáng Què Xíngdòng
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationWòhng Jeuk Hàhngduhng
JyutpingWong4 Zoek3 Hang4dung6

Operation Yellowbird (Chinese: 黃雀行動) or Operation Siskin was a British Hong Kong–based operation to help the Chinese dissidents who participated in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 to escape arrest by the Chinese government by facilitating their departure overseas via Hong Kong.[1] Western intelligence agencies such as Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS a.k.a. MI6) and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were involved in the operation.[2] Other contributors included politicians, celebrities, business people and triad members from Hong Kong—forming the "unlikely" alliance which sustained the operation for most of its duration.[3][4]

The operation began in late June 1989, following the issuing of an order by the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau on 13 June 1989 to apprehend the leaders of the Beijing Students' Autonomous Federation who were on the run. The operation continued until 1997.[5] Yellowbird successfully helped more than 400 dissidents, who were smuggled through Hong Kong, and then onwards to Western countries.[6] Notable escapees include Wu'erkaixi, Chai Ling, Li Lu, Feng Congde, Chen Yizi, and Su Xiaokang. Three Hong Kong–based activists were arrested by the Chinese authorities, but later released after the intervention of the Hong Kong government.[7]

  1. ^ Liu, Melinda (1 April 1996). "Still on the wing; inside Operation Yellowbird, the daring plot to help dissidents escape". Newsweek.
  2. ^ Anderlini, Jamil (1 June 2014). "Tiananmen Square: the long shadow". Financial Times. Retrieved 2 June 2014. The extraction missions, aided by MI6, the UK's Secret Intelligence Service, and the CIA, according to many accounts, had scrambler devices, infrared signallers, night-vision goggles and weapons.
  3. ^ Lim, Louisa (2014). The People's Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 70. ISBN 9780190227913.
  4. ^ Wen, Philip (1 June 2014). "The incredible story of Brother Six, democracy activist, friend to triads". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 11 April 2018. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  5. ^ 營救八九民運領袖　前線總指揮首次披露 Apple Daily, 28 May 2009
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference standard32996305 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Shiu Tsu Bough Hing, Lo (2009). The politics of cross-border crime in greater China: case studies of mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macao. M.E. Sharp. pp. 87–88. ISBN 9780765623041.