On 7 June 1989, three days after Tiananmen Square had been swept clean, I went to my office just outside the city centre. It was in the Guoji Dasha (‘International Building’), a high-rise office building on the Jianguomenwai, the eastern portion of the wide avenue that criss-crosses Beijing from east to west. The scars from the military advance of the People's Liberation Army were still everywhere to be seen: Burnt-out busses, uprooted trees and bullet holes in the walls. The streets usually crawling with masses of people were deserted. In many places banners against the government were still hanging: ‘Bloodshed must be answered with blood!’ ‘Death to Premier Li Peng!’

I parked my grey Jeep Cherokee a short walk away from the office, went into the abandoned lobby of the building and took the lift to the fifth floor. When I entered the small amro-Bank office, the crystal-clear light of Beijing streamed serenely through the windows. There were stories going around that the offices of foreign businesses had been searched by the Public Security Bureau, but there was no evidence of that. The tray with the outgoing mail on my desk was full of stacks of paper, patiently waiting for the office staff who had been sitting at home for weeks. I took a few important documents, like insurance policies, out of their folders, grabbed the money out of the safe, and sat down behind my desk. Aimlessly, I looked out across the wide deserted lanes of the Jianguomenwai. The window was open, the curtains rustled softly in the wind – the traumatised city was shrouded in an unreal silence.

The rumble of heavy vehicles yanked me out of my slumber. I jumped up and looked outside. In a long and threatening ribbon of potential violence, tanks and open lorries with soldiers were driving in from the west. It seemed as if they were going to drive past our office building, but suddenly the very first vehicle stopped. One soldier after the other jumped out onto the street and ran for the bushes, seeking cover. A commanding officer barked orders, and all eyes and gun barrels were aimed at my office building. Then all hell broke loose.