During the
1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, Qian was the head of the ''
People's Daily'', the CCP Central Committee's official newspaper. At the time, the CCP leadership was split between those advocating a conciliatory approach with the students and those advocating a hardline crackdown. During the protests, the newspaper printed several stories which were later regarded by the government as sympathetic of the students. In addition, both Qian and the Editor-in-Chief Tan Wenrui were accused of tolerating pro-student editors, who obliquely attacked the hardliners in their reporting. Specifically, Qian directly authorized a series of reports, titled "Xth day of Martial Law", which was said to mock the hardliners by exaggerating the frivolity in
Beijing while under martial law. Its reportage of international news was also said to satirize the hardliners in the CCP leadership. In its June 4 Edition, the ''People's Daily'' made a series of editorial decisions which the government later condemned as oblique criticism of the crackdown. In the international news section, for example, the
Gwangju Uprising was reported with a headline, printed in
bold type, of "
Seoul students go on hunger strike to protest government massacre and crackdown". The headline of a story on
Poland was "Warning: no-body should play with fire", with a tagline "Polish leaders say elections are a great experiment in reconciliation". A number of reports on "Convicted criminal becomes People's Representative", and "Judge perverts justice" were also included. The headline "the unconquerable man" was printed in the sports section. More serious, however, was the "People's Daily Extra incident". Some ''People's Daily
employees under the leadership of editor Wu Xuecan organized the printing of an unauthorized "extra" edition, which re-printed student flyers and took the point of view of the student protestors. Only about 1000 copies were reportedly printed, all of which were distributed to the protesting students. The "extra" was a direct response to the "April 26 Editorial", an article written by hawkish CCP leaders and published in the People's Daily
, and which took a hostile attitude to the students. Despite immediately printing a notice that disclaimed the Extra as unauthorized, both Qian and Tan Wenrui were removed from their posts in the purge at the People's Daily'' that followed the protests. ==Later career==