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[[File:Goddess of Democracy at UBC.jpg|thumb|upright|A replica of ''[[Goddess of Democracy]]'' outside of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada]]
Chinese Communist Party officials have long asserted that no one died in the square itself in the early morning hours of June 4, during the "hold-out" of students' last batch in the south part of the Square. Initially, foreign media reports of a "massacre" on the Square were prevalent, though subsequently, journalists have acknowledged that most of the deaths occurred outside of the square in western Beijing. Several people who were situated around the square that night, including former Beijing bureau chief of ''The Washington Post'' [[Jay Mathews]]{{efn|Jay Mathews, former Beijing bureau chief for ''The Washington Post'' said that "as far as can be determined from the available evidence, no one died that night in Tiananmen Square". He goes on to conclude: {{quote|A few people may have been killed by random shooting on streets near the square, but all verified eyewitness accounts say that the students who remained in the square when troops arrived were allowed to leave peacefully. Hundreds of people, most of them workers and passersby, did die that night, but in a different place and under other circumstances.{{sfn|Mathews|1998}}}}}} and CBS correspondent [[Richard Roth (journalist)|Richard Roth]]{{efn|Richard Roth reported that he was held captive by troops in the Great Hall of the People on the west side of the square on the night of June 3 and could hear but not see into the square until dawn when they were driven through the square. He heard a "volley of gunfire" to silence the students' loudspeakers. He added that there is no doubt that many people were killed in the area on the way to and around the square, mostly in western Beijing, which the CCP denies.{{sfn|Roth|2009b}}}} reported that while they had heard sporadic gunfire, they could not find enough evidence to suggest that a massacre took place on the Square itself.
Taiwan-born [[Hou Dejian]] was present in the square to show solidarity with the students and claimed that he didn't see any massacre occurring in the square. He was quoted by Xiaoping Li, a former China dissident to have stated, "Some people said 200 died in the square, and others claimed that as many as 2,000 died. There were also stories of tanks running over students who were trying to leave. I have to say I did not see any of that. I was in the square until 6:30 in the morning."<ref>{{Cite web|last=Clark|first=Gregory|date=July 21, 2008|title=Birth of a massacre myth|url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2008/07/21/commentary/birth-of-a-massacre-myth/|access-date=December 2, 2020|website=The Japan Times}}</ref>
Similarly, in 2011, three secret cables from the [[Embassy of the United States, Beijing|United States embassy in Beijing]] agreed there was no bloodshed inside Tiananmen Square itself.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8555142/Wikileaks-no-bloodshed-inside-Tiananmen-Square-cables-claim.html|title=Wikileaks: no bloodshed inside Tiananmen Square, cables claim|newspaper=Telegraph|access-date=June 4, 2011}}</ref> A Chilean diplomat who had been positioned next to a Red Cross station inside the square told his US counterparts that he did not observe any mass firing of weapons into the crowds in the Square itself, although sporadic gunfire was heard. He said that most of the troops who entered the Square were armed only with anti-riot gear.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Wikileaks: no bloodshed inside Tiananmen Square, cables claim|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8555142/Wikileaks-no-bloodshed-inside-Tiananmen-Square-cables-claim.html|access-date=December 2, 2020|website=The Telegraph}}</ref>{{sfn|Lilley|1989}} Records by the Tiananmen Mothers suggest that three students died in the Square the night of the army's push into the Square.{{efn|An English translation of the Tiananmen Mothers' Database – Note: contains incorrect English spellings of some victims' names. "Not Forget Us" Accessed June 20, 2013.}}
Chinese scholar [[Wu Renhua]], who was present at the protests, wrote that the government's discussion of the issue was a [[red herring]] intended to absolve itself of responsibility and showcase its benevolence. Wu said that it was irrelevant whether the shooting occurred inside orthe outsideSquare ofor thein Squareadjacent itselfareas, as it was still a reprehensible massacre of unarmed civilians:
<blockquote>Really, whether the fully equipped army of troops massacred peaceful, ordinary folks inside or outside the square make very little difference. It is not even worthwhile to have this discussion at all.<ref>Wu Renhua, ''Regarding the Clearing of the Square of June 4'' (in Chinese)</ref>
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