On June 4, after witnessing the massacre, Xiong Yan, a student movement leader, posted a big-character poster at Peking University. The poster stated his resignation from the Chinese Communist Party: "I announce my withdrawal from the Chinese Communist Party. From this point on, I sever all ties with the Chinese Communist Party." Another poster, also signed by Xiong, read: "Throw away illusions; prepare for battle".

According to the "The Tiananmen Papers", at that time, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Renmin University, the China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing Normal University, and other colleges all had party members announce their withdrawal from the party. In some departments, some people put their membership certificates together and burned them.

After the June 4th crackdown, Xiong Yan was placed on a list of 21 people wanted by the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau. He was later arrested in Inner Mongolia, then detained for a year and a half. After his release, he fled to Hong Kong on a fishing boat. He was granted asylum in the US in 1992. He converted to Christianity, after which he studied theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Boston, Massachusetts. He also became a US Army chaplain, and served in Iraq.

References: [紐約時報中文網("New York Times Chinese Edition")(Chinese)] (https://cn.nytimes.com/china/20140604/c04mostwanted/zh-hant/); "Vision Times"; "The Tiananmen Papers"