According in the documentary Gate of Heavenly Peace, she had indicated that the strategy of the leadership group she dominated was to provoke the Government to use violence against the unarmed students.

[3] She has made a number of controversial remarks regarding her role in the 1989 protests that were recorded in an interview with Phillip Cunningham in the documentary The Gate of Heavenly Peace, which have since been the subject of various legal[4][5][6] and personal[7] disputes.

[20][21] On May 12, fellow demonstrator Wang Dan approached Chai and informed her that he planned to join the hunger strike, which at the time consisted of only forty members.

[28] Two days later, Chai was elected to serve as commander in chief of the Hunger Strike Committee, one of several student demonstration organizations in Tiananmen Square.

[29][30] On May 19, Chai announced the end of the hunger strike, a decision that was met with criticism from Feng Congde, Wang Wen, and groups of angry demonstrators.

[33] The retreat of the hunger strike leaders caused a power vacuum that was filled by the Beijing Students Autonomous Union, as well as new organizations which had been created.

[35][36] During a May 27 meeting with other student leaders, Chai Ling and Feng Congde voted in favour of evacuating the square on May 30.

[37][38][39] At the press conference that same evening, however, Chai and Feng changed their positions and instead supported the continued occupation of the square.

[38][40] Chai claimed that the meeting had been part of plot to remove the students from the square and defended her change of opinion by stating that she had been pressured into voting to leave.

[34] Chai resigned from her role as commander in chief of Defend Tiananmen Square Headquarters on May 29, though she later resumed her position.

[45] Chai was also an adamant supporter of the purity of the student movement and resisted both the participation of non-student protesters, and involvement in the political struggle between government reformers and hardliners.

[51] When the violent government crackdown ended the demonstrations on the night of June 3, Feng and Chai escaped Beijing by train.

[58][59] However declassified US embassy cables published on Wikileaks, contradicted this and concluded that the students were allowed to leave peacefully without bloodshed when soldiers had arrived to clear the square.

Wu'er Kaixi claimed to witness two hundred students massacred in spite of the fact that he had left hours before the military arrived at the square.

[61] Li Lu also stated that he witnessed tanks drive over tents full of sleeping protesters, killing hundreds of unarmed students.

On June 13, the Public Security Ministry issued an arrest warrant which listed the names of twenty-one student demonstrators in order of importance.

[64][65] At the University of Hong Kong, Feng and Chai were put in contact with an underground rescue network that orchestrated their escape to France.

[73] While working at Bain & Company, Chai began dating her current husband, Robert A. Maginn Jr., a partner at the firm.

[76] In June 2010, Chai Ling started a nonprofit called "All Girls Allowed" with the aim of stopping the human rights violations related to the One-Child Policy.

[79] Footage from a documentary titled The Gate of Heavenly Peace shows viewers parts of an interview between Chai and reporter Philip Cunningham from May 28, 1989, a week prior to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.

[81] Declassified US embassy cables published on Wikileaks contradicted her later witness testimonial of experiencing a massacre in the square.