Qian had a distinguished career in foreign affairs, and was China's first ambassador to UNESCO, in addition to being the head of the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party between 1983 and 1985.
[citation needed] Purged during the Cultural Revolution, Qian was re-appointed in 1974 as a member of the Standing Council of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, and in 1978 was posted as China's first ambassador to UNESCO.
[citation needed] During the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, Qian was the head of the People's Daily, the CCP Central Committee's official newspaper.
[citation needed] 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".
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.