Tiananmen Square Massacre
Chinese troops cleared Tiananmen Square and the approaches to it on the night of 3–4 June 1989, ending seven weeks of protest. The demonstrations had begun in April with students mourning Hu Yaobang, the reformist party general secretary who had been forced out in 1987 and had just died. Mourning a purged leader was a recognised way of criticising the living ones. They grew into a movement of students, workers and journalists demanding an end to official corruption and nepotism, press freedom, and dialogue with the leadership. At its height perhaps a million people filled the square, and a hunger strike began in May, timed against Mikhail Gorbachev's state visit — which brought the world's press and forced his welcome to be held at the airport. The leadership split. Zhao Ziyang argued for negotiation, went to the square and told the students he had come too late, and was removed and spent his remaining fifteen years under house arrest. Deng Xiaoping and Li Peng declared martial law on 20 May. Beijing residents blocked the columns for two weeks. On the night of 3 June, units of the 27th and other armies advanced from the west with armour and live ammunition, and most of the killing took place on Chang'an Avenue and in the surrounding streets rather than in the square itself. Estimates of the dead run from several hundred to well over a thousand. The photograph of a man standing in front of a column of tanks the following morning is among the most reproduced images of the century. Discussion of the events remains prohibited in China.
- Year: 1989 CE
- Category: Political Violence
