Tiananmen Square, 1989
Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, also called the June four Incident in China in order to clarify this from another Tiananmen protest. Since 1978, Deng Xiaoping, late leader of Communist Party of China, had led a series of economic and political innovations which had led to the gradual success of a market economy and some political liberalization that relaxed the system set up by Mao Zedong (Former Leader). But then some of the students and intellectuals charged that innovations had not gone far enough as the influence of the economic reforms had only affected farmers and factory workers, the incomes of intellectuals lagged far behind those who had benefited from reform policies.
The public weal requires that men should betray, and lie, and massacre.
Michel de Montaigne
-June 3-4, 1989
-Democracy movements had grown in strength since the arrival of Deng
-May 4 1989 they have mass rallies in honour of the 70th anniversary of the last major democratic uprising
-Many students remain and start hunger strike
-Li Peng took harsh stance on this and ordered the PLA to take whatever action necessary
-Army arrives in early June and are reluctant to deal with the crowd
-Democracy movements had grown in strength since the arrival of Deng
-May 4 1989 they have mass rallies in honour of the 70th anniversary of the last major democratic uprising
-Many students remain and start hunger strike
-Li Peng took harsh stance on this and ordered the PLA to take whatever action necessary
-Army arrives in early June and are reluctant to deal with the crowd
Tiananmen Square cont'
There were a series of demonstrations led by labour activists, students and intellectuals in China on April 15 and June 4, 1989. While the protest lacked an identical cause or leadership, most of the protesters were generally against the economic policies and authoritarian of the ruling of the Chinese Communist Party and expressing calls for democratic reforms in the structure of government. The PRC government then used betrayal as an excuse and in Beijing, and used military force to suppress the demonstrators. The resulting military crack down caused a number of innocent citizens dead or injured. The report on number of deaths and injured ranged from two hundred – three hundred (PRC government) to two thousand – three thousand (Chinese Red Cross).
Following the violence, the government carried out mass arrests of demonstrators and suppressed their supporters and other protests around China. They also banned foreign journalists from the country to strictly control the Chinese Communist Party in the incident report of the news. Party members have publicly expressed sympathy. Violent suppression of Tiananmen Square protest caused widespread international condemnation of the government of the PRC.
The Mystery of 'Tank Man'
-Never in the World history has a single image captured a struggle quite so well
-Rumoured to have been named Wang Weilin, a 19 year old student
-He has been shot, imprisoned and never found and still free in hiding
-In an 1992 interview with Barbara Walters then General Secretary Jiang Zemin stated "I think never killed"
-Rumoured to have been named Wang Weilin, a 19 year old student
-He has been shot, imprisoned and never found and still free in hiding
-In an 1992 interview with Barbara Walters then General Secretary Jiang Zemin stated "I think never killed"
On June 5, 1989, one day after the Chinese army's deadly crushing of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, a single, unarmed young man stood his ground before a column of tanks on the Avenue of Eternal Peace. Captured on film and video by Western journalists, this extraordinary confrontation became an icon of the struggle for freedom around the world.