Tiananmen Square: 1989

On April 8th, 1989, this man suffered a heart attack and died seven days later. Similar to the death of Zhou Enlai, thousands flocked to Beijing to mourn the deceased man, who was just purged two years prior for holding more liberal positions as well as being losing the support of Deng Xiaoping. Soon this period of mourning escalated into political protests

On April 18th, a couple of student protesters in Tiananmen went over to this governmental building to deliver an petition to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress which met in the building. This delivery was reminiscent of the imperial petitions that scholars would attempt to deliver to the emperor and his court if they were dissatisfied with policy. In this case, the demands called for more political reforms such as overturning the verdicts of the 1986-1987 protests and publishing the incomes of Party leaders and their children

At the time, the government did not do anything to stop the protests. Thinking that this would be a repeat of the protests from 1986 to 1987 in which they fizzled out relatively quickly, the general secretary embarked on a trip to this country, bordering China.

This man, who was the Premier, worried that the protests would go out of control and did not believe in the General Secretary's more moderate view. Alongside Yao Yilin, they would represent the more hardliner views in the Politburo Standing Committee and managed to convince Deng successfully of their view of the protests. After the protests, the Premier was given the nickname, "Butcher of Tiananmen" and became extremely unpopular domestically and abroad

Without the General Secretary to act as a counterbalance, the Premier and Yao Yilin got Deng's approval to publish this editorial. It praised the majority of people who mourned Hu, but it also took a hard stance towards the protests, accusing the protesters of trying to seize power and overthrow the leadership and Socialism

Returning from his trip, the General Secretary gave a speech to this organization saying that the student demonstrations would soon be under control and that China's economy would not be damaged from them. The tone of the speech was more conciliatory towards the protestors, even calling them patriotic. This upset leaders as they did not know of the speech's contents in advance and for showing a split in the leadership over how the protests should be handled

On May 12th, this man, who was the Chairman of the National People's Congress left on a trip to the United States. This deprived the moderates a chance to rally behind the leadership of the National People's Congress to oppose the hardliners as the Chairman was believed to be more sympathetic to the protesters. On his return to China on May 25th, his flight landed in Shanghai and he was then convinced by the Shanghai Party leadership to support the hardliners, worsening the moderate's support base

On May 13th, more radical student leaders announced the introduction of this protest tactic in order to dramatize the protests abroad as the leader of the Soviet Union was planned to meet Deng on May 15th

From May 15th to May 18th, the aforementioned trip by this leader of the Soviet Union occurred, which was meant to be a triumph in Sino-Soviet relations. However it was largely overshadowed by the protesters, who refused to leave during the meeting. This caused the leadership to cancel all ceremonies in Tiananmen in honor of the visit and the official meeting between Deng and the leader was done in the Great Hall instead

On May 16th, the leader met with the Chinese General Secretary. During the meeting, the General Secretary unintentionally remarked about Deng's role in the leadership, in effect saying that Deng still held this unofficial position in the Party. This remark caused Deng to believe that the General Secretary was attempting to deflect blame for the cause of the protests on him, pushing him more to the side of the hardliners

On May 18th, a televised meeting between student protesters and senior government officials occurred in the Great Hall. During the meeting, this protester who had an oxygen tube attached to his nose due to malnourishment, actively refuted the Premier, causing the meeting to be a failure

With his political power ruined due to his above remarks and the scheming of the Premier and Yao Yilin, this man, who was the General Secretary made one last visit to Tiananmen Square in the early morning of May 19th. Prior to his visit he already contemplated resigning from his position and in May 28th, he was placed under indefinite house arrest until his death in 2005

In his speech, he uttered this famous line alongside praising the protesters and urged them to end the protests before the leadership acted against them

On May 20th, this was declared, which was already decided on May 18th when it was announced at a meeting of the Central Military Commission by First Vice Chairman and Head of State, Yang Shangkun. Yang ordered the army not to fire on the civilians even if provoked, making most of the soldiers not having weapons initially. On May 22nd, after failing to clear the protests, the army was told to retreat

In addition eight retired generals, including a former Minister of Defense and Chief of Staff of the PLA signed a letter opposing the use of force against the protesters. Name one of the generals. In addition to them, Minister of Defense Qin Jiwei tried to oppose military force, but was unsuccessful, diminishing his authority afterwards. Even Nie Rongzhen and Xu Xiangqian, the only Marshals of China alive during the protests, urged restraint on May 21st

On May 29th, this massive styrofoam statue was erected in Tiananmen Square facing the portrait of Mao Zedong. It was made by students of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in three days and was later smashed by the army

This date is generally given to when the army began to fire on protesters. However, the first shots were fired during the late night of the day prior to this one.

Contrary to popular knowledge of the crackdown, there was no actual massacre in the square. In the Square, by this time, most of the students have left. The majority of the student protesters remaining in the square were cleared out peacefully by the army, save some students who were rumored to be crushed by tanks. Instead, most of the casualties were centered in this district in Beijing which contains Muxidi Station and the Xidan Commercial area

Estimated number of people who died as a result of the crackdown. The Chinese government gave a much lower number in the aftermath of the crackdown and the Chinese Red Cross determined it to be around this number. The number given here is the one by the Chinese Red Cross as numbers such as 10,000 and above tend to be over-exaggerated

This student leader managed to escape the square just prior to the governments's crackdown. Before leaving, she was one of the more intransigent student leaders who often held more radical views compared to her contemporaries. She has made a number of controversial remarks since such as claiming that there was a massacre in the square and that she intentionally wanted the government to suppress the protests violently

However, this major student leader was unable to escape successfully. Immediately after the protests, he was declared to be the number one most wanted student leader by the Chinese government. On July 2nd, he was arrested and imprisoned until being paroled in 1993. He was subsequently re-arrested in 1995 after criticizing China abroad. He was then sentenced to an eleven year prison term before being exiled to the United States in 1996

On the Politburo Standing Committee, moderate Hu Qili was sacked alongside the General Secretary. Deng replaced them with conservative elder Song Ping and the more moderate Party Secretary of Tianjin, Li Ruihuan. For the choice of General Secretary, Deng picked this man, due to his actions in stopping protests in Shanghai without the use of force, due to the strong backing he had from influential elder Li Xiannian, and because he was not too conservative or liberal in his political views