Tiannamen Square, 1989
•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 a hunger strike
•Li Peng took a 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
•3 June they broke into the square and opened fire
•400-800 people killed, many were not students and many killed on streets outside of the square
•Reaffirmed China’s hardline on party dissent and public freedoms
However economic changes were irreversible and 1992 Deng ended price controls
The Mystery of ‘Tank Man’
•Never in 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 rumoured also to have 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”
•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 a hunger strike
•Li Peng took a 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
•3 June they broke into the square and opened fire
•400-800 people killed, many were not students and many killed on streets outside of the square
•Reaffirmed China’s hardline on party dissent and public freedoms
However economic changes were irreversible and 1992 Deng ended price controls
The Mystery of ‘Tank Man’
•Never in 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 rumoured also to have 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”
Question: Why did China cover up all these deaths as if it never happened? and what really happened to the Tank Man?
Summary: Tiananmen Square was a democracy movement by students for political reform- no longer want communism. Many went on hunger strikes but the government kept there stand and didn't want change. The students then took more heavy actions such as destroying a statue of the goddess of democracy. Li Peng then took a stance on this ordered the PLA to take whatever action they saw necessary. On the night of June 3rd, they broke in the square with tanks and opened fire. Approximately 3 000 people died and most of these were innocent bystanders who weren't even apart of this movement. China however this to this day reports that there were 0 deaths. Politically China didn't change because they were too hardline on party dissent and public freedoms.