1989 TIANANMEN SQUARE MASSACRE

June 8, 2020

Thousands defied a police ban to gather with candles in Hong Kong to mark China’s bloody Tiananmen Square democracy crackdown in 1989 and accuse China of stifling freedoms too on their semi-autonomous territory.

About:

The Tiananmen Square protests were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing during 1989 calling for democracy, free speech and a free press in China.
Background to protests:
- The protests were set off by the death of pro-reform Communist general secretary Hu Yaobang in April 1989, amid the backdrop of rapid economic development and social changes in post-Mao China.
- Common grievances at the time included inflation, corruption, limited preparedness of graduates for the new economy, and restrictions on political participation.
Tiananmen Square Massacre:
- The protests started on April 15 and were forcibly suppressed in a bloody crackdown, known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, by the Chinese government on June 4 and 5, 1989.
- On June 4, the government declared martial law and sent the military to occupy central parts of Beijing. Troops with assault rifles and tanks fired at the demonstrators.
- Estimates of the death toll vary from several hundred to several thousand, with thousands more wounded.