Tiananmen Square Massacre

Source: Entry: Tiananmen Square Incident of June Fourth
From: Holistic Education Treasure Chest

The June Fourth Tiananmen Square Incident — also known as the June Fourth Incident or the Tiananmen Incident — refers to the bloody government military crackdown on the student movement that occurred in Beijing from the night of June 3 to June 4, 1989. On April 15, 1989, Hu Yaobang died of illness; that evening, Beijing students began holding memorial activities. Under the leadership of some university students, the memorial activities shifted toward demands addressing inflation, unemployment, official corruption, government accountability, press freedom, and freedom of association. On April 27, students marched, gathering in Tiananmen Square; students in major cities across the country responded. On May 20, Premier Li Peng formally signed a martial-law order, placing Beijing under martial law. This measure, however, inflamed public emotions further; on May 23, approximately one million people held another demonstration in Tiananmen Square. On May 30, a “Goddess of Democracy” statue created by faculty and students of the Central Academy of Fine Arts was erected beside the Monument to the People’s Heroes, bringing the demonstrations to a climax. Not only did students, workers, and residents in China’s major cities join in class boycotts and work stoppages, but overseas media transmitted images to the world via satellite uplink. On the night of June 3, the CCP decided to deploy military forces to suppress and disperse the crowd; violent clashes erupted in and around Tiananmen Square, with troops firing on crowds and even crushing protesters with tanks. By the early hours of June 4, the military had taken control of the square and the crowd was forced to withdraw.

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External Links

• June Fourth Incident (Wikipedia)
• Reconstructing the Truth of June Fourth 25 Years Later (Epoch Times)
• Telling You the True June Fourth Tiananmen Incident (Radio Free Asia, Mandarin)
• Recalling History: A Chronicle of the June Fourth Incident (Voice of America)