Tiananmen+Square+protests+of+1989

=Tiananmen Square protests of 1989=

The **Tiananmen Square protests of 1989**, referred to in much of the world as the **Tiananmen Square massacre** and in Chinese as the **June Fourth Incident** (to avoid confusion with two prior Tiananmen Square protests), were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China (PRC) beginning on 14 April 1989. Led mainly by students and intellectuals, the protests occurred in a year that saw the collapse of a number of communist governments around the world. The protests were sparked by the death of Hu Yaobang, an official known for tolerating dissent, whom protesters wanted to mourn. By the eve of Hu's funeral, 100,000 people had gathered at Tiananmen Square. The protests lacked a unified cause or leadership; participants included Communist Party of China members and Trotskyists as well as liberal reformers, who were generally against the government's authoritarianism and voiced calls for economic change and democratic reform within the structure of the government. The demonstrations centered in Tiananmen Square to begin with but then later in the streets around the square, in Beijing, but large-scale protests also occurred in cities throughout China, including Shanghai, which remained peaceful throughout the protests. The movement lasted seven weeks after Hu's death on 15 April. In early June, the People's Liberation Army moved into the streets of Beijing with troops and tanks and cleared the square with live fire. The exact number of deaths is not known. According to an analysis by Nicholas D. Kristof of //The New York Times//, "The true number of deaths will probably never be known, and it is possible that thousands of people were killed without leaving evidence behind. But based on the evidence that is now available, it seems plausible that about fifty soldiers and policemen were killed, along with 400 to 800 civilians." Following the conflict, the government conducted widespread arrests of protesters and their supporters, cracked down on other protests around China, banned the foreign press from the country and strictly controlled coverage of the events in the PRC press. Members of the Party who had publicly sympathized with the protesters were purged, with several high-ranking members placed under house arrest, such as General Secretary Zhao Ziyang. There was widespread international condemnation of the PRC government's use of force against the protesters.

Naming of incident


In the Chinese language, the incident is most commonly known as the "六四事件" (pinyin: //Liù-Sì Shìjiàn//; literally "Six Four Incident", commonly translated to the "**June Fourth Incident**"). Sometimes people call it "六四运动" (pinyin: //Liù-Sì Yùndòng//; literally "Six Four Movement", commonly "June Fourth Movement"). Colloquially, a simply "六四" (pinyin: //Liù-Sì//; literally "Six Four", commonly "June Fourth") is used. The nomenclature of the former is consistent with the customary names of the other two great protest actions that occurred in Tiananmen Square: the May Fourth Movement of 1919, and the April Fifth Movement of 1976. '4 June' refers to the day on which the People's Liberation Army cleared Tiananmen Square of protesters, although the order to proceed into Tiananmen as well as its actual operation began on the evening of 3 June. Other names which have been used in the Chinese language include "六四屠杀" (pinyin: //Liù-Sì Túshā//, **June Fourth Massacre**) and "六四镇压" (pinyin: //Liù-Sì Zhènyā//, **June Fourth Crackdown**). The government of the People's Republic of China has referred to the event as the "1989年春夏之交的政治风波"(**Political Turmoil between Spring and Summer of 1989**). Other names, such as the "八九民运" (traditional Chinese: 八九民運; pinyin: //Bā-Jiǔ Mínyùn//, **89 Pro-democracy Movement**) are also used to describe the event broadly in its entirety. Alternative names such as **May 35th** and "八平方" (**Eight Squared**) are used on the internet in Mainland China to bypass internet censorship. In English, the terms **Tiananmen Square Massacre** or **Tiananmen Square Crackdown** are often used to describe the 4 June events on most media sources. In East Germany the events in Beijing were known as the "Chinese Solution" (//Chinesische Lösung//).