The 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests were the culmination of a decade-long reform movement in China. Unlike the anti-Soviet protests in Eastern Europe, the movement was not aiming to topple the Communist government, but to reform it. The main goals were economic, focusing on issues like restoring welfare benefits, addressing income inequality, improving workers’ rights, and broadening job opportunities. Other priorities included political reforms like addressing corruption in the CCP. Democracy as a motivation sprung up later.
The movement spread rapidly through the country (over 400 cities) due to hunger strikes, extensive coverage from journalists, and widespread support from workers, students, and bystanders. At the peak of the movement, some 3.5 million people, including Communist party cadres and soldiers, were involved in the strikes and protests. They did not end well.
China’s leadership was composed of hardened survivors brutalized by decades of civil war, deadly Maoist politics, and the recent chaos of the Cultural Revolution (where many of them had nearly died). They never would have tolerated anything akin to “instability”, especially Deng Xiaoping, the real powerbroker. The mass strikes especially aggravated Chinese leaders familiar with Poland’s Solidarity movement. Moderates like Zhao Ziyang were purged. The Army was deployed after martial law was imposed in mid-May. These first attempts failed.
Two weeks later, they sent in troops armed with live ammunition, APCs, and tanks, who were blocked by unarmed protestors and ordinary Beijing citizens. On the night of June 3rd, Deng personally authorized an advance “by any means”. By sunrise, hundreds, possibly thousands of people were dead and dying. Most died in the suburbs along the main highways, and most were unaffiliated bystanders. The movement came to a bloody end.
Iron_Cavalry on
>The first warning shots were fired into the air about 10:00 P.M., loud bursts of gunfire meant to intimidate the demonstrators. The demonstrators flinched but did not flee. “Put down your arms!” they chanted. The soldiers threw several dozen stun grenades. Within minutes, young men were back in the street, throwing stones at the soldiers and stopping them. “Fascists!” the people screamed. “Stop!”
>As of 11:00 P.M., the killing had started. The soldiers with the AK-47s were not just firing into the air. Now they were taking aim. “Bandits!” people scream. “Bandits!” Now the guns in the hands of the PLA are being fired, and the shooting begins in earnest. Hurel sees several hundred men armed with AK-47s leap over the vehicles, form up in a line, and position themselves to cover the rest of the column. Marksmen on the barricade start firing.
>*In front of the burning trucks, the four banners collapse. Behind, a dozen fleeing students are struck by bullets in the back. Right near me at the end of the canal, a young boy, maybe fifteen, picks up one more stone to throw one more time. In a fraction of a second, his white T -shirt is stained with red in the middle of his chest. From where I am hiding behind a tree, I see the marksman, his back up against the side of a bus, his gun at his side, and he starts firing again. I run across open ground toward the shadows where several hundred Chinese are yelling in flight. Then something crashes above my hip.*
* Timothy Brook, on the moment when martial law in Beijing finally turned deadly
Most victims were killed or injured in an eight-hour period between the night of June 3rd and the morning of June 4th, when PLA armored columns charged through Beijing’s highways. Most died in the suburbs along the main Chang’an Highway. Few, if any, were killed in Tiananmen Square itself. Most were unaffiliated bystanders or local residents. Reliable figures put the dead at 700 to 2,600 civilians, and thousands more wounded.
GrandMoffTarkan on
But the US got a pretty sweet skater out of it so every cloud amiright?
Capable-Sock-7410 on
How long until the tankies arrive and claim no one was killed In Tiananmen Square but at the same time the protesters deserved it because all of them were CIA operatives and killed 200000000 soldiers Hong Kong 97 style
4 Comments
The 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests were the culmination of a decade-long reform movement in China. Unlike the anti-Soviet protests in Eastern Europe, the movement was not aiming to topple the Communist government, but to reform it. The main goals were economic, focusing on issues like restoring welfare benefits, addressing income inequality, improving workers’ rights, and broadening job opportunities. Other priorities included political reforms like addressing corruption in the CCP. Democracy as a motivation sprung up later.
The movement spread rapidly through the country (over 400 cities) due to hunger strikes, extensive coverage from journalists, and widespread support from workers, students, and bystanders. At the peak of the movement, some 3.5 million people, including Communist party cadres and soldiers, were involved in the strikes and protests. They did not end well.
China’s leadership was composed of hardened survivors brutalized by decades of civil war, deadly Maoist politics, and the recent chaos of the Cultural Revolution (where many of them had nearly died). They never would have tolerated anything akin to “instability”, especially Deng Xiaoping, the real powerbroker. The mass strikes especially aggravated Chinese leaders familiar with Poland’s Solidarity movement. Moderates like Zhao Ziyang were purged. The Army was deployed after martial law was imposed in mid-May. These first attempts failed.
Two weeks later, they sent in troops armed with live ammunition, APCs, and tanks, who were blocked by unarmed protestors and ordinary Beijing citizens. On the night of June 3rd, Deng personally authorized an advance “by any means”. By sunrise, hundreds, possibly thousands of people were dead and dying. Most died in the suburbs along the main highways, and most were unaffiliated bystanders. The movement came to a bloody end.
>The first warning shots were fired into the air about 10:00 P.M., loud bursts of gunfire meant to intimidate the demonstrators. The demonstrators flinched but did not flee. “Put down your arms!” they chanted. The soldiers threw several dozen stun grenades. Within minutes, young men were back in the street, throwing stones at the soldiers and stopping them. “Fascists!” the people screamed. “Stop!”
>As of 11:00 P.M., the killing had started. The soldiers with the AK-47s were not just firing into the air. Now they were taking aim. “Bandits!” people scream. “Bandits!” Now the guns in the hands of the PLA are being fired, and the shooting begins in earnest. Hurel sees several hundred men armed with AK-47s leap over the vehicles, form up in a line, and position themselves to cover the rest of the column. Marksmen on the barricade start firing.
>*In front of the burning trucks, the four banners collapse. Behind, a dozen fleeing students are struck by bullets in the back. Right near me at the end of the canal, a young boy, maybe fifteen, picks up one more stone to throw one more time. In a fraction of a second, his white T -shirt is stained with red in the middle of his chest. From where I am hiding behind a tree, I see the marksman, his back up against the side of a bus, his gun at his side, and he starts firing again. I run across open ground toward the shadows where several hundred Chinese are yelling in flight. Then something crashes above my hip.*
* Timothy Brook, on the moment when martial law in Beijing finally turned deadly
Most victims were killed or injured in an eight-hour period between the night of June 3rd and the morning of June 4th, when PLA armored columns charged through Beijing’s highways. Most died in the suburbs along the main Chang’an Highway. Few, if any, were killed in Tiananmen Square itself. Most were unaffiliated bystanders or local residents. Reliable figures put the dead at 700 to 2,600 civilians, and thousands more wounded.
But the US got a pretty sweet skater out of it so every cloud amiright?
How long until the tankies arrive and claim no one was killed In Tiananmen Square but at the same time the protesters deserved it because all of them were CIA operatives and killed 200000000 soldiers Hong Kong 97 style