Tiananmen Square Massacre
In 1989, Tiananmen Square was full of students from the college near the square. The Olympics were held in 2008 in Beijing, and people from all around came to the Tiananmen Square, yet Chinese cleaned the square so no one could even tell that a massacre was there. Reporters were limited within certain hours to record anything on the square and were not allowed to have live video (Drew 1). These actions show how controlling the Chinese government can be still to this day, but it was much worse in the 1980’s. The Tiananmen Square Massacre happened whenever students from the near by college wanted to fight for democracy, and in the end it did not turn out the way everyone wanted. The massacre did not only end up hurting not only China, but
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the whole world socially, economically, and politically. The Tiananmen Square Massacre hurt China socially and still does to this day.
Even after many years have passed people still cry over the lost of their loved ones on June 4, 1989 (Chang 12). The Chinese are still under very strict ruling after all these years since Tiananmen Massacre. Even after the protesters of Tiananmen tried to go against communism it did not work (21). The students at the local college were not getting the anything they needed, things they needed to survive, like food and clean water, and sometimes even shelter. The government did not want to focus on that, as they were too busy trying to figure out what to do about the protesters they had on their hands (Fairbank 425). No one saw the real problem in China until it was too late when the government destroyed every protestor - students and teachers- in Tiananmen. There was no warning signs that people knew about the government coming to attack its own citizens that were trying to fight for what they thought was right. Communism prevented anyone from having his or her own thoughts in this world. The people of China know that even now they still cannot agree with the protestors because their government is always right (Drew
1). The Tiananmen Massacre struck everyone in China in many different ways, another one of those ways is economically. China had just started going repression, people had very little and lacked basic human rights. There were many homeless people, who were also starting, and had no support from anyone unless it was from themselves and their own work (Fairbank 424). The protestors were out there for seven weeks trying to fight to change their government. They even lived on the streets, formed their own newspaper, and had a statue named “Goddess of Democracy” (Iyer 1). They also struggled whenever teachers tried to talk about the event that happened in June; they had to suppress their own thoughts and feelings about it, and say what the government has told them to say. The teachers were not allowed their own voice to talk about what had happened. This was not good for the students because they knew what happened, yet they were continuously told differently about what their fellow classmates had done was very wrong in the eye of the government (Doyle). The last way that China was changed was politically, this was the main way China changed, because after the massacre, people never wanted to do anything else that may put themselves in danger. The college kids were protesting for democracy, and the communists detested it, which is why the tanks came onto the square June fourth killing many people. The protestors stood no chance against the People’s Liberation Army, who were standing up for the government. They had to bring in the tanks to take care of the protestors before things got out of hand (Chang 12). Even nine years after this horrific scene, the people of China are not sure if the protestors were even a little bit successful in their protest. The same people that were in charge of ordering the tanks to come in were still in charge nine years later (Iyer 2). The people of China learned how to adapt to their new surroundings, and how their government controlled things, including how many children they can have. It seems unfair for them to be limited to just one child, and for women to still be treated badly, but their government thought that was what was best for their country at the time (Doyle). In conclusion, the Tiananmen Square Massacre was very devastating in many ways for the people of China. They never knew what to do, then people finally started to stand up. The government did not like that people were going against what they said, eventually they decided to do something about it, kill everyone they saw (Chang 12). This event changed China in many ways, but more specifically, socially, economically, and politically. The protestors were just trying to stand up for what they believed in, and they believed in democracy, but their government did not want to think of change. By the time Beijing hosted the Olympics in 2008, the government had ensured there was no trace of the horrific events that took place in Tiananmen Square nineteen years before that.
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Absolute power corrupts absolutely Located in the center of Beijing, China, Tiananmen Square was the location of the 1989 protests against the Chinese government, as well as the June 4th incident, or Tiananmen Square massacre. Today, it is a popular tourist attraction and cultural site. In the spring of 1989, university students began to gather in Tiananmen Square. They held protests against their communist government and advocated peacefully for a more democratic society.