Peaceful Protest

BEIJING, June 5, 1989 --What started as a peaceful protest weeks ago in Beijing, China ended yesterday in a massacre of an unknown number of Chinese students in Tiananmen Square. The protest, which began in April, was triggered by the death of former Communist Party General Secretary, Hu Yaobang, a liberal reformer. Unsuccessful in his attempts to facilitate political and economic changes, Yaobang had garnered the support of university students who marched and gathered in Tiananmen Square on the day of his funeral. Over the course of the next several weeks, the number of students grew and they were joined by other citizens seeking political, social, and economic reforms.
What spurred the people of China to want reforms? China had experienced

ten years of significant economic growth and liberalization which provided many Chinese citizens exposure to new ideas and standards of living in other countries. Although China’s economic advance brought prosperity to the country, it then became faced with inflation and corrupt government officials. Not only did the protesters begin to stand up against these issues, but also wanted government accountability, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the ability of workers' to control industry –much like their Western counterparts.
While the government initially issued stern warnings it did not take action against the people – until two days ago when the military moved in. So what changed? The marches and hunger strikes held in Tiananmen Square were peaceful, even at one point when the crowd reached one million people. However, demonstrations in other Chinese cities began, which caused the Chinese government to become more concerned and other countries around the world began to take notice.
According to sources that did not want to be identified, moderates in the government wanted to make concessions to the students. They were overruled, however, by hard-liners in the Communist party that backed Chinese premier Li Peng and other elder statesman who were afraid of anarchy. Therefore, they labeled the movement as “counter revolutionary” and authorized military forces to remove the protesters from the Square. This led to yesterday’s outcome of Chinese troops attacking unarmed citizens, many of which were students. Although some students did fight back and throw rocks at the soldiers, they were the minority. The majority of the demonstrators fled to avoid confrontation.
By the end of the day, military forces obtained control of the Tiananmen Square. One incident was reported, see photo below, involving a lone protester facing down a column of tanks as it advanced on him near the square. Government officials said that more than 1,000 police and troops had been injured and some killed, but did not disclose the actual number of civilian casualties.