Decades Project: ’64-89: China’s Under Martial Law Alex Chen
Plummer/P1
June 2 nd , 2003
On May 20 th
, 1989, China had declared martial law as a result of student and worker demonstrations on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. The main event leading up to the protesting was the death of Hu Yaobang on April 1989, and the protesting started as a display of mourning for the leader, who had refused to contain unrest in
January 1987. After the death of the leader, peaceful demonstrations began in several
Chinese cities, which soon escalated into a pro-democracy movement that demanded the oust of many leading Chinese officials, like Deng Xiaoping. The government’s order to halt the demonstrations on April 20 th
went unheeded, and the movement gathered even more steam with the visit of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Mid-May, when over 1 million people were protesting on Tiananmen Square a day. The government declared martial law on May 20 th
, but the demonstrations continued while the government wavered between the approaches of Premier Li Peng and CCP General Secretary Zhao
Ziyang, who was somewhat sympathetic to the demonstrators. The government eventually decided to choose the hard-line approach of Li Peng, with the support of
China’s paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, and the government ordered troops from the
People’s Liberation Army to Tiananmen Square. On June 3-4 th
, 1989, the army crushed the pro-democracy demonstrations, killing hundreds, injuring around 10,000, and arresting hundreds of. people; some of who were later executed. After the crush of the protests, the government conducted a crackdown of the pro-democracy movement, and hopes for political liberalization vanished. The Chinese government was widely condemned for the massacre at Tiananmen Square, although government leaders did believe that their government would be overthrown had they not taken action.
Some of the protestors were extremely brave; there was an unknown person who even blocked a column of several tanks in mortal danger.
Word Count: 302
Works Cited:
“Tiananmen Square Massacre.” 2002 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. New York:
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“Tiananmen Square Protest.” Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2003. 1997-
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Iyer, Pico. “TIME 100: Leaders and Revolutionaries – The Unknown Rebel.” TIME. n.d. 1 Jun., 2003.
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