Tiananmen Square Protest

Student protests/Tiananmen square

Tiananmen square is a large public area in Beijing, China. The square is named after its “Gate of Heavenly Peace, the National Museum of China, and the Chairman Mao Zedong Memorial Hall.” (Encyclopedia) Mao Zedong used the square on October 1, 1949 to declare the founding of the People’s Republic, an anniversary still celebrated at the square. Due to the square’s importance, Chinese students began protesting in favor of democratic reform, a demonstration that began in April 1989. The protest was sparked due to unrest at the Communist Party after the death of Chairman Hu Yaobang. After the death of a major political leader, citizens generally gather at the square to mourn the deceased, and then the citizens will disperse once the funeral procession ends. When the protesters stayed at the square after the funeral, Deng Xiaoping condemned the protests.

The students rallied more people including workers, scholars and civil servants, totaling over a million people. They all rallied behind economic and political reform. Economic advances in China had brought inflation and corruption in the government. The government also suppressed bourgeois freedom in

The government responded to the rapidly growing rebellion with a show of militarial power, killing thousands of their own people. The brutality of the Chinese government’s massacre shocked its allies and enemies. The leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, grieved the attack and was upset because he had hoped China would develop his own reform program and introduce democracy into Chinese politics. In the US, congress and the people pushed for President George Bush to respond to the massacre by penalizing the Chinese government. Around 3 weeks later, the US congress voted to force economic sanctions against China in response to their cruelty and violation of human