This is Part 2 of a 2-Part series. Part 1 covered events that led to unrest among people. This part covers how that unrest turned into protests, which led to the massacre, in which an estimated 1000+ people died?No official figures are available..
Unrest among people created a divide within the government.
Hu Yaobang (General Secretary) was in favour of political liberalisation and the pro-reform masses loved him.
By 1986, the unrest turned into small protests (led by students), which started spreading across big cities; the government began seeing it as Cultural Revolution-style turmoil.
Yaobang, accused of being too soft on these protests, was forced to resign in 1987.
He died on April 15, 1989 and students gathered in large numbers at Tiananmen Square to mourn his death; they believed his forced resignation was responsible for his death.
Soon, the mourners became protestors & their leaders demanded a dialogue with the government; Tiananmen Square became the hub for their protest.
The party, having seen Cultural Revolution, saw anyone who was against the government as a danger to the society and published an editorial in a publication that such disturbances will not be tolerated.
The editorial enraged the students & they demanded its withdrawal and protests escalated.
Lack of response from the government led to a few hundred students going on hunger strike.
A few of these students began fainting within a few days and their movement gained public sympathy and people in Beijing rushed to the Square to bring them food.
The government imposed curfew in Beijing but students ignored it.
On 3rd June, Beijing’s municipal warned people to stay away from Tiananmen Square for their own safety.
In the night of 3rd-4th June, over 200,000 Chinese soldiers moved into the square & began firing at students and residents who had gathered at the Square.
Early morning of 4th June, the troops took control of the Square and sealed the failure of the protest.
Even after more than 30 years, it is not allowed to mark the anniversary in China; vigils, however, are held in Hong Kong every year.
