Tiananmen Square Essay

The chain of events that occurred in the spring of 1989 was in part due to the death of Hu Yaobang; Hu was transformed into a martyr for the cause of political liberalization. On the day of his funeral, tens of thousands of students gathered in Tiananmen Square demanding democratic and other reforms. For the next several weeks, we would see the beginning of students joined by a wide variety of individuals, crowded into central Beijing to protest for greater democracy and call for the resignations of Chinese Communist Party leaders deemed too repressive. For nearly three weeks, the protesters met daily to participate in vigils and marched and chanted. Chinese premier Li Peng and other statesman feared anarchy and insisted on forcibly suppressing
Protesters remained in large numbers in Tiananmen Square, centering themselves around the “Goddess of Democracy,” near the northern Western journalists also maintained a presence there, Luckily for the protesters Western journalists had gathered there to report on the visit to China by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in mid-May. Shortly after his arrival, the Tiananmen Square, that drew some one million participants, was widely broadcast overseas, allowing the U.S. and the world to see this horrific event unfold on television and in newspapers. On June 4, 1989, Chinese sent tanks and heavily armed troops toward Tiananmen Square, opening fire on or crushing those who again tried to block their way, firing without regard to human life, into the crowds of protesters. The square filled with panic and chaos, tens of thousands of the young students tried to escape Chinese forces. Other protesters reportedly fought back, stoning the attacking troops and overturning and setting fire to military vehicles. Reporters and Western diplomats on the scene estimated that at least 300, and perhaps thousands, of the protesters had been killed and as many as 10,000 were