Tiannamen Square, 1989
- June 3-4, 1989
- Democracy movements had grown in strength since the arrival of Deng
- May 4, 1989 they have mass rallies in honor of the 70th anniversary of the last major democratic uprising
- Many students remain and start a hunger strike
- Li Peng took a harsh stance on this and ordered the PLA to take whatever action necessary
- Army arrives in early June and are reluctant to deal with the crowd
- 3rd June they broke into the square and opened fire
- 400-800 people killed, many were not students and many killed on streets outside of the square
- Reaffirmed China's hardline on party dissent and public freedoms
- However economic changes were irreversible and 1992 Deng ended price controls
- Never in World history has a single image captured a struggle quite so well
- Rumored to have been named Wang Weilin, a 19 year old student
- He has been rumored to also have been shot, imprisoned and never found and still free in hiding
- In an 1992 interview with Barbara Walters then General Secretary Jiang Zemin stated "I think never killed."
Summary
Since the arrival of Deng, people began to start democracy movements. They believed that because the economy was changing, that the political systems could change too. When the PLA opened fire on them and killed hundreds it made it apparent that this wasn't the case. However, one man, who is still not really identified, stood up against a line of tanks. To this day he is known as the tank man and no one knows what ever happened to him.