Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square The world's largest square in the centre of Beijing. It has frequently been the centre of demonstrations in China. For instance, on 5 April 1976 around 100,000 people met to mourn the death of Zhou Enlai, and implicitly to demonstrate against the erratic rule of Mao Zedong. The crowd was put down by the police, while the incident was used by the Gang of Four to demote Zhou's protégé, Deng Xiaoping. In 1978, as soon as he had re-emerged as China's most powerful person, Deng reversed the official ‘counter-revolutionary’ label attached to the demonstration.

Similarly, the death of Hu Yaobang sparked off demonstrations on Tiananmen Square, which students, teachers, and human rights activists began to occupy from 22 April 1989 while boycotting lectures at Beijing University. The demonstration took place against a background of reform in other Communist countries such as the Soviet Union and Poland. A month later, the number of demonstrators had swelled to over one million people. On 30 May, art students erected the Goddess of Democracy, a 10 metre (30 foot) high statue loosely modelled on the American Statue of Liberty. Martial law was imposed on 20 May, and 300,000 troops advanced into Beijing. It put the occupation to a bloody end on 3–4 June, killing every person in sight. Eleven students who had joined hands to protect the Goddess of Democracy were mowed down, together with up to 3,000 other people, while up to 10,000 were wounded, in addition to countless arrests. While the massacre incensed world opinion and damaged China's reputation for years, the demonstration enabled the conservative hardliners within the party to reassert themselves. They regained their influence over Deng Xiaoping, while the reformist party secretary, Chao Tzu-yang was dismissed from office.