Tiananmen 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 honour 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
- 3 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
Mystery of 'Tank Man'
- Never in World history has a single image captured a struggle quite so well
- Rumoured to have been named Wang Weilin, a 19 year old student
- He has been rumoured also to 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”