The Tiananmen Massacre
By: Dillon Capalongo
A Simple Protest Gone Wrong
A Protest Sparks
- At first there were only 20 to 30, though quickly word spread of the student led protest.
- The calm protest to give a message to the government quickly turned into a nonviolent riot against the government.
- The student wrote a declaration demanding accelerated political and economic reform, guarantee constitutional freedoms, fight corruption, adopt a press law, and allow the establishment of privately run newspapers.
- Hunger Strikers - people who starved themselves until they got what they wanted - joined in and influenced others to join in fasting.
- At first the government decided to ignore it and let it pass, but it only got worse.
China's True Colors
- The protest was ignored by the government until the last two weeks of May, when Deng Xiaoping declared Martial Law- when a government threatens to use force to end a conflict- on the protest.
- China sent a fleet of tanks and heavily armed men to Tiananmen Square to end the protest.
The Massacre
- The citizens made huge barricades out of anything they could find across all the road entrances to Tiananmen Square.
- This delayed the army for two weeks until they finally broke through the last barrier.
- On June 4th, the army open fired on the protesting crowd, with the public desperately scattering and throwing bottles at them.
- Most fought back, and killed nearly 100 soldiers compared to the 200-1000 public deaths
- The remaining crowd fled the scene.
The New World Enemy
- The United Nations shunned them for acting on the citizens that way
- Many of China's allies declared they would no longer help them in times of need.
- China banned any public information of the massacre getting out, so most information of it was lost.