The military attack on the Tiananmen Square protesters on June 4, 1989 was preceded by widespread youth protests in Beijing in the spring.
The protests had in turn been triggered by the death of former party chief Hu Yaobang. Hu had been fired two years earlier, because he was considered too lenient towards the students’ demands for freedom.
The protesters remained for weeks and were supported by a growing crowd in their demands for democracy. At most, around a million people gathered in Beijing.
By mid-May, the protests had spread to 400 cities in China.
On May 20, a state of emergency was introduced and 300,000 military personnel were deployed in Beijing.
On the night of June 4, tanks rolled into the center and struck the protesters at the Tiananmen Square.
The number killed in the massacre is unknown and many different figures have been put forward, but thousands are believed to have been killed or injured.
Source: National Encyclopedia/TT