BEIJING (AP) — Beijing’s Tiananmen Square had checkpoints and police vehicles on Tuesday as China tried to silence the 35th anniversary of a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests. Hong Kong police arrested four people and swarmed a handful of others who tried to protest or commemorate as the effort extended beyond the mainland. Watch the event in the player above. China has long quashed any public memory of the military crackdown on months-long protests at the heart of its capital. An estimated 180,000 troops and police rolled in with tanks and armored vehicles and fired into crowds trying to block them from advancing on the student-led demonstration in the square. Hundreds, if not thousands, are believed to have been killed in an overnight operation that ended on the morning of June 4, 1989. It was a turning point in modern Chinese history as Communist Party hardliners embraced control instead of political reforms. The economy boomed in the ensuing decades, turning a once impoverished country into the world’s second largest economy, but societal controls have been tightened since party leader Xi Jinping came to power in 2012. Across China, the anniversary remains a taboo subject that is heavily censored. Any mention on social media is quickly erased. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/...5th-anniversary-of-tiananmen-square-crackdown
it all started. in early 1998, when Beijing university students were asking for better lighting in dormitories/study halls/libraries a movement swept across the nation, leading to sea of student protesters gathering in Tiananmen Square on May 4, 1989. They were asking for greater freedom of speech and democracy this took place on 4 June 1998
From talking to people who studied Chinese history and the PRC this was a huge missed moment by the CCP. When the actual crackdown happened many students and other had left the square and part of the reason the PLA was sent in then was the belief that there wouldn’t be as much resistance. If they had waited the remaining protesters might’ve dispersed in their own. Further the CCP could’ve negotiated and or given a statement about how the CCP was committed to reform and addressing corruption but was doing so on a long term, something that people like Deng had already talked about. Instead hardliners following Li Peng viewed the protests as counter revolutionaries and wanted to make a statement to both the country and others in the CCP. They also had been stung by an earlier attempt to send in the PLA that had failed after the people of Beijing blocked them. As we’ve seen though since then the CCP has been taken over by a hardline Xi and rather than the PRC moving towards a more open society it’s becoming more closed and authoritarian.
