The Tiananmen Square protests, known as the June Fourth Incident in China, were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, troops armed with assault rifles and accompanied by tanks fired at the demonstrators and those trying to block the military's advance into Tiananmen Square. The protests started on April 15 and were forcibly suppressed on June 4 when the government declared martial law and sent the People's Liberation Army to occupy parts of central Beijing. Estimates of the death toll vary from several hundred to several thousand, with thousands more wounded. The popular national movement inspired by the Beijing protests is sometimes called the '89 Democracy Movement or the Tiananmen Square Incident.
Chai Ling is a Chinese psychologist who was one of the student leaders in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. She is the founder of All Girls Allowed, an organization dedicated to ending China's one-child policy, and the founder and president of Jenzabar, an enterprise resource planning software firm for educational institutions.
Wang Dan is a leader of the Chinese democracy movement and was one of the most visible student leaders in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. He holds a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University, and from August 2009 to February 2010, Wang taught cross-strait history at Taiwan's National Chengchi University, as a visiting scholar. He then taught at National Tsing Hua University until 2015.
Ding Zilin is a retired professor of philosophy and the leader of the political pressure group Tiananmen Mothers.
Wang Youcai is a Chinese dissident and was one of the prominent student leaders in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Then a graduate student at the Peking University, he was arrested in 1989 and sentenced to four years in 1991 for "conspiring to overthrow the Government of China".
Xiong Yan is a China-born naturalized American. He was a dissident involved in Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Xiong Yan studied at Beijing University Law School from 1986–1989. He came to the United States of America as a political refugee in 1992, and later became a chaplain in U.S. Army, serving in Iraq. Xiong Yan is the author of three books, and has earned six degrees.
Collection of June Fourth Poems: Commemorating the Tiananmen Square Protest is an anthology of poems commemorating the June Fourth protests in China. The poems were written by victims, exiled activists and international supporters. It documents the history and cultural impact of the June Fourth movement.
The 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 (20周年六四遊行) was a series of rallies that took place in late May to early June 2009 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of 4 June Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, during which the Chinese government sent troops to suppress the pro-democracy movement. While the anniversary is remembered around the world; the event is heavily censored on Chinese soil, particularly in Mainland China. Events which mark it only take place in Hong Kong, and in Macao to a much lesser extent.
Moving the Mountain is a 1994 feature documentary directed by Michael Apted and produced by Trudie Styler, with cinematography by Maryse Alberti and music by Liu Sola.
The 10th anniversary of Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 (10周年六四遊行) was a series of rallies – street marches, parades, and candlelight vigils – that took place in late May to early June 1999 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of 4 June Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. The anniversary of the event, during which the Chinese government sent troops to suppress pro-democracy movement and many people are thought to have perished, is remembered around the world in public open spaces and in front of many Chinese embassies in Western countries. On Chinese soil, any mention of the event is completely taboo in Mainland China; events which mark it only take place in Hong Kong, and in Macao to a much lesser extent.
During the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) played a decisive role in enforcing martial law, suppressing the demonstrations by force and upholding the authority of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The subject of the Tiananmen protests in general and the military's role in the crackdown remains forbidden from public discussion in China. The killings in Beijing continue to taint the legacies of the party elders, led by Deng Xiaoping, and weigh on the generation of leaders whose careers advanced as their more moderate colleagues were purged or sidelined at the time. Within China, the role of the military in 1989 remains a subject of private discussion within the ranks of the party leadership and PLA.
Feng Congde is a Chinese dissident and Republic of China Restoration activist. He came into prominence during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 as a student leader from Peking University, which placed him onto the Chinese government's 21 Most Wanted list. He spent 10 months hiding in various locations in mainland China, until he was smuggled out to Hong Kong on a shipping vessel.
Wang Juntao is a Chinese dissident and democracy activist accused by the Communist government for being one of the “black hands” behind the Tiananmen Student Movement. He was listed first on the government's “six important criminals” list, and was sentenced to a thirteen-year prison term in 1991 for his alleged work of “conspiring to subvert the government and of counterrevolutionary propaganda and agitation”. Wang was released from prison for medical reasons in 1994 and has been living in exile in the United States.
Defend Tiananmen Square Headquarters was formed on May 24, 1989. The purpose of this organization was to create a strong leadership to lead the student movement.
A Tiananmen Journal: Republic on the Square by Feng Congde (封从德) was first published in May 2009 in Hong Kong. This book records the Tiananmen protest of 1989 from April 15, 1989, to June 4, 1989, in detail. Author Feng Congde is one of the student leader in the protest and his day-by- day diary entries, record every activity during the protest including the start of student protests in Peking University, the activities of major student leaders, important events, and unexposed stories about student organizations and their complex decision making.
Liu Gang is a Chinese scientist and revolutionary who founded the Beijing Students' Autonomous Federation. He was a prominent student leader at the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Liu holds a M.A. in physics from Peking University and a M.A. in computer science from Columbia University. After his exile to the United States in 1996, Liu studied technology and physics at Bell Labs in New Jersey. Liu was employed at Morgan Stanley as a Wall Street IT analyst.
Many women participated in the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989 for democratic reform in China. Lee Feigon states "women [during the Tiananmen Square Protests] were relegated for the most part to traditional support roles." Chai Ling and Wang Chaohua, however, were female student leaders taking part in leadership activities during the pro-democracy movement. Ranging from student leaders to intellectuals, many women contributed their opinions and leadership skills to the movement. Although women had substantial roles, they had different standpoints regarding the hunger strike movement on May 13.
The first of two student hunger strikes of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 began on May 13, 1989, in Beijing. The students said that they were willing to risk their lives to gain the government's attention. They believed that because plans were in place for the grand welcoming of Mikhail Gorbachev, the leader of the Soviet Union, on May 15, at Tiananmen Square, the government would respond. Although the students gained a dialogue session with the government on May 14, no rewards materialized. The Chinese Communist Party did not heed the students' demands and moved the welcome ceremony to the airport.
Tiananmen Exiles: Voices of the Struggle for Democracy in China is a scholarly book by Rowena Xiaoqing He, published by Palgrave Macmillan in April 2014. The book has been named one of the Top five China Books by the Asia Society. It is primarily an oral history of Yi Danxuan, Shen Tong, and Wang Dan, all exiled student leaders from the 1989 Tiananmen Movement in China. "Tracing the life trajectories of these exiles, from childhood during Mao's Cultural Revolution, adolescence growing up during the reform era, and betrayal and punishment in the aftermath of June 1989, to ongoing struggles in exile", the author explores, "how their idealism was fostered by the very powers that ultimately crushed it, and how such idealism evolved facing the conflicts that historical amnesia, political commitment, ethical action, and personal happiness presented to them in exile." Dan Southerland notes in Christian Science Monitor that the book provides "fresh insights and an appreciation for the challenges that exiled Chinese student leaders faced after they escaped from China." Paul Levine from American Diplomacy states that there was “a fourth major character: the author herself.” Tiananmen Exiles is a part of the Palgrave Studies in Oral History and contains a foreword by Perry Link. The forward was published in the New York Review of Books the same week the book came out.
The 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, commonly known in mainland China as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led demonstrations in Beijing in 1989. More broadly, it refers to the popular national movement inspired by the Beijing protests during that period, sometimes called the '89 Democracy Movement. The protests were forcibly suppressed after Chinese Premier Li Peng declared martial law. In what became known in the West as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, troops with assault rifles and tanks fired at the demonstrators trying to block the military's advance towards Tiananmen Square. The number of civilian deaths was internally estimated by the Chinese government to be near or above 10,000.
