June 3, 1989 - Tiananmen Square - a podcast by Stephen Hammond

Chinese government deploys troops that massacre citizens in Tiananmen Square. In 1981, Hu Yaobang became China’s leader when he was appointed the Communist Party’s general secretary. Hu was deposed in 1987 when the party accused him of being soft on college students who had been demonstrating in favour of political reforms and against system-wide corruption. When Hu died in April of 1989, people gathered in Tiananmen Square, located in the centre of Beijing, to honour his legacy and voice dissatisfaction with the pace of reforms. When Premier Li Peng refused to meet with student representatives, and the Community Party newspaper’s editorial accused them of trying to overthrow the government and socialism, students from 40 campuses boycotted classes and marched on Tiananmen Square. On May 20, the government declared martial law on Beijing, only to find tanks and troops kept at bay by defiant students and citizens. At its peak, the protest involved one million people occupying the square. As the government made plans to crush the gathering, protesters unveiled a 10-metre-high structure named the “Goddess of Democracy” on May 30. On the night of June 3, 1989, and into the early hours of June 4th, the government tanks and troops moved into the square and killed 2,600 citizens, according to a Chinese Red Cross estimate. Many more were imprisoned.

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