What Caused the Massacre?

Events Leading to the Massacre

On April 18, 1989 Beijing students gathered in Tiananmen Square to mourn the death of Hu Yaobang, the planned successor of Deng Xiaoping until his support of previous student movements forced him from office. His death, which brought thousands of students together in mourning, marked the beginning of a movement: the students against the government. This movement eventually leads to a government crackdown on the demonstrating students resulting in thousands killed, leaving the world shocked.

The students who gathered in Tiananmen Square to mourn the death of Hu Yaobang soon turned their demonstration of sorrow into a demonstration of dissatisfaction with the Communist government. Rampant inflation caused by excessive expansion in consumption, investment, and the money supply caused the prices of raw materials, fuel, transportation and public services to skyrocket. Also, increased corruption and nepotism, as well as strict regulations on newspapers and other publications particularly angered the students. Thus, the students argued that the Communist Party was not focusing enough on political and economic reforms. The students demanded democracy while carrying signs that read, "Oppose privileges" and "Media must tell the truth". As the days of demonstrations continued, it was clear that the Communist Party could never again assume that the Chinese people would follow submissively behind the Party's strict regulations.

The Communist Party became increasingly distressed as the students declared they would not attended their university classes, choosing instead to protest until May 4, the 70th anniversary of the 1919 student demonstrations, which also expressed dissatisfaction with the government. Becoming alarmed with the growing numbers of student demonstrators, the Communist Party called three divisions of the 38th Army Corps to keep control in Tiananmen Square. 

The Party's uneasiness was well justified. Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the President of the Soviet Union, was scheduled to visit China on May 15 to work on improving the relations between the two Communist powers. Due to Gorbachev's visit, many foreign reporters barring video cameras were stationed in China making it impossible for the Chinese government to physically crush the student demonstrations using the People's Liberation Army.

The student demonstrations continued reporters began extensively reporting the happenings across the world. Then on May 13, just days before Gorbachev's visit, 2,220 students, a number which later grew to 3,000, began a hunger strike demanding the resignation of Ding Xiaoping. The hunger strike manifested as the students commitment to the protest, caused workers and onlookers to join the protest also. On May 17 more then a million people had gathered in Tiananmen Square demanding increased democracy making it the largest demonstration in Communist China history. As a result of the student demonstrations, the magnitude of Gorbachev's visit was greatly diminished.

On May 20 martial law was imposed and the army was called to clear Tiananmen Square. Yet, despite the, the next morning over a million people gathered creating road-blocks to keep the troops from entering the center of the city. Many believed the troops were deployed merely to intimidate the protesters. Yet, many things proved otherwise. For example, there was visible relocation of tanks and many hospitals were transferring their patients out of the city to make room for the high number of casualties expected if a military crackdown was to occur.

The events described here eventually lead to the military crackdown on June 4th leaving thousands dead and many more wounded.