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Political and Social Movements - What Happened At Tiananmen Square?
What happened at Tiananmen Square?
In 1989 Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China—the largest public square in the world—became the site of a student protest and massacre. Three years before the demonstration, freedom of speech and other democratic beliefs were gaining support on university campuses in China. In increasing numbers Chinese youth were demanding political reform. China is ruled by a Communist government, which controls all aspects of economic and social life and permits limited individual freedom. By supporting democracy—that is, government based on the will of the people and individual freedom—the students were violating Communist Party philosophy. They found a sympathizer, however, in the general secretary of the Communist Party, Hu Yaobang (1915–1989). Despite criticism from conservatives (those who support traditional views or institutions) in the government, Hu adhered to his reformist views,...
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