1989: Tiananmen Square

Source: Time Magazine

For many years, the Communist Party in China had produced a number of plans that would shape the country's economic policy. With the intent to make China a successful superpower without falling to capitalism, the government's policies backfired. Famines took hold of the people. Poverty was the common consequence for the majority of families. In the 1970s and 1980s, there was a new desire for personal expression and liberty. While it would be impossible for the government to change their socio-political mindset, there was no denying that the policies implemented by Mao Zedong up until his death in 1976 had been disastrous. The aftermath sparked social and economic reform to change that.

The new governments realised that state interference in the economy was causing more damage than good, and began allowing for more privatisation, which was partly good, but led to nepotism and further corruption. In the attempt to improve the economy, there was a new generation of "intellectuals," that would help guide the shaping of new policies. While this allowed for more ideas to be heard, it caused mass confusion within the government, sparking competitions between the more conservative left, who believed reforms should be kept to a minimal, and the liberal "right," led by Hu Yaobang, the Communist Party's general secretary. Interestingly, the government was closer to wanting to avoid reforms, while it became increasingly obvious that the people wanted more reforms. In 1986, a number of students organised protests in several cities in support of political and economic liberalisation, led by Fang Lizhi, Wang Ruowang and Liu Binyan. The then-premier, Deng Xiaoping, did not like either of them, ordering Hu to silence the leaders - Hu refused. As a result, leading political and military officials called for his resignation, believing him to be too radical against the Communist Party. In a surprising twist, his resignation led to increased support for Hu, and a damaged reputation for the Communist Party, even though Hu became less active in Chinese politics. Within a couple years, he had suffered a heart attack and passed away.

Theoretically, Hu's death should have resulted a decrease of revolutionary sentiment among the masses. However, students believed that his death was a long-term consequence of his forced resignation. This caused a number of university campuses to put up posters eulogising Hu. It wasn't long before these students began making posters calling for freedom of the press, democracy, and the destruction of corruption. Gatherings began to form at the Monument to the People's Heroes at Tiananmen Square. On April 17th, students prepared a draft to submit to the government, effectively requesting for increased freedom of press and expression. On the 22nd of April, Hu's state funeral took place, where 100,000 students marched on Tiananmen Square, despite warnings from the state authorities that it would be closed off to the public. As the months proceeded, demands for liberty began to rise even more, resulting in a hunger strike by the students on the 13th of Mary, just two days before the Mikhail Gorbachev's - the Soviet leader - arrival to China. The students aimed to use the hunger strike in a highly-publicised event of Gorbachev's welcoming ceremony to draw more attention to their demands and gain further sympathy from the people. To prevent any sense of victory for the students, negotiations were held with the students, and that the welcoming ceremony would be cancelled regardless of whether they agreed to the negotiations or not.

As time went on, student rallies became more and more radical. Gorbachev's arrival to China still resulted in increased media attention of the demonstrations. Even after his departure, foreign media journalists stayed in Beijing to cover the rallies, now putting the the protests into the international spotlight, garnering support from the Western governments. The Chinese government had finally lost patience, and declared martial law on May 20th, claiming that the student rally movements were tools of "bourgeois liberalism" with the intent to push personal ambitions over patriotism. In a way, this partly backfired as many soldiers were won over by the demonstrators, who offered them food, water, and shelter, in exchange for support. On June 2nd, Premier Deng Xiaoping and other party members met to discuss further action on the matter. By this point, riots had started taking place, and chaos ran through the streets of Beijing. The military took a more aggressive stance against the demonstrators, sending in armed troops, prepared to kill the students unless they left, even if they were peaceful. By the early hours of June 4th, hundreds of protestors were dead. The rough estimate goes up to about 1000 dead, but it is possible it could have been more. To this day, discussion about the protests remains a banned topic in China, most ironically.

In modern history, this was one of the bloodiest massacres of the 20th century outside of warfare. The fate of those who led the movement is a mystery, due a certain number of random disappearances; even family members do not know what happened. However, in spite of the losses, it marked a significant step towards liberty in expression, as well as a lesson to not suppress peaceful attempts of demonstrations. In today's world, where differing points of view are frequently silenced, we need to remember that another person's view may be considered radical, but that we may have something to learn from them no matter how much we disagree.