[chris]

for more threads like this one : http://www.documentingreality.com/fo...me-line-45276/

Tiananmen Square Protest, 1989 protest in Beijing, the culmination of a series of student-led pro-democracy demonstrations in China. The events leading up to the Tiananmen Square protest began with the death of Hu Yaobang, a former general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), in April 1989. Hu had become a hero to Chinese liberals after he refused to halt unrest in January 1987. Following Hu’s death, students began peaceful memorial demonstrations in Shanghai, Beijing, and other cities.

The memorial escalated into a prodemocracy movement, with protesters demanding the removal of China’s paramount leader Deng Xiaoping and other Communist officials. The government’s order to end the demonstrations on April 20 was ignored. On May 4, approximately 100,000 students and workers marched in Beijing demanding democratic reforms. On May 20 the government declared martial law, but the demonstrations continued while the government wavered between the leadership of Premier Li Peng and CCP General Secretary Zhao Ziyang. Eventually choosing the hard-line approach of Li Peng, with the support of Deng, the government ordered troops to Tiananmen Square. On June 3 and 4, 1989, the People’s Liberation Army brutally crushed prodemocracy supporters, killing hundreds, injuring another 10,000, and arresting hundreds of students and workers.

Following the violence, the government conducted widespread arrests, summary trials, and executions; banned the foreign press; and strictly controlled the Chinese press. Although the government had quelled similar protests since the mid-1980s, the extremely violent suppression of the Tiananmen Square protest caused widespread international condemnation of the Chinese government.

[calabera]

The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, culminating in a violent conflict referred to in the United States as the Tiananmen Square massacre and in China as the June Fourth Incident (ostensibly to avoid confusion with two prior Tiananmen Square protests), were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China (PRC) beginning on 14 April. Led mainly by students and intellectuals, the protests occurred in a year that saw the collapse of a number of communist governments around the world.

The protests were sparked by the death of a pro-market, pro-democracy, and anti-corruption official, Hu Yaobang, whom protesters wanted to mourn. By the eve of Hu's funeral, 1,000,000 people had gathered on the Tiananmen square. The protests lacked a unified cause or leadership; participants included disillusioned Communist Party members and Trotskyists as well as free market reformers, who were generally against the government's authoritarianism and voiced calls for economic change and democratic reform within the structure of the government. The demonstrations centered on Tiananmen Square, in Beijing, but large-scale protests also occurred in cities throughout China, including Shanghai, which remained peaceful throughout the protests.

The movement lasted seven weeks, from Hu's death on 15 April until tanks cleared Tiananmen Square on 4 June. In Beijing, the resulting military response to the protesters by the PRC government left many civilians dead or severely injured. The number of deaths is not known and many different estimates exist. Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times estimated the death toll at 400-800 based on information he gathered from multiple medical sources.

Following the violence, the government conducted widespread arrests of protesters and their supporters, cracked down on other protests around China, banned the foreign press from the country and strictly controlled coverage of the events in the PRC press. Members of the Party who had publicly sympathized with the protesters were purged, with several high-ranking members placed under house arrest, such as General Secretary Zhao Ziyang. There was widespread international condemnation of the PRC government's use of force against the protesters.

[Faline]

wow, great pics and info again

[güttsfükk]

some more pix

[güttsfükk]

i thought there would be more people interested in the tiananmen square massacre. for those who do have an interest i also recommend checking out this documentary, some of what they say is pretty astonishing.

http://www.documentingreality.com/fo...ank-man-36348/

[Towlie]

I got a hunger for som award winning war movies now.

[güttsfükk]

i recommend Tora! Tora! Tora!

it's about pearl harbour without some gay love story and just about the japs blowing up the harbour. it's a great film

[güttsfükk]

more pix

[Psychonautical]

Great photos, a lot of passion in the peoples faces and I'm sure like most people I've always revered the nameless person who stood up to the tanks in Tiananmen.

The color in the photos is really beautiful as well. Great thread.

[güttsfükk]

yes, i love the picture of the guy in front of the tanks,i have a big poster of it on my wall, though my poster is in black & white