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Explainer | Tiananmen Square crackdown: what the ‘June Fourth incident’ in 1989 was about
- The reported death toll varies, from the Chinese State Council’s official count of around 300 to a student union estimate of 4,000
- Today, after the global backlash has faded, there are few signs of the tragedy in Beijing and most people in China have learned to forget
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The year the Berlin Wall fell and the formerly communist Eastern bloc countries embraced democracy, a parallel liberal movement in China ended abruptly with a violent military crackdown against protesters calling for greater democracy and government transparency in Beijing.
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The shots fired in Beijing on June 4, 1989, would reverberate throughout the decades. More than 30 years later, discussion of the Tiananmen Square tragedy remains censored on China’s internet and Chinese activists fighting to keep memories of the events that day alive have been detained.
It has been remembered annually at a candlelight vigil in Hong Kong since 1990, although the event has been banned since last year with authorities citing concerns over the spread of Covid-19.
Here’s what you need to know about the Tiananmen Square crackdown, which is sometimes also referred to as the “June Fourth incident”.
What were the protests about?
After Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, the 1980s heralded an age of political liberalisation and economic privatisation led by then-paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, reform-minded party chief Hu Yaobang, and premier Zhao Ziyang.
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