in which government's responded to the situation, and the paper will conclude with a brief legacy of Tianamen.
Briefly, the situation in China started in mid April. At that time, former Party chief Hu Yaobang died. Yaobang, who was dismissed in January 1987 for being "too liberal," was a particular favorite of students and other pro democracy constituents. The students banded together and, with an additional 20,000 young people, marched on Tianamen Square to mark the anniversary of Yaobang's death.2
The students, however, did not stop with this one march. Instead, the continued protesting the Deng regime, and on April 27, 1989, they faced an official attack from the official Party newspaper, the People's Daily. The newspaper said that the protests were organized chaos designed to overthrow a legitimate government. The editorial also accused the students of sowing the seeds of political instability, ____________________
treason, and culpability with foreign powers.3
In response to this, the 150,00 angry students defied the government and marched again, but successfully succeeded in breaking through police lines without violence. Interestingly enough, as the students marched they were greeted with shouts of support from Beijing citizens. On May 4, there was another march, and after that date Tianamen square became the symbol of a new surge of democratic protest and governmental defiance.4
On May 13, thousands of students arrived at Tianamen, anticipating the arrival of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Their demands included the direct negotiations with Communist Party leaders, retraction of the People's Daily editorial, and the willingness of the Deng regime to allow greater democratization into China.
By May 17, over a million people had arrived in the square, and officials were becoming worried. The Deng government was preoccupied with Gorbachev's visit, and had little in the way of experience at dealing wit...