TIEN-AN-MUN INCIDENT 六四天安门事件
Tomorrow is JUNE 04, another anniversary of Tien-An-MunIncident. During my hunting sessions with “northern mushrooms”, I sometimes asked them about the 6/4 Incident when the session was over. They knew nothing because there was a news blackout at that time. So, even if the parents of the “mushrooms” are of the right age at that time, the news blackout & subsequent books will not mention the Incident; as such, a lot of mainlanders are not aware of this chapter in modern Chinese history.
Anyway, it started when university students in Beijing organized a peaceful, sit-in protest, end of May 1989, in front of The Great Hall of People which is situated on the west side of Tien-an-mun Square, asking for more freedom. The Government ignored the protestors but took no action to disperse them which was viewed as tolerance if not encouragement. The sit-in protestors grew in numbers.
Unfortunately, USSR’s (before the breakup) President Makhail Gorbachev was visiting China during the same period, the Great Hall of the People was scheduled to have a welcoming ceremony/party in honour of the Communist dignitary which had to be relocated.
This really pissed off CCP Chairman S. P.Tang. Subsequently, K. F. Hua & Li Peng were sent to the Square to persuade the students to return home but without successful .
The CCP had no experience in dealing with such a mass gathering of protestors, was also afraid that the movement will quickly spread to other major cities & provinces, PLA in tanks & amoured vehicles, equipped with machine guns were then sent in to “clear the scene”, resulting in a blood bath and many deaths.
Since there were many foreign journalists gathered in Beijing at the time, equipped with satellite TV broadcast equipments to report on Gorborchev’s China visit, the Tien-An-Mun Incident was immediately aired out of China.
As a result, many videos are available today to record this incident:
Viewing Time: 3 hr., 5’
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Viewing Time: 1 hr.,39’
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