THE YEAR OF 1989

April 15:

Hu Yaobang, former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and a prominent reformist, dies in Beijing. Students begin gathering to mourn him, while memorial posters and writings appear on university campuses and in public spaces. His death quickly becomes a catalyst for broader discussion of political reform, corruption, freedom of expression, and the direction of China's modernization.

April 18–19:

Thousands of students march from Tiananmen Square to Xinhua Gate, the main entrance to Zhongnanhai, where China's senior leaders live and work. Students stage a sit-in and call for government leaders to respond to their demands. Police disperse the gathering in the early morning. Further confrontations occur the following night, and reports that students had been beaten contribute to growing anger on university campuses.

April 22:

Hu Yaobang's official memorial ceremony is held in the Great Hall of the People. Tens of thousands of students and other mourners gather in and around Tiananmen Square. Student representatives attempt to present a petition to the leadership but receive no formal response.

April 26:

The People's Daily, the Communist Party's principal newspaper, publishes a highly influential editorial condemning the demonstrations as "turmoil" and warning that a small number of people were attempting to exploit the student movement to create disorder and undermine political stability. The editorial deeply angers many students, who reject the government's characterization of their movement.

April 27:

In defiance of official warnings, more than 100,000 students and supporters march through Beijing toward Tiananmen Square. Demonstrators pass or break through several police lines, while enormous crowds of residents gather along the route to cheer them. The overwhelmingly peaceful march becomes a major turning point, demonstrating the movement's rapidly expanding public support.

May 4:

On the seventieth anniversary of the May Fourth Movement of 1919, approximately 100,000 students and supporters march through Beijing. Journalists and other groups increasingly voice demands of their own, including calls for greater press freedom. Demonstrations also take place in other Chinese cities.

May 13:

With government-student negotiations making little progress and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev due to arrive in Beijing, students begin a hunger strike in Tiananmen Square. Contemporary estimates of the initial number vary from several hundred to more than 1,000, but participation soon grows into the thousands. The hunger strike dramatically increases public sympathy for the movement.

May 15–16:

Gorbachev arrives for the first Sino-Soviet summit in three decades. Because Tiananmen Square is occupied by protesters, the planned welcoming ceremony there cannot take place. International journalists who had traveled to Beijing for the summit turn their attention to the demonstrations, bringing unprecedented global coverage to the movement.

May 17–18:

The movement reaches its greatest scale. Huge demonstrations involving students, workers, journalists, government employees, intellectuals, and ordinary Beijing residents fill the capital. Contemporary reports estimated that crowds approached or exceeded one million people on each of these days. Similar demonstrations spread across numerous Chinese cities.

May 19:

Before dawn, CCP General Secretary Zhao Ziyang visits the hunger strikers in Tiananmen Square and makes an emotional appeal for them to end their fast. His appearance becomes his last major public act as China's top Party official. Later that day, Premier Li Peng announces the leadership's decision to impose martial law.

May 20:

Martial law formally takes effect in parts of Beijing. Large numbers of People's Liberation Army troops attempt to enter the center of the capital, but enormous crowds of residents block military convoys with buses, trucks, bicycles, makeshift barricades, and their own bodies. Many civilians speak directly with soldiers and urge them not to move against the protesters. The initial military deployment fails to clear Tiananmen Square.

May 30:

Students erect the approximately ten-meter-tall Goddess of Democracy in Tiananmen Square. Created by students from Beijing art schools, the statue faces the portrait of Mao Zedong above Tiananmen Gate and becomes one of the most recognizable symbols of the movement.

June 2–3:

After nearly two weeks of stalemate, military preparations intensify. Army units move into strategic locations across Beijing, while some soldiers enter the city center covertly or in plain clothes. During the early hours of June 3, residents again intercept and block troop movements.

June 3:

The government launches the final military operation to retake central Beijing. During the afternoon and evening, confrontations intensify between civilians and security forces. Later that night, heavily armed PLA units advance toward Tiananmen Square from several directions.

Troops use live ammunition against crowds attempting to block their advance. Numerous civilians are shot along Chang'an Avenue and other roads leading toward the square. Some enraged civilians attack soldiers and set military vehicles on fire, and a number of soldiers are also killed. The overwhelming majority of deaths associated with the crackdown are believed to have occurred on the streets surrounding and leading toward Tiananmen Square rather than within the square itself.

June 4:

Shortly after midnight, PLA troops and armored vehicles reach the vicinity of Tiananmen Square. Several thousand protesters remain concentrated around the Monument to the People's Heroes as military forces surround the area.

During the early morning hours, representatives of the protesters negotiate with military officers over a withdrawal from the square. At approximately 4:00 a.m., the lights in the square are extinguished. Accounts differ over the precise decision-making process among the remaining students, including the nature of a voice vote on whether to stay or withdraw. Student leaders ultimately decide to leave rather than risk further bloodshed.

The remaining protesters begin withdrawing through the southeastern part of the square while troops advance toward the Monument to the People's Heroes. By approximately 5:30–5:40 a.m., the military has taken control of Tiananmen Square.

Violence does not end with the evacuation. During the morning and throughout June 4, soldiers continue firing at civilians at several locations around central Beijing, including along Chang'an Avenue. Some residents repeatedly approach military lines to protest the killings or search for relatives and friends, and additional people are shot.

Most historical evidence indicates that the largest number of civilian deaths occurred during the army's advance through Beijing and in confrontations on the streets surrounding Tiananmen Square, rather than during the final evacuation of the student encampment itself.

The total number of people killed remains unknown. Chinese authorities eventually reported that more than 200 civilians were killed, including 36 university students, along with dozens of soldiers and police officers, while thousands were injured. A frequently cited figure of approximately 2,600 deaths was attributed at the time to sources within the Chinese Red Cross, although the organization subsequently distanced itself from that estimate. Other contemporary hospital, diplomatic, journalistic, and human-rights estimates ranged from several hundred to several thousand deaths. No complete, independently verified accounting of the victims has ever been made public.

Li Peng, the “Butcher of Beijing”

Then-Premier Li Peng emerged as one of the most visible and uncompromising advocates of a hard-line response to the 1989 protest movement. On May 18, he met with student representatives in a nationally televised dialogue that exposed the deep divide between the government and the demonstrators. While the students appealed for recognition of their movement and meaningful negotiations, Li emphasized political stability and condemned what the leadership characterized as growing “turmoil.”

As the crisis intensified, Li aligned himself with senior Party leaders who favored the imposition of martial law and the use of military force to restore government control. On May 20, he publicly announced martial law in parts of Beijing, becoming the most recognizable civilian face of the government's hard-line policy. His stance placed him in direct opposition to General Secretary Zhao Ziyang, who had advocated dialogue and a more conciliatory approach toward the protesters.

Following the violent crackdown of June 3–4, Li became one of the officials most widely blamed for the repression. Among dissidents, human-rights advocates, and many critics abroad, he became known as the “Butcher of Beijing,” a label that would follow him for the remainder of his life. His association with the crackdown was reinforced by his support for martial law and his prominent role within the leadership during the decision to clear the demonstrations.

Yet Li was not the sole decision-maker behind the use of force. Ultimate political authority rested with Deng Xiaoping and a small circle of senior Communist Party leaders whose approval was essential for the military operation. Li nevertheless became the public embodiment of the hard-line position and one of the figures most closely identified with the suppression of the movement.

His political career survived the crisis. While Zhao Ziyang was purged and spent the remainder of his life under house arrest, Li remained premier until 1998 and subsequently became chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. The contrast between their fates came to symbolize the outcome of the political struggle of 1989: the leadership's conciliatory approach was defeated, while those who supported coercive measures retained power.