1989 Tiananmen Square protests 1989 Tiananmen Square protests The 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, commonly known in mainland China as the June Fourth Incident (Chinese: , "liùsì shìjiàn"), were student-led demonstrations in Beijing (the capital of the People's Republic of China) in 1989. More broadly, it refers to the popular national movement inspired by the Beijing protests during that period, sometimes called the '89 Democracy Movement (Chinese: , "bājiǔ mínyùn"). The protests were forcibly suppressed after Chinese Premier Li Peng declared martial law. In what became known in the West as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, troops with automatic rifles and tanks fired at the demonstrators
Defend Tiananmen Square Headquarters Notably, a Hong Kong concert raised one million US dollars for the students. However, since the various student organizations within the square maintained their own donation funds, accountability waned. For example, the Beijing Students’ Autonomous Federation withheld one million RMB in donations when the Hunger Strike Committee took back control of the Square on May 13. Upon learning of these funds, the CCP’s official stance was that donations came from reactionary forces and were used by the students in general to procure communication equipment and illegal arms. Intent on increasing support for the movement, Defend Tiananmen Square Headquarters established communication