Tiananmen Square Gate of China was demolished, allowing for the enlargement of the square. In November 1958, a major expansion of Tiananmen Square started, which was completed after only 11 months, in August 1959. This followed the vision of Mao Zedong to make the square the largest and most spectacular in the world, and intended to hold over 500,000 people. In that process, a large number of residential buildings and other structures have been demolished. On its southern edge, the Monument to the People's Heroes has been erected. Concomitantly, as part of the Ten Great Buildings constructed between 1958–59 to commemorate the
20th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests of the 1959 Tibetan uprising, the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, and the 10th anniversary of the banning of the Falun Gong. The project established branches at every level of government, and was carried out in part through increased surveillance of potential dissidents. Among those who had been arrested were several human rights lawyers who had signed Charter 08 – including Tang Jitian, Lan Xuezhi, and Pu Zhiqiang; Jiang Tianyong, Li Heping, Li Xiongbing and Li Fangping were put under surveillance. Peter Simpson of the "Daily Mail" reported a huge security presence in Tiananmen, and all around Beijing,