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 Headquarters. Defend Tiananmen Square Headquarters established a variety of measures to protect students protesting in Tiananmen Square. Their first was the installation of a broadcasting system for establishing authority and issuing instructions to protestors. The system was used for a final time on June 3 to report the first acts of violence occurring on the square’s surrounding streets, and to prompt the Hunger Strikers to remain passive. The system’s use quickly expanded beyond its original purpose. In his memoir, Li Lu notes that early on June 3 the system was used to pacify agitated students by playing Beethoven, with the