On 4 June 1989 the government of the People’s Republic of China took a decision that stood in blatant defiance of its own name, acting directly against the will of its people.

The Chinese government ordered its troops to open fire on unarmed protesters in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Protests had begun on 16 April as about a thousand students marched to mourn the death of Hu Yaobang, a pro-reform leader within the Chinese government. Despite government warnings, pro-reform and pro-democracy demonstrations continued for a month, drawing ever larger crowds of young people, eventually totalling over one million persons. On 13 May, 3 000 students began an eight-day hunger strike. The government imposed martial law on 20 May and brought in troops. On 2 June, in their first clash with the People’s Army, demonstrators turned back an advance of unarmed troops. However, in the pre-dawn hours of 4 June, the People’s Army, using tanks, machine guns, clubs and tear gas, opened fire on the unarmed protesters. Armoured personnel carriers then rolled into the square, crushing students still sleeping in their tents. The Chinese government would later claim only 300 died. United States estimates put the toll at over 3 000. Following the massacre, over 1 600 demonstrators were rounded up and jailed, with 27 being executed. Televised all over the world, the massacre was the first catastrophe of its kind witnessed by the international community and drew immediate and swift condemnation. Criticism came from both Western and Eastern Europe (notable because of the Cold War atmosphere prevalent at the time), North America and some east Asian and Latin American countries. Today, the government has gone to great pains to eliminate any documentation of the event. Stringent censorship, including of the Internet, means local news media are forbidden to report anything related to the protests. Websites related to the protest are blocked on the mainland. A search for Tiananmen Square protest information on the Internet in Mainland China largely returns no results, apart from the government-mandated version of the events and the official view. That singular event has over the decades become the defining characteristic of the Chinese government.

• 01/07/2009 02:00 - This Month in History - July 2009