A World in Pictures- Lucy Wan

On June 4th, 1989 Chinese troops opened fire on unarmed citizens in Tiananmen Square, resulting in the massacre of possibly thousands of civilians. "Tank Man" is an iconic image from the event; a lone student stands in front of a line of tanks charging into the center of Beijing. The protests that led to the Tiananmen Square Massacre were triggered by the death of Hu Yaobang, a liberal reformer who was deposed. University students marched and gathered in Tiananmen Square to mourn his death and voice grievances against inflation, freedom of the press and speech, and government accountability. A student-led hunger strike created support for the movement and protests soon spread to 400 cities. However, the government resolved to use force and 300,000 troops were moved to Beijing and cracked down on the protest.

Too often we see protests end in violence initiated by governments. With the Tiananmen Square protests, thousands of unarmed student protesters were fired upon by tanks and assault rifles. What makes the 1989 protests startling is the blatant cover-up by the Chinese government. To this day, the government denies that anyone died in the protests. Discussion and remembrance of the events in 1989 are also prohibited. To see such a significant event downplayed so much is really eye-opening in terms of the power of the government. Compared to the technology age of today where every protest is documented real-time on twitter and other social media, the Tiananmen Square protests do not get the same recognition and spread of information as protests today.