The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 culminating in the Tiananmen Square Massacre (referred to in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident, to avoid confusion with two other Tiananmen Square protests) were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in the People's Republic of China (PRC) between 15 April and 4 June 1989. They were mainly led by Beijing students and intellectuals. The protests occurred in a year that saw the collapse of a number of Socialist governments around the world.
The protests were sparked by the death of pro-market and pro-democracy official, Hu Yaobang, who protesters wanted to mourn. By the eve of Hu's funeral, it had reached 100,000 people on the Tiananmen square. While the protests lacked a unified cause or leadership, participants were generally against the authoritarianism and voiced calls for economic liberalization[1] and democratic reform[1] within the structure of the government. The demonstrations centered on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, but large-scale protests also occurred in cities throughout China, including Shanghai, which stayed peaceful throughout the protests.
