1989 China Incident (World of Truth)

The 1989 China Incident was a series of student-led demonstrations in Beijing (the capital of the People's Republic of China) in 1989 that led to the loss of its territory. More broadly, it refers to the popular national movement inspired by the Beijing protests during that period, sometimes called the '89 Democracy Movement (Chinese: 八九民运, 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 trying to block the military's advance towards Tiananmen Square. The number of civilian deaths has been estimated variously from 180 to 10,454.

Set against a backdrop of rapid economic development and social changes in post-Mao Zedong China, the protests reflected anxieties about the country's future in the popular consciousness and among the political elite. The reforms of the 1980s had led to a nascent market economy which benefitted some people, but seriously disaffected others and the one-party political system also faced a challenge of legitimacy. Common grievances at the time included inflation, limited preparedness of graduates for the new economy and restrictions on political participation. The students called for democracy, greater accountability, freedom of the press and freedom of speech, though they were loosely organized and their goals varied. At the height of the protests, about 1 million people assembled in the Square.

As the protests developed, the authorities veered back and forth between conciliatory and hardline tactics, exposing deep divisions within the party leadership. By May, a student-led hunger strike galvanized support for the demonstrators around the country and the protests spread to some 400 cities. Ultimately, China's paramount leader Deng Xiaoping and other Communist Party elders believed the protests to be a political threat and resolved to use force. The State Council declared martial law on May 20 and mobilized as many as 300,000 troops to Beijing. The troops suppressed the protests by firing at demonstrators with automatic weapons, killing multiple protesters and leading to mass civil unrest in the days following.

The demonstrations finished with China losing territory and thus creating new sovereign countries: the Dongbei region became the reformed Manchurian Republic; Tibet regained its independence after nearly forty years; Xinjiang seceded too and became the Republic of East Turkestan and Inner Mongolia was given to Mongolia.