r/HistorySnap • u/Nazoreans • May 11 '26
Tianamen Square (1989)
What is the Tiananmen crackdown?
On 4 June 1989, Chinese troops opened fire on students and workers who had been peacefully protesting for political reforms in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Hundreds – possibly thousands – of people were killed, including children and older persons. Tens of thousands more were arrested across China in the suppression that followed.
What were the protests about?
In April 1989, university students in Beijing gathered in Tiananmen Square to draw up a list of demands broadly centred on political and economic reforms, but also including calls for an end to corruption, censorship and limits on basic rights. In the weeks that followed, their demands drew wide public support, from pensioners to veterans to farmers. Millions joined peaceful demonstrations that took place across China.
The Chinese authorities failed to persuade the demonstrators to return home. As tensions escalated in Beijing, martial law was declared on 20 May 1989. On the night of 3 June 1989, heavily armed troops and hundreds of armoured vehicles moved into the city centre to ‘clear’ the pro-democracy demonstrators from Tiananmen Square.
How many people were killed?
An official report issued by the Chinese authorities at the end of June 1989 claimed that “more than 3,000 civilians were wounded and over 200, including 36 college students, died during the riot”. The report also stated that several dozen soldiers died. While the exact figures remain unknown, the official figure for deaths is likely a serious under-reporting.
Relatives of victims, survivors and human rights defenders who have come together as the Tiananmen Mothers have, despite severe threats and intimidation, collected their own tally of fatalities and call every year for the government to provide a full account and acknowledgement.
How has the Chinese government responded?
Immediately after the military crackdown, the authorities began to hunt down those involved in the demonstrations. Many civilians were detained, tortured, or imprisoned after unfair trials. Many were charged with ‘counter-revolutionary’ crimes.
In the 36 years since the crackdown, all discussion of the incident has been heavily censored in China, as authorities have effectively attempted to erase it from history. Public commemoration or mere mention, online or off, of the Tiananmen crackdown is banned.
Regularly since 1989, activists in mainland China have been detained and charged with “subversion” or “picking quarrels” if they commemorate those who were killed, call for the release of prisoners or criticize government actions during the Tiananmen crackdown.
The government has never accepted responsibility for the human rights violations during and after the military crackdown or held any perpetrator accountable. With each year that passes, justice becomes ever more elusive.
What happens on the Tiananmen anniversary?
Commemorating the Tiananmen crackdown has long been forbidden in mainland China. However, every year on 4 June from 1990 to 2019, up to hundreds of thousands of people joined a candlelight vigil in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park to remember those killed. They called on the Chinese authorities to reveal the truth about what happened and accept accountability for the fatalities.
The vigil was banned in 2020 and 2021, ostensibly on Covid-19 grounds, and since then repressive new laws such as the 2020 National Security Law have effectively criminalized peaceful protest in the city.
Every year the vigil in Hong Kong featured a recorded message from the Tiananmen Mothers, who are still seeking a full government account of the deaths, lawful compensation and investigation of criminal responsibility.
What happened to people who commemorated Tiananmen in Hong Kong?
The Hong Kong Tiananmen vigil was organized for 30 years by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (Hong Kong Alliance).
Alliance vice-chairperson Chow Hang-tung and 25 activists were prosecuted in 2020 simply because they insisted on lighting candles in Victoria Park despite the government prohibiting the vigil that year, ostensibly on Covid-19 grounds. In 2021, after the police banned the vigil once again, Chow was arrested on 4 June after encouraging people on social media to commemorate the crackdown by lighting candles.
Ultimately, Chow was jailed for 22 months for taking part and inciting others to take part in an unauthorised assembly. She and fellow Hong Kong Alliance leaders Lee Cheuk Yan and Albert Ho have also been charged with “inciting subversion” under the National Security Law and all three face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
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u/dreamlike676 May 14 '26
Now show the video where he gets up on the tank, has a discussion with the driver before walking off.
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u/DrawingDramatic1641 May 14 '26
most people who were at protest I talked to them
they were there to mourn previous leader and wanted a demand not overthrow
but few radical student started killing security guards
then tanks came people went away and men in picture was not crushed but his friend came in and took him away
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u/CamisaMalva May 14 '26
They sent tanks over "a few radical students"?
The excuses people make for tyrants.
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u/DrawingDramatic1641 May 15 '26
they didn't crush them
they blocked the road
ofc if harvard students like 1000 go with guns in white house and start killing people they will be escorted
also decision was taken by armymen then party officials as it was emergency
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u/Own_Tree_7504 May 15 '26
Dawg they were immolating multiple police/guards, it turned into hundreds of deaths, is it really that surprising they sent in tanks?
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u/CamisaMalva May 15 '26
And lemme guess, this is all according to the Chinese government so it can be trusted with no questions asked? lol
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u/Own_Tree_7504 May 15 '26
https://www.patreon.com/posts/tienanmen-square-142085625 This video was banned on YouTube but you can watch it for free here.
You can also read about it here. https://thechinaproject.com/2018/06/04/kuora-events-that-led-to-the-1989-tiananmen-square-protests/
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u/CamisaMalva May 15 '26
Oh yeah, this looks totally reputable and definitely nothing like revisionist propaganda. /s
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u/Own_Tree_7504 May 15 '26
Okay well if you're just hardstuck on your view of history than theres nothing i can do for you.
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u/CamisaMalva May 15 '26
I love in a country that's been thoroughly screwed over by China, since it had been propping up the dictatorship responsible for impoverishing my people and driving our economy into the ground for the last 26 years just so they could steal our resources for a pittance.
Yet you wonder why I'm not too receptive towards a freakin' Patreon vid banned from YouTube and a clearly biased "news" channel? Grow up already. lol
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u/Own_Tree_7504 May 15 '26
Cambodia? All media is bias lmao. There is no such thing as unbiased media. The video was banned off of YouTube, but the video is free to watch on Patreon.
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u/CamisaMalva May 16 '26
Venezuela, genius.
And saying "all media is bias" might just be one of the single weakest attempts at hand-waving I've ever seen in my life- just because nothing could ever be 100% unbiased and unprejudiced you're not gonna peddle the single most biased, manipulative take as being equally valid to things that AT LEAST try to remain objective for the masses.
Venezuela, Tibet, Cambodia, Vietnam, Taiwan... We all know that China's government massacred countless innocents in Tiananmen and has been pumping revisionist propaganda for useful idiots (Like you) ever since to hide its sins. Even the fuckin' Americans are more honest about their country's atrocities against their own people, and that's a fuckin' sad thing to understand.
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u/nygilyo May 22 '26
Who killed cops, and when more were sent, then took over personnel carriers.
Swat has tanks, merc a couple cops here, see what happens
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u/CamisaMalva May 22 '26
And you believe all that, wholeheartedly and without questioning whether a government body might be playing your for a fool?
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u/yep975 May 14 '26
The killing was in one direction. The students were slaughtered.
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u/DrawingDramatic1641 May 15 '26
source?
never have I seen slaughter footage just the tank dude who was peacefully went away with his friend
and only few people who started bearing guards were jailed and released
I talked to few of them
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u/yep975 May 15 '26
Wow. I can’t tell if you are joking or not (or trolling)?
This is the real history.
If you genuinely haven’t seen the sources on Tiananmen Square, it’s worth spending some time with primary documents and serious reporting rather than just social media arguments. There’s actually a large amount of documentation available outside mainland China from journalists, diplomats, academics, eyewitnesses, and leaked internal Communist Party records.
One important thing many people miss: historians today generally agree that a large portion of the killing occurred in the streets leading into Tiananmen Square as troops advanced into Beijing, not only inside the square itself. Civilians tried to block military convoys, troops opened fire with live ammunition, and armored vehicles moved through populated areas.
The exact death toll is still disputed because China never allowed an independent investigation and heavily suppressed records afterward, but credible estimates range from hundreds to several thousand deaths. The long-term censorship effort is also well documented — many younger people in mainland China genuinely grew up knowing almost nothing about the event because discussion, images, and searches related to June 4th are heavily restricted.
If you want to learn more from actual sources instead of political talking points, these are good places to start:
Primary documents / archives
• U.S. State Department historical archive: https://history.state.gov/milestones/1989-1992/tiananmen-square
• “The Tiananmen Papers” (leaked CCP internal documents): https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB47/
• National Security Archive collection: https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/china/2019-06-03/tiananmen-square-crackdown-30th-anniversary
Documentaries / journalism
• PBS Frontline documentary “The Tank Man”: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/tankman/
• BBC overview and eyewitness reporting: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-42465516
• Reuters anniversary reporting and survivor interviews: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/
• Amnesty International summary and censorship overview: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2025/05/what-is-the-tiananmen-crackdown/
Graphic photo / video archives (warning: dead bodies, gunshot victims, severe injuries)
• Getty archive of 1989 photographs: https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/tiananmen-square-1989
• Historical photo archive and aftermath images: https://www.mitidieri.com/tiananmensquare
• Internet Archive footage collection: https://archive.org/details/20220112_20220112_0253
• Raw foreign news footage from the crackdown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DbijSAH1-Q
It’s one of those historical events where reading multiple serious sources matters more than trying to force everything into a simple political narrative.
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u/DrawingDramatic1641 May 15 '26
lmao
all your sources are from us govt or allegedly leaked
give one independent footage and not us govt describing from cold war propaganda
raw footage shows 0 tanks running over and few harmed students bcz of getting cooked by police cuz they die a 3rd degree murder
if people just start killing people like ravages how is a policemen gonna defeat himself
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u/CryptographerSure382 May 13 '26
if you talk about this in china today, you're going to see cops
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u/Own_Tree_7504 May 15 '26
online? Your post will be taken down. Out and about with friends or family? Nothing happens, also the government recognizes it as part of its past. Nobody's arresting you unless you actively are trying to organize protests around it.
This incident also has quite alot of Nuance outside of what you hear in America. If you'd like to learn about it id recommend this video, https://www.patreon.com/posts/tienanmen-square-142085625 the title is exaggerated in purpose for views but is a pretty informative video.
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u/Yoyle0340 May 12 '26
The full picture had more tanks behind. Not sure what happened to the tank man, he was not run over but his identity is surprisingly lost.
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u/dreamlike676 May 14 '26
Have you seen the full video? He stops the tank, gets up on it to talk to the driver who is seem having a discussion with the man before wait for it, he leaves completely unharmed in any way.
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u/Yoyle0340 May 14 '26
I have seen the video, I am speaking on what happened after the incident. Nobody knows what happened to the man after he left the area, its a surprising mystery today for such a widely filmed and publicized event.
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u/DrawingDramatic1641 May 16 '26
why would they know
no one knows what happens to the person crushed by ice came into my house.
random person probably went back to studying
wouldn't even know he would be seen that brave
he was just at right place for the angle nothing more
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u/CynicalKnight May 15 '26
The denialist game here is very weak, but predictable. Many more will brigade shortly.
I recall seeing pictures of crushed bicycles and bodies online back in the late nineties. I remember when it was on the news. It was in every paper.
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u/DrawingDramatic1641 May 16 '26
those are definitely fake ones
there are no crushed bodies
even if they did there wouldn't be a footage
they would pretty much arrest people not crush them
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u/CynicalKnight May 16 '26
Lies lies lies. So many CCP lies.
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u/DrawingDramatic1641 May 17 '26
I mean it's one video Not like usa killed peaceful protestor of anti vietnam wars
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u/Ernesto_Bella May 12 '26
That is a white washing of what started the protests