1. Tiananmen Square Protests
1989
http://www.chinapictures.org/photo/travel/tiananmen-square/50408150614260/

2. Outline
• Background
• Changes they sought
• The protest
• The outcome
http://www.google.com/imgres

3. Background
• Mao Zedong- Communist Society
– Great Leap Forward Program
– Cultural Revolution
• Social reforms 1978 Den Xiaoping
– Market economy reform
– Political liberalization
– Glastnos
• Death of Secretary General Hu Yaobang

4. Background

5. Changes They Sought
• Affirm as correct Hu Yaobang’s views on democracy and
freedom
• Admit that the campaigns against spiritual pollution and
bourgeois liberalization had been wrong
• Publish information on the income of state leaders and
their family members
• End the ban on privately run newspapers and permit
freedom of speech
• Increase funding for education and raise intellectuals’ pay
• End restrictions on demonstrations in Beijing
• Hold democratic elections to replace government officials
who made bad policy decisions

6. The Protest

7. The Protest
• Students mourn the death of Hu yaobang
• Sit-in at the Office of the Standing Committee of the National
People’s Congress
• Police force
– Escalade from batons to fire arms to tanks
• Parallelism between police force and protesters
– 500 to 100,000
• Education strike
• Hunger Strike
– Garner support domestically and nationally
• Death toll
– Soviet Union: 10,000
– NATO: 7,000
– 400-800 NY Times
– Chinese government: 241 including soldiers

8. The Outcome

9. The Outcome
Negative
• Lack of leadership and
organization
• Demands not met
• Damaged reputation
through media
• High dead toll
• Event censured by
government
Positive
• International
sympathy for
protesters
• International pressure
on government

10. Are the goals and values of
nonviolent conflict and civil
disobedience a viable option for
changing a perceived unjust
society into a just one?