"We want democracy. Hu Yaobang's death is not the reason for this demonstration, it's the excuse." ~Student Protester from Beijing University
Standing Against a Communist Government
In 1989 Hu Yaobang, a moderate Party member who opposed corruption, died. Students went to Tiananmen Square to honor him. Students also wanted to meet with government leaders to discuss democratic reform and more political freedom. The government leaders refused to meet and discuss democratic reform, so students began a hunger strike. This was to send a message to the government leaders. This worked, and the student leaders were able to meet with Deng Xiaoping and other leaders. However, no agreements were reached, and hundreds of thousands of students started protesting. On May 20, 1989, the Chinese government declared martial law, which resulted in the massacre on June 3rd and 4th (Chinoy).
"The movement started as a spontaneous mass protest. The protesters actually had multiple requests. In addition to the request for more participation in policy making, many people wanted better conditions in universities, better pay to intellectuals, and especially an end of corruption and nepotism."~Dr. Tao Wang, Assistant Professor in Modern Chinese History, Iowa State University
(Kristof, "Chinese Students")
(Kristof, "100,000 Defy")
"Ousted General Secretary of the Communist Party, Hu Yaobang, dies at age 73 on April 15, 1989. The next day, thousands of students gather at Tiananmen Square to mourn him -- Hu had become a symbol of reform for the student movement. A week later thousands more marched to Tiananmen Square -- the start of an occupation that would end in a tragic showdown." ("Tiananmen Square")
"As the student movement grew in Beijing, similar protests spread to many other cities as well. We journalists were so busy trying to keep track of what was going on in Beijing that we didn't pay enough attention to this as we should have, but it is clear there was a huge groundswell of support for the protest movement. That is partly why the Chinese Communist Party was so frightened, and why it cracked down so hard." ~Mike Chinoy, former CNN correspondent at Tiananmen Square