Chronology

Chronology of events from the summer of 1988 that led up to the violence on June 4, 1989, in Tiananmen Square.

Credit to the China Human Right's Forum for the Chronology of these events.

Summer 1988- Democracy salons flourish at Bejing University and other universities after May 4. Speakers include astrophysicist Fang Lizhi and his wife Li Shuxian, and verteran Democracy Wall activist Ren Wanding.
December 1988- In an essay, Ren Wanding, the founder in 1979 of the China Human Rights League, urges the Party to "let the people decide their future through the ballot box" and to release Wei Jingsheng, sentenced in 1979 to 15 years imprisonment.
January 6- Fang Lizhi, expelled from the Party in 1987 following the 1986-87 student protests, writes an open letter to Deng Xiaoping asking for an amnesty for Wei Jingsheng and all political prisoners.
February 13- Poet Bei Dao organizes a petition to the NPC and the Central Committee in support of Fang Lizhi's letter, to which 33 intellectuals sign on. The letter leads to a petition campaign that collects over 3,000 signatures. Fang is prevented from attending a reception in honor of visting U.S. President Bush.
February 27- Bei Dao protests this incident in a letter. From early March onward, posters in support of Fang, freedom and democracy appear at Bejing University.
March 17- Another 43 intellectuals, including Dai Qing, call on the National People's Congress to declare amnesty for political prisoners.
April 5- On the 13th anniversary of the 1976 Tiananmen Incident, Wang Dan publishes an article in the The New May Fourth, an independent student magazine: "Only if China sets its steps on the road of development of Eastern European countries in the near future will it be possible for her to successfuly build a highly democratic and advanced country."
April 8- At a Politburo meeting, Hu Yaobang collapes, Party General Secretary from 1981-1987, he was accused of being too liberal with intellectuals and students and of promoting "bourgeois liberalization" during 1986-1987 protests. Forced to resign in January 1987, he was replaced as Party Secretary General by Zhao Ziyang.
April 15- Death of Hu Yaobang.
April 16- Several hundreds students lay a large wreath for Hu at the Monument to the People's Heroes in Tiananmen Square, adding to numerous white flowers and poems placed there by Bejing residents.
April 17- Thousands of students from various campuses rally at Tiananmen Square, where they stay the whole night. Groups of workers gather on the square. Han Dongfang reminds the crowd that although the Constitution guarantees the right to organize, in practice this right has been usurped by the official ACFTU.
April 18- Students from various campuses convey a petition to the NPC. Their requests are read aloud at a sit-in near the Great Hall of the People. Mourning Hu's death and asking that the verdict against him be reversed, they call for the elimination of corruption and nopotism, and the ending of the campaigns against "spiritual pollution" and "bourgeois liberalization." They also appeal for a free press and freedom of speech, increased democratic participation in decision making and better conditions in universities. People put out wallposters praising Hu's positions in favor of political and economic reform.
April 19- Prevented by the students from joining the rally, workers settle outside the square, under the West Reveiwing Stand. A poster on the wall invites people to join the new, independent workers' organization. That night, the students stage a sit-in by the entrance of Zhongnanhai until 3:30am. Demanding that Li Peng come and talk to them, they chant "Down with the Communist Party!"
April 20- At a Politburo meeting, Li Peng expresses his view that the students' movement has been instigated by "a small group of people" behind the scenes. The workers print their first poster in support of the students. Demanding wage increases and price stabilization, they also denounce corruption among Party and government officials.
April 21- A group of intellectuals tries to deliver an open letter to the government. Guards refuse to take it. Signed by over 200 intellectuals and some NPC members, the letter is addressed to the Party and government leadership and to the NPC. The first public statement from the intelligentsia in support of the students' movement, it is released to the Hong Kong press. Student Wu'er Kaixi announces the establishment of the independent Bejing Federation of Autonomous Student Unions at at gathering of 60,000 at Bejing Normal Univeristy. That night, tens of thousands of students enter Tiananmen Square to prevent the authorities cordoning if off in preparation for Hu's state funeral. Some intellectuals join in.
April 22- On the morning of Hu's funeral, thousands of Bejing residents defy the ban on demonstrations and coverge on the square in support of the students. "Those who should have died live; those who should have lived have died," is one of their slogans. Kneeling on the steps of the Great Hall of the People, in the manner of petitions to the emperor, three students appeal to Li Peng to listen to their requests.
April 23- The Provisional Student Federation of Capital Universities and Colleges is constituted at a secret meeting of some 30 student leaders held at night in Yuanmingyuan gardens. Its steering committee includes Wang Dan and Liu Gang. Chen Ziming, a member with Wang Juntao of a reformist private research institute, hands the Federation its first financial contribution.
April 24- In an internal report, Bejing Party Secretary Li Ximing and Mayor Chen Xitong call the demonstrations an "anti-Party and anti-socialist political struggle" and advocate a crackdown. Other conservatives like Chen Yun convey similar assessments to Deng Xiaoping. Students begin a mass boycott of classes in an attempt to pressure Party and government leaders into hearing their requests.
April 25- National radio and tv broadcast Deng Xiaoping's condemnation of the student movement. Blaming the influence of opposition movements in Eastern Europe, he calls the protests a "planned conspiracy" and concludes with: "We must move quickly to put an end to this turmoil."
April 26- Deng's accusations are printed in a People's Daily editorial, which also proclaims that all further demonstrations are illegal. In a rare challenge, the official Chinese Democratic League calls on the government to refrain from using force.
April 27- In an angry reaction to Deng's condemnation, some 150,000 students peacefully break through police cordons on Chang'an Avenue and make their way to Tiananmen Square. From that day on, workers make daily attempts to legally register their new organization. Each time their applications are denied. PSB officials issue threats of arrest. In Shanghai, Jian Zemin, the then Party Secretary, bans that week's edition of the World Economic Herald, which had printed speeches from a forum of writers and intellectuals the paper convened on April 19 to discuss the legacy of Hu Yaobang. The Herald's director is fired.
April 29- At a Politburo meeting, Zhao Ziyang makes suggestions to curb official corruption in response to popular discontent. Li Peng opposes them.
May 1- A directive from the Bejing Party Committee urges workplaces to sever the link between students and workers.
May 3- Journalists draft a petition to the Party Central Committee asking for a dialogue with the government. They collect over 1,000 signatures and resolve to demonstrate on the next day to call for freedom of the press.
May 4- On the 70th anniversary of the 1919 May Fourth Movement, also initiated by students, over 100,000 march through Bejing. In addition to the students, workers and journalists express their demands. Similar rallies are held in cities across the country. Speaking at a meeting of the Asian Development Bank, Zhao Ziyang denies that the country is experiencing "turmoil", thus making apparent the division within the government on how to respond to the students' movement. In the following days, students are divided on questions of strategy, with some advocating a return to classes and the setting up of a Dialogue Delegation to press for a debate with the government that would be broadcast live, while others opt for a more radical course of action.
May 11- Zhao Ziyang suggests in a Politburo meeting that the Party accede to students' demands on corruption and that press freedom be expanded.
May 12- Party leaders eventually agree to an "informal discussion" with the students' Dialogue Delegation on May 15 but refuse for it to be broadcast. In the evening, at Bejing University, Chai Ling advocates the beginning of a hunger strike as a strategy to force the government to listen to their pleas. "We, the children, are ready to die," she says.
May 13- In the first dialogue with the students, Yan Mingfu, a member of the Central Committee Secretariat close to Zhao Ziyang, and Wang Juntao urge the students to be more moderate and to renounce the hunger strike. Yan and Wange are concerned that the upcoming visit by Mikhail Gorbachev could move the hardliners to crush the demonstrations. The summit meeting between Gorbachev and Deng Xiaoping is to put an end to a 33-year freeze in Sino-Soviet relations. The students are represented by three groups: the Dialogue Delegation, the hunger strikers and the Students' Autonomous Federation. Their demands have by now been reduced to two: that the government recognize their movement as legitimate and patriotic; and that the April 26 editorial be withdrawn. All three groups appeal to moderation. The hunger strike begins, eventually drawing over 3,000 participants.
May 14- A second meeting between Yan Mingfu and the students breaks down with no result. A delegation of intellectuals again fails to convince the students to call off the hunger strike and to vacate the square for Gorbachev's vist, a position the Dialogue Delegatin decides to endorse.
May 15- Instead of an official welcome on Tiananmen Square, Gorbachev enters the Great Hall of the People by a back entrance. Thousands of intellectuals, teachers and scientists march to Tiananmen Square.
May 16- 300,000 people take to the streets in support of the hunger strikers. Yan Mingfu again urges the students to call off the strikers. Wang Dan and Wu'er Kaixi, who are in favor of this suggestion, are outnumbered by other leaders. Prominent intellectuals including Yan Jiaqi and Bao Zunxin draft the May 17 Declaration, which reads "History proves: suppressers of student movements come to no good end," and urges the government to recognize the legitimacy of the Autonomous Students' Federation, to promote political reform and eliminate corruption, and to respect freedom of the press, of thought and of assembly.
May 17- More than one million march in the capital, including workers, ACFTU officials, journalists, doctors and nurses. At 8:00pm, China's top leadership decides to impose martial law in Bejing. Zhao Ziyang resigns.
May 18- At dawn, Zhao Ziyang and Li Peng visit fasting students at the hospital. Again, more than one million people demonstrate their support for the student movement. Bus and taxi drivers, railroad employees, factory and construction workers, peasants from the outskirts roam through the capital. At noon, Li Peng Holds inconclusive talks with student representatives in the Great Hall of the People.
May 19- Zhao Ziyang pays a surprise visit to the students on the square. "We have come too late. We deserve your criticism," he says with tears in his eyes. Li Peng accompanies him. In the early evening, Chen Ziming and Wang Juntao's group is alerted by an unidentified source that martial law is about to be declared. Politburo secretary Bao Tong will later be blamed for the leak. Warned by an anonymous letter to the People and by bikers' squads calling themselves the Flying Tigers, Bejing residents block the army at all major intersections. During the two weeks that follow, they erect barricades to stop the advance of the troops gowards central Bejing, urging them not to enforce martial-law restrictions and not to turn their guns to Chinese people. On the square, the students call off the hunger strike. In a late night television address, Li Peng blames the conspirators behind the students for instigating turmoil.
May 20- The workers give themselves a name: the Bejing Workers Autonomous Federation. Han Dongfang and Li jinjin, BWAF's legal adviser, write an appeal for workers and students to join forces. Martial law takes effect at 10am. "Demonstrations, petitioning, class boycotts, strikes... are prohibited... armed police and PLA soldiers have the right to exercise any force necessary to stop or prevent any violations of martial law orders." PLA units are to clear Tiananmen Square and return to the city.
May 21- Again more than one million people defy martial law and successfully block soldiers from entering central Bejing.
May 23- Mao Zedong's portrait on the Tiananmen Gate is defaced by three men who throw eggshells filled with paint at it. It is soon removed and replace with another, identical one. Participants try to coordinate their efforts, which leads to the creation of the Capital Joint Liasion Group, made up of students, intellectuals, workers and the Bejing Residents' Autonomous Federation.
May 25- Representatives of students vote in favor of remaining in the square, while the intellectuals propose that they withdraw.
May 26- Zhao Ziyang is formally ousted from power, and replaced by Jian Zemin.
May 27- The Capital Joint Liaison Group agrees in a statement to end the occupation of the square on May 30, when students will return to their campuses. However, the Command Headquarters, head by Chai Ling, Li Lu and Feng Congde, believes that a withdrawl without any concession from the government is tantamount to surrender. Breaking the agreement, they announce their refusal to abandon the square unless the NPC Standing Committee convenes before its regular June 20 session.
May 28- Bao Tong, Zhao Ziyang's former aide, is arrested in one of the first of tens of thousands of arrests in which protest leaders, participants and sympathizers are detained across the country.
May 29- During the night, students of the Central Academy of Fine Arts assemble the 37-foot-high statue of the Goddess of Democracy, built in two days out of plaster and styrofoam. It stands opposite the giant portrait of Mao Zedong.
May 30- As the statue is unveiled, and announcement says: "We have made this statue as a memorial to democracy." Three leading members of the BWAF are detained by the PSB who, the night before, ordered the workers to vacate the place they were occupying. Li Jinjin denounces the areests at a press conference on the Monmument to the People's Heroes. The BWAF moves it headquarters to the nortwest of the square.
May31- The Flying Tigers are rounded up.
June 2- The Capital Joint Liaison Group, now composed solely of intellectuals, decides to stage a series of 72-hour hunger strikes to show the students that others too are ready to put their lives at risk. Literary critic Liu Xiaobo, rock star Hou Dejian and economist Zhou Duo are among the first to start fasting. In an open letter, Liu proclaims his opposition to the martial law, appeals for the "birth of a new political culture" and criticizes the students for their lack of organization and democratic process.
June 3- In the morning, soldiers take up positions on the square. In the afternoon, violent clashes occur between soldiers and Bejing residents. In the evening, smashing barricades, PLA troops force their way into the capital and converge on Tiananmen Square. An unknown number of Bejing Citizens die, succumbing to gunshots-sometimes at point blank-or crushed by tanks and armored personnel carriers. In angry retaliation, civilians throw stones at the soldiers, who shoot back. Some soldiers are attacked and beaten up. Buses and cars are set on fire. "Counterrevolutionary rebellion is now taking place," announces a government broadcast. "Ruffinas are violently attacking PLA soldiers... They aim to overthrow the People's Republic of China."
June 4-1:00am: The troops have blocked off all the approaches to Tiananmen Square. Various people who have witnessed the killings of civilians, like Wuhan student Cai Chongguo or writer Bai Hua, report to the BWAF and to the students' Command Headquarters, urging them to withdraw. Chai Ling asks the protestors to stay still.
2:00am-The first troop transport trucks enter the square.
3:00am-Hou Dejian, Zhou Duo and Liu Xiaobo entreat the students, who have gathered on the Monument to the People's Heroes, to discard whatever weapons they have and not to oppose the soldiers. Zhou and Hou negotiate with army officials to give the students time to vacate the square. Withdrawl will be unconditional, officials reply, adding that it must takeplace before daybreak. They indicate the southeast as the safest way to exit.
4:30am- A member of BWAF warns through the students' loudspeaker: "We must leave here immediately, for a terrible blood oath is about to take place." The students still refuse to go. The tanks and the troops stationed in the north corner begin to move forward. Li Lu organizes a voice vote, in which the students eventually agree to leave. Led by Chai Ling and Feng Congde, they walk away from the Monument to the People's Heroes towards the southeast part of the square. A row of armored vehicles moves slowly towards the Monument. The soldiers shoot out the students' loudspeakers. Other troops arrive from the west, squeezing the crowd. As the students leave, army tanks crush tents on their way. The student guards are the last to leave, with soldiers about 18 feet behind them firing warning shots.
5:00am- As the students pass Qianmen, residents line the streets and applaud. The army throws tear gas and shoots at students and citizens near the square and in other areas of the capital. Some people are crushed under the square and in other areas of the capital. Some people are crushed under tanks. The number of victims is not know. Later, Li Peng and Deng Xiaoping will publicly praise the courage of PLA officers and soldiers, and thank them for clearing Tiananmen Square.
June 5- A lone man stops a tank convoy heading for Tiananmen Square.
June 9- In a speech, Deng Xiaoping states that the government has suppressed a "counterrevolutionary rebellion... determined by the international and domestic climate" where the "dregs of society" had sought to "establish a bourgeois republic entirely dependent on the West."
June 13- The Chinese authorities broadcast the names of the 21 most-wanted student leaders.
September 19- "There were no deaths in the square," reads an article in the People's Daily.
List of Abbreviations: ACFTU: All China Federation of Trade Unions BWAF: Bejing Workers' Autonomous Federation NPC: National People's Congress PLA: People's Liberation Army PSB: Public Security Bureau