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Protest Silenced in Tiananmen Square
Troops gather to foil Beijing protests
Broadcast Date: May 19, 1989
Revolution is brewing in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on May 19, 1989 as masses of students pour into the city to call for democracy. Deprived of hope for change within China's Communist Party leadership, they have been demonstrating in the square for over a month when the government imposes martial law. In this report from correspondent Don Murray, students and Beijing residents stand up to the troops who have been sent in to break up the protests.Troops gather to foil Beijing protests
• Students protesting in Tiananmen Square - many of them from other cities in China - began a hunger strike on May 13, 1989. Zhao Ziyang, the General Secretary of the Communist Party who came to be seen as a threat to the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, visited the hunger strikers in defiance of party orders a week later.• According to the New York Times, military troops tasked with ending the protests gradually worked their way into the city so that residents and protesters became accustomed to their presence. But on June 3 an incident in which a police van killed three cyclists triggered angry rumours that police were about to evict the 10,000 students still occupying Tiananmen Square. Crowds came out to oppose the soldiers, and it was then that Deng ordered the army to take back the square, by force of necessary.
Troops gather to foil Beijing protests
Medium: Television
Program: The National
Broadcast Date: May 19, 1989
Host: Knowlton Nash
Reporter: Don Murray
Duration: 4:18
Last updated:
June 1, 2009
Troops gather to foil Beijing protests.
The CBC Digital Archives Website.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Last updated: June 1, 2009.
[Page consulted on Feb. 15, 2012.]