{{Infobox civil conflict

| title = 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre

| time =

| timezone =

The international community, human rights organizations, and political analysts condemned the Chinese government for the massacre. Western countries imposed arms embargoes on China.{{sfn|Dube|2014}} The Chinese government made widespread arrests of protesters and their supporters, suppressed [[1989 Chinese protests by region|other protests around China]], expelled foreign journalists, strictly controlled coverage of the events in the domestic press, strengthened the police and internal security forces, and demoted or purged officials it deemed sympathetic to the protests.{{sfn|Miles|1997|p=28}} More broadly, the suppression ended the [[History of the People's Republic of China#Political reforms|political reforms begun in 1986]] and halted the policies of liberalization of the 1980s, which were only partly resumed after [[Deng Xiaoping's Southern Tour]] in 1992.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|title=Deng Xiaoping's Southern Tour|url=http://chinaconnectu.com/wp-content/pdf/DengXiaopingsSouthernTour.pdf|date=2009|website=Berkshire Publishing Group LLC|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170517044420/http://chinaconnectu.com/wp-content/pdf/DengXiaopingsSouthernTour.pdf|archive-date=17 May 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=After 20 Years of 'Peaceful Evolution,' China Faces Another Historic Moment|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/01/after-20-years-of-peaceful-evolution-china-faces-another-historic-moment/251764/|last1=Ma|first1=Damien|date=23 January 2012|website=The Atlantic|language=en-US|access-date=1 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190816112722/https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/01/after-20-years-of-peaceful-evolution-china-faces-another-historic-moment/251764/|archive-date=16 August 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=The inside story of the propaganda fightback for Deng's reforms|url=https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/2173020/inside-story-propaganda-fightback-deng-xiaopings-market-reforms|date=14 November 2018|website=South China Morning Post|language=en|access-date=1 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200226140740/https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/2173020/inside-story-propaganda-fightback-deng-xiaopings-market-reforms|archive-date=26 February 2020|url-status=live}}</ref> Considered a watershed event, reaction to the protests set limits on political expression in China that have lasted up to the present day.<ref>{{cite news |title=Prosperity, repression mark China 30 years after Tiananmen |url=https://www.apnews.com/f298a41082ec4928804f4891171cfb02 |access-date=3 June 2019 |website=AP News |date=3 June 2019 |url-status=live |first1=Christopher |last1=Bodeen |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190603082955/https://www.apnews.com/f298a41082ec4928804f4891171cfb02 |archive-date=3 June 2019 }}</ref> Remembering the protests is widely associated with questioning the legitimacy of the CCP and remains one of the most sensitive and most widely [[Censorship in China|censored topics in China]].{{sfn|Nathan|2009}}{{sfn|Goodman|1994|p=112}}

Outside mainland China, and among circles critical of the crackdown within mainland China, the crackdown is commonly referred to in Chinese as "June Fourth Massacre" ({{zh|labels=no|t=六四屠殺 |p=liù-sì túshā}}) and "June Fourth Crackdown" ({{zh|labels=no|t=六四鎮壓 |p=liù-sì zhènyā}}). To bypass [[internet censorship in China]], which uniformly considers all the above-mentioned names too "sensitive" for search engines and public forums, alternative names have sprung up to describe the events on the Internet, such as May&nbsp;35th, VIIV ([[Roman numerals]] for 6 and 4), Eight Squared (i.e. 8²=64){{sfn|China tightens information}} and 8964 (i.e. yymd).<ref name="HKFP8964">[https://www.hongkongfp.com/2016/06/13/bus-displayed-8964-commemoration-tiananmen-massacre-sees-driver-suspended-3-months/ "Bus driver in '8964' massacre memento suspended for 3 months"] {{dead link|date=July 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}. [[Chantal Yuen]]/[[Hong Kong Free Press]]. 13 June 2016. Retrieved 13 June 2016.</ref>

To oversee his reform agenda, Deng promoted his allies to top government and party posts. [[Zhao Ziyang]] was named [[Premier of the People's Republic of China|Premier]], the head of government, in September 1980, and [[Hu Yaobang]] became [[General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party|CCP General Secretary]] in 1982.

Inspired by the events in Beijing, protests and strikes began at universities in other cities, with many students traveling to Beijing to join the demonstration. Generally, the Tiananmen Square demonstration was well ordered, with daily marches of students from various Beijing-area colleges displaying their support of the classroom boycott and the protesters' demands. The students sang ''[[The Internationale]]'', the world socialist anthem, on their way to, and while at, the square.<ref>''[[Amnesty International]]'', 30 August 1989. ''Preliminary Findings on Killings of Unarmed Civilians, Arbitrary Arrests and Summary Executions Since 3 June 1989'', p. 19.</ref>

The movement, on the wane at the end of April, now regained momentum. By 17 May, as students from across the country poured into the capital to join the movement, protests of various sizes occurred in some 400 Chinese cities.{{sfn|Thomas|2006}} Students demonstrated at provincial party headquarters in Fujian, Hubei, and Xinjiang. Without a clearly articulated official position from the Beijing leadership, local authorities did not know how to respond. Because the demonstrations now included a wide array of social groups, each having its own set of grievances, it became increasingly unclear with whom the government should negotiate and what the demands were. The government, still split on how to deal with the movement, saw its authority and legitimacy gradually erode as the hunger strikers took the limelight and gained widespread sympathy.{{sfn|D. Zhao|2001|p=171}} These combined circumstances put immense pressure on the authorities to act, and martial law was discussed as an appropriate response.{{sfn|D. Zhao|2001|p=181}}

A stopped convoy of 37 APCs on Changan Boulevard at Muxidi was forced to abandon their vehicles after becoming stuck among an assortment of burned-out buses and military vehicles.{{sfn|Brook|1998|pp=178–79}} In addition to occasional incidents of soldiers opening fire on civilians in Beijing, Western news outlets reported clashes between units of the PLA.{{sfn|Kristof: Units Clash}} Late in the afternoon, 26 tanks, three armored personnel carriers, and supporting infantry took up defensive positions facing east at [[Jianguomen (Beijing)|Jianguomen]] and [[Fuxingmen]] overpasses.{{sfn|Brook|1998|p=189}} Shellfire was heard throughout the night, and the next morning a United States Marine in the eastern part of the city reported spotting a damaged armored vehicle that an armor-piercing shell had disabled.{{sfn|Brook|1998|p=190}} The ongoing turmoil in the capital disrupted everyday life flow. No editions of the ''People's Daily'' were available in Beijing on 5 June, despite assurances that they had been printed.{{sfn|Kristof: Units Clash}} Many shops, offices, and factories were not able to open, as workers remained in their homes, and public transit services were limited to the subway and suburban bus routes.{{sfn|Wong|1989}}

Similar scenes unfolded in Nanjing. On 7 June, hundreds of students staged a blockade at the [[Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge]] and the Zhongyangmen Railway Bridge. They were persuaded to evacuate without incident later that day, although they returned the next day to occupy the main railway station and the bridges.{{sfn|L. Zhang|2001|p=409}}

The European Union and United States embargo on armament sales to China, put in place due to the violent suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests, remains in place today. China has been calling for a lift of the ban for years and has had a varying amount of support from European Union members. Since 2004, China has portrayed the ban as "outdated" and damaging to China–European Union relations. In early 2004, French President [[Jacques Chirac]] spearheaded a movement within the European Union to lift the ban, his efforts being supported by German Chancellor [[Gerhard Schröder]]. However, the passing of the [[Anti-Secession Law of the People's Republic of China]], in March 2005, increased tensions between mainland China and Taiwan, damaging attempts to lift the ban; and several European Union Council members retracted their support for a lift of the ban. Moreover, Schröder's successor [[Angela Merkel]] opposed lifting the ban. Members of the United States Congress had also proposed restrictions on the transfer of military technology to the European Union if the latter lifted the ban. The United Kingdom also opposed the embargo lifting when it took charge of the European Union presidency in July 2005.

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