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Speaker 1: The Day in History Class. It's a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Greetings everyone, Welcome to this Day in History class,

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Speaker 1: where we learn a smidgen of history every day. Today

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Speaker 1: is April nineteen. The day was April fifteenth, nineteen eighty nine.

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Speaker 1: Who Yao Bong, who was the Chinese Communist Party General

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Speaker 1: secretary for several years, died. Who had become a symbol

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Speaker 1: of democratic reform, and people gathered in Beijing's tien One

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Speaker 1: Mun Square to mourn his death and to support his

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Speaker 1: ideas of democracy and freedom. Soon the pro democracy demonstrations

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Speaker 1: spread to other Chinese cities, but by mid May, Premier

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Speaker 1: Li Pong had declared martial law and the People's Liberation

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Speaker 1: Army would end up wounding and killing thousands of civilians.

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Speaker 1: Leaders around the world denounced the Chinese government's attack, but

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Speaker 1: economic and political reforms were put on hold and protesters

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Speaker 1: and activists were persecuted for their actions. In the wake

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Speaker 1: of Chairman Mao Sadong's death, Dong Shaoping became paramount leader

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Speaker 1: of China in nineteen He launched a series of market

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Speaker 1: economy reforms and installed who Yao Bong as head of

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Speaker 1: the Communist Party and jaos Young as the premier. Over

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Speaker 1: the next decade, the public was generally happy with the

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Speaker 1: economic growth and liberalization that was happening in China, as

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Speaker 1: many citizens prospered, but on the other hand, inflation skyrocketed

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Speaker 1: and corruption and nepotism were rampant among government officials. Privatization

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Speaker 1: created a larger gap in wealth distribution, which many people

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Speaker 1: thought was unfair. Plus, there weren't enough graduates to fill

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Speaker 1: the new industry and investment jobs that opened up through

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Speaker 1: the reforms, and graduates faced a limited job market, also

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Speaker 1: affected by nepotism. Students and intellectuals became more active politically.

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Speaker 1: A divide emerged between political leaders who wanted to keep

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Speaker 1: instituting reforms and those who wanted more government control. In

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six, students around China protested how slowly reform

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Speaker 1: was happening. They called for human rights and democracy, among

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Speaker 1: other political reforms. Many leaders saw this as a flight

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Speaker 1: to China's one party system and socialist ideology and condemned

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Speaker 1: the protests. Who Yao Bog, who had led the reformers side,

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Speaker 1: was seen as having too much sympathy for the protesters

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Speaker 1: and was forced to resign as General secretary in January

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty seven. The Chinese Communist Party dismissed protesters demands

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Speaker 1: as bourgeois liberalism, but students and intellectuals continued to support

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Speaker 1: reform and who so when who died of a heart attack.

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Speaker 1: On April fifteenth, nineteen nine, protesters quickly began gathering in Beijing,

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Speaker 1: jian Shanghai, Nanjing, chang Do, and other cities. They spoke

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Speaker 1: out against issues like inflation and salaries, and called for

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Speaker 1: greater individual freedoms. There were sit ins and riots. Protesters

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Speaker 1: issued demands for the government, including calls for democracy, the

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Speaker 1: abolishment of press censorship, and more transparency on leaders incomes.

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Speaker 1: Demonstrations escalated, and a state run newspaper and sinsed protesters

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Speaker 1: even further by running an editorial accusing them of rejecting

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Speaker 1: the Communist Party and government. On May thirte, just before

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Speaker 1: its Soviet leader at Mikhail Gorbachev was set to visit China,

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Speaker 1: more than a hundred students began a hunger strike in

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Speaker 1: Tiananmon Square, advocating for political reforms and protesting the government's

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Speaker 1: refusal to negotiate. The strike earned the sympathy of people

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Speaker 1: around China. Less than a week later, a rally at

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Speaker 1: the square brought in more than a million people. General

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Speaker 1: Secretary Jo Young a moderate acts per compromise and an

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Speaker 1: end to the demonstrations, but other leaders feared an uprising

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Speaker 1: and favored using force to stop the protests. Premier Le

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Speaker 1: Pong impost martial law in Beijing, and on May twentie

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Speaker 1: troops moved into the city. The protesters continued to lead

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Speaker 1: demonstrations in Tianamon Square, and Western reporters captured news footage

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Speaker 1: of the events, but China's leaders were planning and offensive.

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Speaker 1: On June one, China shut down live news telecasts and

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Speaker 1: prohibited reporters from photographing or recording the protests. At about

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Speaker 1: one am on June four, People's Liberation Army troops heavily

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Speaker 1: armed with tanks and rifles, entered Beijing at Dancing to

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Speaker 1: Tiana and Muns Square. People tried to block them, but

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Speaker 1: soldiers opened fire on the demonstrators. Indiscriminate killings continued throughout

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Speaker 1: the day as some protesters fled and some fought back.

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Speaker 1: Several soldiers were killed and many were wounded. Similar attacks

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Speaker 1: happened in other Chinese cities, but in Shanghai and agreement

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Speaker 1: was reached peacefully. It's estimated that as many as ten

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Speaker 1: thousand people were arrested and more than three hundred were killed,

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Speaker 1: but there is no official count. After the Tiana Mun

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Speaker 1: Square massacre, the government cracked down on protesters, charging many

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Speaker 1: with crimes and executing them. Some of the pro democracy

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Speaker 1: activists went into exile. Countries that had been watching the

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Speaker 1: events unfold pronounced their disgust and the US impost economic

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Speaker 1: sanctions and arms embargoes against China for their human rights violations. Today,

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Speaker 1: China suppressed his mention of the massacre in media, prohibits

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Speaker 1: the public commemoration of the massacre, and doesn't include it

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Speaker 1: in school curricula. Still, Chinese citizens have spoken out on

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Speaker 1: the subject, and people in Hong Kong commemorate the incident.

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Speaker 1: The last known person in prison for participating in the

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Speaker 1: protests was said to be released in but I couldn't

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Speaker 1: find any updates on whether he actually was. I'm Eves

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Speaker 1: jeffco and hopefully you know a little more about history

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Speaker 1: today than you did yesterday. You can follow us on Twitter, Instagram,

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Speaker 1: and Facebook at t D I h C podcast. Tune

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Speaker 1: in tomorrow for another day in history,