Tiananmen Square Protests Essay

The Tiananmen Square protests was caused by many factors that were present after Mao Zedong’s death. The failed Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution left China in a devastated state with economic and social problems in part to the failure of Communism. The Communist Party still stayed strong throughout these crises although they resulted in more deaths than the Soviet Union and the Nazi regime’s atrocities. The party elected Deng Xiaoping, who was left to lift the country back up. Xiaoping launched an economic reform program which used capitalist ideas such as material prosperity, contradicting the Communist views of state ownership. It lessened government intervention in the economy, and introduced private property through destroying …show more content…
However, there was still the problem of political corruption within the Chinese society such as nepotism in the workplace. The nepotism was caused by the redaction of the law which forbade conduct of this type, and which required state selected students to be accepted. As this tension built up within the citizens, new ideas ultimately turned the wheel of history. The students learned about new ideas such as equality, freedom, and human rights. Political reform was the answer to the call of the people. The ideas of the West such as multi-party governments, capitalism, and liberty enticed the Chinese students pushing them to desire a people’s government. The students started demonstrating, and soon the movement spread to many cities, striking fear within the Communist party. The party suppressed this movement by declaring it bourgeois liberalism. Hu Yaobang, a liberal member of the party who encouraged reform, was forced to resign, and his death sparked protests on Tiananmen Square. This sparked more protests around China, but the government took no action at that time. Later, martial law was imposed on the city of Beijing, and the army was stationed around the