Tiananmen square massacre

The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, commonly known as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led popular demonstrations in Beijing which took place in the spring of 1989 for Political reforms and received broad support from city residents, exposing deep splits within China’s political leadership. The protests were forcibly suppressed by hard-line leaders who ordered the military to enforce martial law in the country’s capital. The crackdown that initiated on June 3–4 became known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre or the June 4 Massacre as troops with assault rifles and tanks inflicted casualties on unarmed civilians trying to block the military’s advance towards Tiananmen Square in the heart of Beijing, which student and other demonstrators had occupied for seven weeks.

Considering the Rising aspirations of Beijing to play a role on the world stage , emergence of a big middle class in China , modern communications increasing interaction of Chinese people with rest of the world and insurgency in its border regions –Uyghur and Tibetans have made it impossible for China to respond in a similar manner should such protests occur in future . This quandary of china was clearly visible during the recent Umbrella Protests for Autonomy of Hong Kong.