Everything began when Deng Xiaoping transitioned the nation from Maoist communism into a socialist market economy. The reform was generally successful in the early years and well received by the public. Then things went wrong and the transition was not working as planned. Deng Xiao Ping then transitioned to a “market based price system” the news of the relaxation of price controls, caused a large amount of cash withdrawals. This put the government into a panicked state
Students started to get involved in politics because of the social disenfranchisement and legitimacy crisis. This crisis meant that education was not funded properly and the careers prospects for students were limited. This also meant that Private companies no longer had to accept students assigned to them by the state. Students were not happy with this change and small groups gathered and started to appear on Beijing university campuses. These small group gathering motivated other student to get involved in politics and it’s not just these small gatherings that motivated these students it was obviously other people as well
An Astrophysics professor Fang Lizhi was a greatly respected man at this time. The Professor returned from a trip to an American university called the Princeton University in 1986, and came back to China to preach about Human rights and liberty. He went on tours around universities where students were greatly motivated. Students recorded his speeches and they were spread rapidly. Unfortunately Deng Xiaoping warned Fang about his worshiping of western lifestyle, capitalism and multi-party system.
Inspiration is amazing isn’t it? The power of one man and other “people power” student demonstrators slowly began to form. While protest began in hefei it quickly spread to Beijing.
This all seems stupid that students can make a change but the number of people that gathered was thousands. This all occurred because of the death of Hu Yaobang, his death provided the initial impetus for students to gather in large numbers. Impetus means a force that makes something happen in this case Hu Yaobang’s Death
These were all the PRE EVENTS, when the protest actually became a matter where the military got involved. These were events that sparked the nation and students started to gather in the numbers of Thousands. The origin of this incident was that people disagreed with Deng Xiaoping economic reform and his policies. The term “protest” actually began after Hu Yaobangs death previous to his death was just demonstrations. During the protest many things happened like Hunger strikes. The hunger strike started on May 13th students went into their hunger strike to try to force the government to accept their demands.
Just like any protest these people wanted demands which were
* Affirm as correct Hu Yaobang's views on democracy and freedom; * Admit that the campaigns against spiritual pollution and bourgeois liberalization had been wrong * Publish information on the income of state leaders and their family members * End the ban on privately run newspapers and stop press censorship * Increase funding for education and raise intellectuals' pay * End restrictions on demonstrations in Beijing * Provide objective coverage of students in official media
And Also