Protesters fill Tiananmen Square (Reuters) Beginning in April 1989, a series of mostly student-led demonstrations were held in Beijing's Tiananmen Square calling for political reform, civil rights, and economic freedom. For seven weeks, the protests continued to grow in size. On May 20, Communist Party authorities declared martial law and on June 4 the People's Liberation Army entered the square and squashed the protests with live bullets, killing hundreds (if not thousands) of protesters. Western governments strongly condemned the brutal crackdown. In late 1989, Chinese authorities arrested Chen Ziming and Wang Juntao, the two men they called the "black hands" of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Chen and Wang, who denied the allegations against them, were tried in 1990 and found guilty of all charges. They were each sentenced to thirteen years in prison. LINKS: PBS: 'The Tank Man'http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tankman/ 'Tiananmen Square, 1989: The Declassified History' http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB16/index.html Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989 (Wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989 Liu Xiaobo (Wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Xiaobo Wang Dang (Wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Dan Arrest and Trial of Chen Ziming and Wang Juntao (Wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrest_and_trial_of_Chen_Ziming_and_Wang_Juntao "China's Criminal Justice System and the Trial of Pro-Democracy Dissidents" http://cryptome.org/cn/tk/tiananmen-kill.htm *Contains some Graphic Images http://salempress.com/store/samples/cold_war/cold_war_tiananmen.htm http://tsquare.tv/ ARTICLES Chicago Tribune (1/10/1991): '4 More Chinese Dissidents Put On Trial' http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1991-01-10/news/9101030446_1_tiananmen-square-counterrevolutionary-sabotage-paramount-leader-deng-xiaoping CNN: Articles About Tiananmen Square by Date http://articles.cnn.com/keyword/tiananmen-square/recent/2 NY Times (1/6/1991): '7 Sentenced in First Tiananmen Square Protest Trials' http://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/06/world/7-sentenced-in-first-tiananmen-square-protest-trials.html NY Times (12/18/1998): 'After Brief Trials, Outcome Uncertain for Dissidents in China' http://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/18/world/after-brief-trials-outcome-uncertain-for-dissidents-in-china.html NY Times (2/12/1991): 'Trial Starts for Tiananmen Dissident' http://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/12/world/trial-starts-for-tiananmen-dissident.html Human Rights Watch (6/1/2010): 'China: End June 1989 Massacre Denial, Free Dissidents' http://www.hrw.org/news/2010/06/01/china-end-june-1989-massacre-denial-free-dissidents http://www.ifex.org/china/2009/06/05/tiananmen20yearsrsfeng.pdf http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/4/newsid_2496000/2496277.stm http://jurist.org/paperchase/2011/06/us-urges-china-to-release-tiananmen-square-protesters.php http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/03/tiananmen-square-anniversary-political-dissidents_n_870954.html http://www.asianews.it/news-en/To-commemorate-the-4-June-massacre,-China-arrests-other-dissidents-21737.html http://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/18/world/china-frees-leading-1989-dissident-from-prison.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm Wang Juntao, defendant in 1990 Tiananmen Square trial BIBLIOGRAPHY Beja, Jean-Philippe. The Impact of China's 1989 Tiananmen Massacre. (Routledge, 2010) Chiu, Hungdah. China's Criminal Justice System and the Trial of Pro-Democracy Dissidents. (School of Law, University of Maryland, 1992) Knappman, Edward W. Great World Trials. (Visible Ink Press, 1997) Mu, Yi and Mark V. Thompson. Crisis at Tiananmen: Reform and Reality in Modern China. (China Books & Periodicals, 1990) |