What happened
After former Party leader Hu Yaobang died on 15 April 1989, students in Beijing began gathering in Tiananmen Square. A People's Daily editorial on 26 April branded the movement “turmoil”, and protests grew. Students began a hunger strike on 13 May, days before Mikhail Gorbachev's state visit, and by 17–18 May reports put crowds in Beijing at around a million.
General Secretary Zhao Ziyang visited the hunger strikers before dawn on 19 May (“We came too late”). He was purged and remained under house arrest until his death in 2005. Martial law took effect on 20 May, but residents blocked the army's advance for nearly two weeks.
On the night of 3 June, troops opened fire on crowds along Chang'an Avenue, including at Muxidi, as they advanced on the square. The last students left the square in the early hours of 4 June. On 5 June an unidentified man stood in front of a column of tanks: the image known as “Tank Man”. On 13 June the authorities issued a wanted list of 21 student leaders.
How many died?
The government has never released a full list or allowed an independent inquiry. Its own figure is about 200 civilians (including 36 university students) and several dozen soldiers and police. The Chinese Red Cross was reported to have cited about 2,600 on 4 June, then denied it. A British diplomatic cable from 5 June 1989, declassified in 2017, reported at least 10,000; that figure came from a single source and many researchers consider it too high. The Tiananmen Mothers have verified more than 200 victims by name, a minimum confirmed count. Full comparison (Chinese).
The Tiananmen Mothers
Founded by professor Ding Zilin, whose 17-year-old son Jiang Jielian was shot on the way to the square, together with her husband Jiang Peikun and Zhang Xianling. For more than three decades, and under surveillance and house arrest, they have documented the dead one name at a time. Their demands are truth, compensation and accountability. tiananmenmother.org
Hong Kong
From 1990 to 2019, a candlelight vigil drew tens of thousands to Victoria Park every 4 June. It was banned from 2020. The organising Alliance disbanded in 2021, and its leaders Lee Cheuk-yan, Albert Ho and Chow Hang-tung were jailed in September 2026 for “incitement to subversion”.
The June 4th Memorial Museum (USA)
After Hong Kong's June 4th Museum was forced to close in 2021, Wang Dan and other veterans of 1989 founded a successor in the United States: a special exhibit in Washington, D.C. (2022), a museum in Manhattan (2023), and since 2025 a museum in El Monte, Los Angeles County (3024 Peck Rd, free admission). It was vandalised on 31 May 2026; congressional leaders asked the Justice Department to investigate possible transnational repression. Details (Chinese) · jinian64.org
Primary sources
· National Security Archive: Tiananmen Square, 1989, The Declassified History
· The Gate of Heavenly Peace (Long Bow Group, 1995)
· Wikipedia · 64memo archive
· 84 verified videos from official news and human-rights channels (titles in original language)
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