Tiananmen square- govt reactions

The student movement started with a yearning to commemorate the reformer Hu Yaobang, who had died on April 15. To be sure, there was a provocative edge to the students' behaviour, attributable to the relatively freewheeling atmosphere the government had tolerated during the strong reform push of the previous few years. By bringing their slogans off the campuses into Tiananmen Square, the centre of the capital city the students further stuck their noses at Party control. Still, most of them stayed within the bounds of certain pieties, the

y acknowledged Party leadership and positioned themselves in a respectful if disappointed, supporters of the Party's long-term reform project.

At a Standing Committee meeting on May 16, Zhao nonetheless continued to argue that the way to end the hunger strike was to accept the students' demand to change the verdict of the April 26 editorial. The break in the leadership was now critical and had to be taken to Deng. On the morning of May 17, Deng made the decision to side with Li. Moreover, he drew the logical conclusion: the need for martial law. In a Standing Committee meeting later that day, Zhao and Li continued to clash, and the Standing Committee split on martial law, 2-2-1, with Qiao Shi abstaining. The Elders then stepped in, firing Zhao, using Li Peng to implement their plans for repression, and selecting Jiang Zemin to succeed Zhao Ziyang once peace was restored.

The students believed that if they ended the demonstrations while the protests were still officially considered turmoil, they would be exposed to harsh punishment. Only if their movement was labeled "patriotic" and "democratic," they felt, could they safely withdraw from the Square to end their movement. So the paradoxical effect of Deng Xiaoping's verdict was to raise the stakes so high that the students became trapped in the Square. There they served as a magnet for others who joined them as the stalemate continued.

Some topics in this essay:
Li Peng, Deng Xiaoping, Intellectuals Square, Chinese Government, People's Daily, Standing Committee, Tiananmen Square, Committee June, Zhao Ziyang, Mikhail Gorbachev, li peng, tiananmen square, standing committee, student movement, april 26, standing committee meeting, reform matter, committee meeting, political reform, martial law, hunger strike,