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Although the numbers were diminishing, about twenty thousand studentdemonstrators – many of them from outside the Beijing area – continuedto occupy Tiananmen Square throughout the day. Many left at nightfall. In an attempt to build up...
Army troops continued to withdraw from the outskirts of the capital. While ten of thousands continued to rally in Tiananmen Square,approximately a hundred thousand workers and students held newdemonstrations throughout Beijing city to...
Three men who said they were from Hunan province (Mao Zedong'sbirthplace) defaced Mao's portrait on Tiananmen Square by splatteringpaint and eggs on it. The portrait was quickly covered. Many studentswere infuriated with the defacement...
(Chinese Human Rights Defenders – May 25, 2009)—CHRD learnedtoday that law firms employing some of the most vocal human rights lawyers inChina have been pressed by the local authorities to “fail” the lawyers in theannual evaluation of...
At approximately thirty minutes past midnight, Premier Li Peng made aspeech at the Great Hall of the People declaring that "the capital isin a critical situation ." Li Peng asserted that the studentdemonstration had "seriously violated...
At approximately 4:45 am, a group of officials headed by GeneralSecretary Zhao Ziyang and Premier Li Peng went to visit the students inTiananmen Square. Zhao spoke to the students through a megaphone."Fellow students, we've come too...
At 2:00 am, General Secretary Zhao Ziyang wrote a letter to thestudents on behalf of the Standing Committee of the CPC Politburo. Zhaodetermined the movement to be patriotic. But he also urged the studentsto remain calm, rational and...
At the square, the hunger strike reached its fourth day. Six hundred ofthe three thousand hunger strikers lost consciousness and were taken tohospitals. About sixty returned from the hospitals to the strike. Anestimated several hundred...
Some three thousand students joined the second day of the hungerstrike. In addition, more than 10 thousand onlookers appeared on theSquare. At 2.30 am, Li Tieying, member of the Politburo; Yan Mingfu,member of the Central Secretariat...
"With the spirit of facing death, we fight for life" In Tiananmen Square twenty thousand spectators watched approximatelythree thousand students begin a hunger strike – a new tactic – in themiddle of the Square. Students pledged to...
A petition signed by a thousand Beijing journalists was presented tothe secretariat of the All-China Journalists Association, demanding adialogue on press reform with leading officials in charge of the mediain the Party's Central...
Tens of thousands of students marched throughthe streets of Beijing to commemorate the seventieth anniversary of theMay 4th Movement and to press for democracy and freedom of the press.Despite an order by the authorities that the...