Was the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre a Failure of Civil...

The 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre in China or the June Fourth Incident was one of the most famous student protests in the world’s history. The Massacre took place on June 4th 1989 – the last day of a series of pro-democracy demonstrations around Tiananmen Square beginning from April 14. The Tiananmen protest ended in tragic failure and bloodbath as the Chinese state decided to put down the protest with a martial law. At last, army troops and tanks were sent to take control of the city and were ordered to clear the square by firing at the crowd of protesters. The number of deaths has been a matter of controversy over the world until now, which ranges from several hundreds to thousands. In spite of the massiveness and the great influence of†¦show more content†¦Zhao Dingxin claims that â€Å"The country quickly acquired a level of political freedom and economic affluence that it could not even have dreamed of during Mao’s era† (42). People enjoyed not only a convenient life with color televisions or refrigerators but also the sudden influx of Western culture. However, the rapid growth of Chinese economy also led to inflation, corruption, embezzlement, economic crimes and increased the difference between the rich and the poor. On the other hand, the intensive absorption of Western literature and popular culture trends (such as pop music, movie stars, jeans, brand names or disco dance) created â€Å"social fevers† in Chinese society. Having the chance to approach the Democracy ideology, Chinese reexamined the values they had always respected. They questioned the ideality of Socialism and Communism, they wanted to have democracy as other Western countries and they realized the over-domination of the communist state. As it was stated in the March 1989 report of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, the youth thought â€Å"Marxism is outdated, others that China has the worst record of democracy even among so cialist countries† (Zhang 18). They hungered for Capitalism and Westernization and they wanted an absolute change in the way the Chinese state ruled the nation. While the students’ dissatisfaction with the state rose day by day, theShow MoreRelatedOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 Pagesrecession of 2008) when one could quite plausibly argue that a new era had begun. A compelling case can be made for viewing the decades of the global scramble for colonies after 1870 as a predictable culmination of the long nineteenth century, which was ushered in by the industrial and political revolutions of the late 1700s. But at the same time, without serious attention to the processes and misguided policies that led to decades of agrarian and industrial depression from the late 1860s to the