They also exposed divisions within the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership: hardliners who viewed the protests as a “counter-revolutionary” threat that had to be extinguished clashed with reform-minded members who sought additional dialogue. At their peak, more than 1 million people were in the Square, and protests spread to cities around China. The demonstrations resonated with the Chinese public.On April 21, a day before Yaobang’s funeral, 100,000 students marched on Tiananmen Square calling for freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and greater government accountability. The protests were set off by the death of Hu Yaobang, a former Communist Party leader who pursued market-oriented economic reforms to the benefit of China’s economy but was forced out by Party elders who blamed him for a wave of protests in 1987.In 1989, pro-democracy protesters in China held demonstrations in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to call on the Communist Party to reform and give the Chinese people political freedom.
What happened in the Tiananmen Square massacre?
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