Tiananmen+Square

**By:Sydney Grade 6** On the afternoon of June 3, 1989, in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, a violent reaction to a peaceful rally broke out. Demonstrators, manly students, had occupied Tiananmen Square for seven weeks, and they refused to move until they got their democratic reform demands met. They were protesting against the communist government of China. The mass protest was a big issue around the world. media type="youtube" key="9-nXT8lSnPQ" height="315" width="560" align="right"
 * Tiananmen Square**

Military tanks scoped the streets looking for democratic protesters. They shot people who weren’t even part of the protests. The protesters didn’t know there was going to be violence. The troops cleared the streets of Tiananmen Square with live fire. Troops beat and killed the suspected protest coordinators. The number of people who were killed was between 400 and 3,000 people. One man named “Tank Man” played a big role in this mass protest.

Tank Man was a man who stood in front of a column of tanks on June 4, 1989. He wanted to stop the tanks because they were going against the protesters and killing people. He was brave and independent when he approached the tanks. Tank Man stood in the middle of the street alone. He held two shopping bags in each hand. The first tank tried to go around the man, but he repeatedly stepped in front of the tanks. The tanks turned their engines off and stopped for awhile. The man from the lead tank had a conversation with the man that he needed to move out of the way. The man didn’t seem to get the message because when they turned their engines back on he repeated the same thing that he did before. He disagreed with the violence so he wanted to stop the tanks from making chaos.

Tank Man’s act was shocking to China and the world because no-one thought a man would step in front of military tanks while they were in action. The protests showed that the citizens of China wanted freedom, and they rallied and risked their lives for change.