# Canonical recap data for Tiananmen Square Pro-Democracy Protest (1989)
# Source: https://recap.at/1989/tiananmen-square-1989
# Format: YAML 1.2 (UTF-8). Generated at request time.
slug: tiananmen-square-1989
canonicalUrl: "https://recap.at/1989/tiananmen-square-1989"
title: Tiananmen Square Pro-Democracy Protest
subtitle: Hundreds of thousands of Chinese students and workers occupied Tiananmen Square demanding democratic reforms before military suppression ended the movement.
recapType: global_event
eventStatus: concluded
startDate: 1989-04-15
endDate: 1989-06-04
datePrecision: day
year: 1989
decade: 1980
country:
name: China
slug: china
summaryShort: Protests led by students and workers, known in China as the June Fourth Incident, were held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, from 15 April to 4 June 1989. After weeks of unsuccessful attempts between the demonstrators and the Chinese government to find a peaceful resolution, the Chinese government initiated marti
summaryLong: Protests led by students and workers, known in China as the June Fourth Incident, were held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, from 15 April to 4 June 1989. After weeks of unsuccessful attempts between the demonstrators and the Chinese government to find a peaceful resolution, the Chinese government initiated martial law in late May and deployed troops to occupy the square on the night of 3 June in what is referred to as the Tiananmen Square massacre. The events are sometimes called the '89 Democracy Movement, the Tiananmen Square Incident, or the Tiananmen uprising. The Chinese government terms the events the political turmoil between the spring and summer of 1989.
lede: In spring 1989, hundreds of thousands of students and workers occupied Beijing's Tiananmen Square to demand democratic reforms and press freedom. On June 4, after seven weeks of standoff, the Chinese government declared martial law and sent tanks and troops into the square, killing an estimated hundreds to thousands of people and crushing the movement in hours.
heroImageUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/50/Tiananmen_Square_%2854137047250%29.jpg/1280px-Tiananmen_Square_%2854137047250%29.jpg"
heroImageCredit: Wikipedia · "Tiananmen Square"
importance: 91
sourceConfidence: 75
keyFacts: []
timeline: []
sources:
- url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests_and_massacre"
  title: Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests of 1989
  provider: Wikipedia
related: []
categories:
- protest
metaDescription: Students occupied Tiananmen Square for democratic reform. China's military crackdown on June 4, 1989 killed hundreds.
wikidataQid: Q99717
taxonomy:
domain: social_movement
eventTypes:
- protest
canonicalClasses:
- mobilization
impactRadius: national
velocity: sudden
predictability: emergent
intentionality: coordinated
domainCoupling: multi_domain
archiveSnapshots:
- url: "https://web.archive.org/web/20260609151453/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests_and_massacre"
  capturedAt: 2026-06-09
  label: Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests of 1989
  originalUrl: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests_and_massacre"
