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The Great Leap Forward
Mao Zedong, chairman of the Communist Party of China at the time, started The Great Leap Forward. He mobilized massive amounts of people into collectives in the countryside, and tasked each collective with either producing crops or steel. Uneducated farmers relied mainly on small backyard furnaces to produce large amounts of steel, which caused the steel created to be largely useless. It greatly reduced the amount of crops produced, and was a huge economic failure. -
Cultural Revolution Starts
Starting with some documents regarding certain people being fired, the cultural revolution began. The movement's aims were to eliminate everything capitalist, traditional, and cultural within China. -
Mao Zedong Dies
With Mao Zedong's death, people all over China came to public institutions and out into the streets to mourn him and cry about his death. -
The Cultural Revolution Ends
Mao Zedong's successor, Hua Guofeng, saw that his ideas clashed with those of the Gang of Four, a then powerful political group that supported Mao. On this date Hua had them arrested. This is usually considered to mark the end of the Cultural Revolution. -
Student Demonstrations Begin
Fang Lizhi, having returned from Princeton University in the United States, began travelling to different universities and cities preaching ideas of seperation of powers, liberty, and human rights. This caused people in many cities start protesting the slow reforms of the time and supporting these ideas.
Link to location of Tiananmen Square:
https://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&q=Tiananmen+Square,+Beijing,+China&oe=UTF-8&safe=active&ie=UTF-8&hl=en -
Hu Yaobang Dies
Hu Yaobang was a member of the Chinese government with ideas of democracy and freedom. Many people supported him, and when he died massive amounts of people began mourning him, including in front of The Monument To The People's Heroes at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The began protesting that the government should lean more toward his ideas and soon began protesting the unsuccessful government and its policies in general. -
Tiananmen Square Massacre
Chinese government decided the student protesters in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, had to be removed, so they sent in military force to clear the square. Barricades were erected to keep the military out and many soldiers were burned to death by molotov coctails, but they got in and began firing into the crowd, sometimes with vehicles running civillians over to get through. In the end the Square was cleared, but with much bloodshed. -
Chinese - American Relationships Severed
American news stations in Bejing began recording the events of Tiananmen Square as they were happening and broadcasted live. After the Tiananmen Square massacre, President George Bush suspended military sales and visits to China. Chinese government was strongly criticized by U.S. citizens and media. This ended the uneasy Chinese - American relationship.
