In April 1989, Chinese students began protesting on Beijing's Tiananmen Square to demand democratic reforms and an end to corruption. The rallies, sparked by the death of reformist Communist Party chief Hu Yaobang, quickly grew into mass pro-democracy demonstrations. On June 4, 1989, the Chinese military launched a violent crackdown against the protesters. The government has never released an official death toll, but estimates range from the hundreds to the thousands.
PHOTO PACKAGE: A Look Back At The Crackdown On Tiananmen Square 1989
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A Chinese man stands alone to block a line of tanks heading east on Beijing's Cangan Blvd. in Tiananmen Square on June 5, 1989. The man, calling for an end to the recent violence and bloodshed against pro-democracy demonstrators, was pulled away by bystanders, and the tanks continued on their way. The Chinese government crushed a student-led demonstration for democratic reform and against government corruption, killing hundreds, or perhaps thousands of demonstrators in the strongest anti-government protest since the 1949 revolution. Ironically, the name Tiananmen means "Gate of Heavenly Peace". (AP Photo/Jeff Widener)

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In this April 18, 1989 file photo, a Chinese student leader reads a list of demands to students staging a sit-in in front of Beijing's Great Hall of the People. A quarter century after the Communist Party’s attack on demonstrations centered on Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, the ruling party prohibits public discussion and 1989 is banned from textbooks and Chinese websites. (AP Photo/Kathy Wilhelm)

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Chinese students link arms in solidarity at dawn on Saturday, April 22, 1989 in Beijing�s Tiananmen Square after spending the night there in order to be on hand for memorial services for the late purged party chief Hu Yaobang. The students defied warnings against demonstrating and gathered by the tens of thousands forcing officials to back down and allow them to stay. (AP Photo/Sadayuki Mikami)

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CHINA -- Several hundred of 200,000 pro-democracy student protesters face to face with policemen outside the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, April 22, 1989