Tianamen Square Crackdown

Although the government declared martial law on May 20, the government failed to enforce it and the demonstrations continued. The hunger strike was approaching the end of the third week, and the government resolved to end the matter before deaths occurred. After deliberation among Communist party leaders, the use of military force to resolve the crisis was ordered, and Zhao Ziyang was ousted from political leadership as a result of his support for the student demonstrators. …

…the radio broadcast and the Red Cross report, are impossible to verify given that access to objective information was impossible under martial law, the discrepancy between the lower and higher number of individuals killed still needs to be resolved. After the crackdown in Beijing on June 4, protests continued in much of mainland China for a number of days. The PRC government was able to end these protests outside of Beijing without significant loss of life.