2020-06-04 Thu

Tiananmen Square Massacre, commonly known as the June Fourth Incident was the violent suppression of the peaceful student demonstrations organized for the demand of Democracy. This unfortunate event occurred on the 4th of June 1989 in Tiananmen Square in Mainland China.

After World War II, China was being under the dictatorship of Mao Zedong between 1949 and 1976. During this period, Mao introduced a movement called Cultural Revolution which caused severe damage to the country's originally diverse economic and social fabric. Hence, to bring back the democratic ideology students led out a silent demonstration in Tiananmen Square.

Demonstrations were forcibly suppressed after the government declared martial law and sent in the military to occupy central parts of Beijing. In what became known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, troops with assault rifles and tanks fired at the demonstrators trying to block the military's advance towards Tiananmen Square. Estimates of the death toll vary from several hundred to over thousands.

Ironically the word “Tiananmen” means "Gate of Heavenly Peace"!

The People's Bank of China issued 00 Chinese Yuan banknotes in 1999. This red-colored has a portrait of Chinese statesman Mao Tse-tung on the front side. The building on the reverse side is the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square in China’s capital Beijing.