Tiananmen Square 3

Thousands of people were killed or injured because they were trying to fight for a freedom from the oppression of their corrupt government. Their government had been embezzling money and in general had been ruining The People’s Republic of China. Changes had to be made, but the government would not listen to them and instead would execute or imprison anyone with ideas different from theirs. However, after the Tiananmen Square Massacre things began to slowly change for the better. The protestors of Tiananmen Square were partially successful in achieving their original goals because they were given some freedom to do as they pleased. The freedoms that the protestors had wanted were a change in government corruption, China’s poor economy, and the restricted freedom of expression.

The government’s corruption was one of the causes of the Tiananmen Square Massacre because the protestors wanted the government to stop wasting the people’s money for their own profits and instead to spend the money for the country. In order to show their disapproval for this, during the protesting, the student protestors went on a hunger strike in order to force the government to meet their leaders in private for a meeting. At the time the ranked officials had won the battle in the conference room, but several years later changes did come about in the government after the rioting. First, high-ranking officials began to lose their special privileges. Any officials caught making money from corrupt deals were given a long sentence in prison1, and the government limited the type of work the children of government officials could do2. This meant that the people would be able to receive government jobs because of their talents and instead of their relationships. This meant that the government would finally start running the country rather than ruining it with its corrupt ways. Unfortunately, one of the government’s old ways still held fast. It was the ability to toss anybody into jail or to execute anyone that opposed the government’s decisions. Right away, the government rounded up thousands of people involved in the protesting act and sent them all to jail3. The country began to split in two because at this point people began to rat out the reformers of China. A woman even turned her own brother in because he had been a student leader4. The protestors had fought for a fair legal system, but did not get that and instead they were just thrown in jail to rethink about their beliefs. All of the arrests the government was doing lead them astray from their real job of ruling over China in a fair and just manner. Although the protestors did find their government to be fairer after several years time, but immediately after the protesting, government fixed its problems by throwing them away in jail.