Hu Yaobang was removed from his position as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party by Deng Xiaoping, the most influential of the CCP elders, following the 1986 Chinese student demonstrations. After Hu died on 15 April 1989, residents and students in Beijing began holding commemorative activities for Hu Yaobang. These gradually developed into calls for political reform and protests directed against the Chinese Communist Party. The movement became known as the 1989 Democracy Movement or the "June Fourth Incident"; Chinese authorities officially refer to it as the "political turmoil between the spring and summer of 1989".
Protests of varying sizes also took place in other provinces and cities of the People's Republic of China, although contemporary media coverage focused primarily on the protests in and around Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Demonstrations elsewhere in China frequently took place in response to events in Beijing. Students and other citizens from different parts of the country travelled to Beijing to make contact with protesters and observe the movement, while Beijing student organizations also sent "delegations" to other parts of China to publicize the movement. The scale of demonstrations and the extent of participation by the wider population varied considerably from place to place, and in some cities protesters raised demands concerning local issues. Local authorities also differed in their responses to protesters both during the movement and after the June Fourth crackdown. Most protests outside Beijing gradually subsided within about two weeks of the crackdown in Beijing. Public security authorities subsequently carried out arrests and prosecutions of participants and intensified political and ideological education among university students and government cadres.
On 18 May, influenced by the hunger strike being held by students in Beijing, more than 500,000 students reportedly took part in demonstrations outside Beijing, involving more than 30 major cities and over 300 institutions of higher education. Students in 14 cities outside Beijing also organized hunger strikes, involving approximately 2,500 participants according to incomplete statistics. On 19 May, large-scale student protests took place in at least 116 cities. According to statistics later released by China's State Education Commission, "during the turmoil and riot, more than 2.8 million instances of participation in street demonstrations occurred at more than 600 institutions of higher education in 84 cities across 29 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions."
According to statistics compiled by Chinese authorities, between 16 April and 25 June public security agencies throughout the country dismantled 302 organizations described by the authorities as "illegal organizations", identified 3,178 members of such organizations, and confiscated 205 firearms, three boxes containing 25,428 rounds of ammunition, 496 items described as "weapons", 60,713 pieces of "reactionary printed material", 1,572 "reactionary audio-visual products", and 360 items of military equipment. A total of 11,013 people associated with the movement were detained, excluding figures for Shaanxi and Tibet. Of these, 2,085 were detained before 2 June and 8,928 after 3 June.
Those detained were officially classified as including "unemployed or unaffiliated persons", students, peasants, cadres, workers and self-employed people, as well as people described by the authorities as "remnants of the Gang of Four" and former prisoners. The authorities categorized the alleged offences as including "organizing and plotting riots and turmoil", "counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement", damaging or burning military and police vehicles, assaulting soldiers and police officers, seizing or concealing firearms and ammunition, attacking or burning party, government and military institutions, disrupting railway and urban transportation, violating martial-law orders, looting military or police supplies, robbing banks and shops, damaging public facilities, and burning civilian vehicles, shops and cinemas. Measures taken against those detained included arrest, re-education through labour, administrative punishment and release following "education".
According to a report submitted by the Party Committee of the Ministry of Public Security to the CCP Central Committee on 30 June, entitled "Report on Resolutely Striking at Counter-revolutionaries, Elements Involved in the Two Disturbances, and Serious Criminal Offenders", a nationwide campaign of arrests following the events resulted in "the banning of 515 illegal organizations; 718 leaders of illegal organizations registering with or surrendering to public security organs; the detention of 4,386 members of illegal organizations and persons involved in smashing, looting, burning and other activities; the uncovering of 31 counter-revolutionary group cases; and eight cases involving Kuomintang agents from Taiwan."
Much of the available information concerning protests outside Beijing has come from leaked Chinese government documents, accounts by Chinese dissidents, and reports by foreign journalists who were in China at the time.
Xia Ming, a participant in the and one of the group known as the "Seven Gentlemen of Fudan University", later commented:
Protests in North China Beijing北京 Beijing was the center of the movement. Throughout the protests, students, workers and residents expressed their demands through mass demonstrations, fundraising, rallies, petitions and other activities. Following the declaration of martial law in Beijing, tensions increased, and protesters repeatedly attempted to prevent military vehicles from entering the city. Tiananmen Square remained occupied by protesters until martial-law troops advanced into central Beijing on the night of 3 June.
Inner Mongolia Main article:
The largest demonstrations in Inner Mongolia occurred in the regional capital, Hohhot, where many of the autonomous region's universities were concentrated. Wuhai, Baotou, the Ih Ju League and other areas also saw varying degrees of protest activity.
Hohhot Students in Hohhot, ranging at times up to 3,000 people, started protesting between May 11 and May 14, 1989, demanding inflation control, governmental corruption reforms, and better funding for education. Many also asked for information regarding possible shady dealings being done by the region's most senior Party official, Ulanfu.Zhang Liang. The Tiananmen Papers. New York: PublicAffairs, 2001. . p. 170.
On May 19 roughly 10,000 students were still taking to the streets.Zhang Liang. The Tiananmen Papers. p. 228. By May 22 most demonstrations began to decline in numbers. Students would still remain on strike for the next four days with less than a third staying on campuses.Zhang Liang. The Tiananmen Papers. p. 304.
Anger towards Premier Li Peng once again riled students in Hohhot on May 29, and approximately 4,000 marched in the city demanding his resignation.Zhang Liang. The Tiananmen Papers. p. 322.
Students and teachers marched in a crowd of 4,000 when they heard of the June 4, massacre in Beijing. Chanting slogans about revenge, they were greeted by roughly 10,000 citizens when they reached the city's main square.Zhang Liang. The Tiananmen Papers. p. 393.
Hebei Main article:
Because of the close proximity of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, many students and demonstrators from Hebei travelled to Beijing or Tianjin to establish contacts with protesters there. Demonstrations involved university students and other residents in Baoding, Shijiazhuang and other parts of the province. Several developments in Hebei were connected with the military because many of the units deployed in the crackdown in Beijing were normally based in the province. After the June Fourth crackdown, demonstrators surrounded the headquarters in Shijiazhuang of the 27th Group Army, which had participated in the enforcement of martial law in Beijing.
Shijiazhuang石家庄 Shijiazhuang石家庄 saw its first student demonstrations with the release of the April 26 Editorial. Four days later a report came to the central government warning that the students in the city were becoming more rebellious.Zhang Liang. The Tiananmen Papers. p. 81.
On May 17, 1989, roughly 10,000 students and 200 journalists marched in support of the Beijing students and demanded dialogue and freedom of the press. Later in the day, 5,000 broke off and were able to get into the provincial government buildings and present their petitions to the authorities. The next day, May 18, saw some government employees, medical staff, and high school students join in the protests and the total crowds of marchers and onlookers swelled to about 150,000.Zhang Liang. The Tiananmen Papers. p. 215.
Shanxi Main article:
Demonstrations took place in Linfen, Yuci, Taigu and other parts of Shanxi, with the largest protests occurring in the provincial capital, Taiyuan. The Shanxi Provincial People's Government was repeatedly confronted by demonstrators.
Taiyuan太原 Student demonstrations began in Taiyuan after the April 26 Editorial. After the failed Yuan Mu dialogue on April 29, 1989, the protests were reported to the central government as becoming more rebellious in nature on April 30.Zhang Liang. The Tiananmen Papers. p. 98.
After a declaration by Beijing student leaders on May 4 most students around the country returned for classes except for many in Taiyuan who were in the midst of protesting a remark made by a city official.Zhang Liang. The Tiananmen Papers. p. 125. Five days later approximately 5,000 students sat in near the provincial government offices demanding to talk to party official Wang Senhao after a failed dialogue on May 8.Zhang Liang. The Tiananmen Papers. p. 132.
On May 10 a major event happened when demonstrators interrupted opening ceremonies for an international economic technology conference, import-export fair, and an art and culture festival.Zhang Liang. The Tiananmen Papers. p. 139. The students’ slogans drew the interest of some of the onlookers and the total crowd is estimated to have reached 20,000. Once again demanding to meet Wang Senhao, the students went to the outside the provincial buildings and tried to enter them three times. That evening students returned to their campuses when they were promised that they would be able to meet with the governor at a later time.Zhang Liang. The Tiananmen Papers. p. 140.
The local government followed through on May 15 when, after a crowd of 10,000 had gathered once more outside of the provincial buildings. Wang Senhao and other officials met with 33 student representatives. After students made their major point, that the luxury in which the new government buildings had been suited with was a waste of money, Wang agreed to additional talks with students. This ended the demonstrations for the evening.Zhang Liang. The Tiananmen Papers. p. 172.
Three days later on May 18 roughly 230 hunger strikers had been fasting for two days and demonstrator numbers reached 30,000. That morning saw violence break out near the provincial government building when some people threw bricks at the police lightly injuring over 80 police and another 8 people. Roughly 60 people were arrested due to this. Later that day over 130,000 marchers took to the streets chanting anti-Chairman Deng Xiaoping and President Yang Shangkun slogans.Zhang Liang. The Tiananmen Papers. p. 216.
From May 20 to May 22, in reaction to the declaration of martial law in Beijing, students created propaganda teams to try an elicit additional aid from workers, with a reported 1,000 students going to a steel company to distribute pamphlets.Zhang Liang. The Tiananmen Papers. p. 274. Three days later on May 25, the first workers started to march in demand of the resignation of Li Peng.