On this Day: Chinese Students March in Pro-Democracy Tiananmen Square Protests

On this day in 1989, enormous crowds of Chinese students and new-found supporters marched through major cities in China to fight for democratic freedoms.

The march was part of a series of mass demonstrations known as the Tiananmen Square protests.

Frustration had been growing over the Chinese Communist Party’s tough limits on political freedom, as well as ongoing economic troubles, poor living conditions and high rates of unemployment.

At the time, many people were poor in China and no matter how hard they worked, they were unable to lift themselves out of poverty.

The students wanted better workers’ rights and the freedom to speak their minds without fear of punishment.

The march on April 27 was held in response to an editorial published a day earlier in the People’s Daily that asserted the student movement was anti-Communist Party and anarchist.

The article enraged students, who interpreted it as a direct attack on the protests and its cause.