Li Peng at the 1993 session of the National People’s Congress.
Li Peng, the former Chinese leader who declared martial law before the bloody crackdown on student demonstrators three decades ago in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, has died. Het Tiananmenprotest was een studentenprotest op het Plein van de Hemelse Vrede (Tiananmenplein) in Peking (), dat was begonnen op 15 april 1989.Er namen naar schatting een miljoen studenten en andere burgers aan deel, op filmbeelden is te zien dat er zelfs leden van de Chinese marine in uniform meeliepen in de demonstratie. Announcer: “For weeks, hundreds of thousands of Chinese students and workers had defied their authoritarian leaders and camped out in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.” “In the history of communist China, there has never been anything like this.” I think that was what tipped the balance towards a crackdown, was this idea that it was no longer just a bunch of students letting off steam. Li Peng (inset) ordered the crackdown in Tiananmen SquareLi Peng, pictured in 2011, became known as the 'Butcher of Beijing' The Chinese premier who ordered a bloody crackdown in Tiananmen Square to counter pro-democracy protests has died.Li Peng died at the age of 90 on Monday of an unspecified illness.While he leaves behind a legacy of long-term economic growth, he is best known for his role in the demonstrations that spawned the enduring image of a protester blocking the path of three tanks.Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the centre of Beijing for a series of protests during the spring and summer of 1989, which were brought to an end in hostile fashion by the military.Mr Li was broadly disliked by the population as a result of what happened and became known as the "Butcher of Beijing", but still spent another 13 years at the pinnacle of power before retiring in 2002.During that period he helped China rise in diplomatic and economic might, a development he proudly celebrated in public statements that were often defiantly nationalistic.In a 1995 speech to mark the anniversary of the 1949 revolution that brought the ruling Communist Party to power, he celebrated how the country had rid itself from "imperialist bullying, humiliation and oppression".He had risen to power as a result of what happened at Tiananmen Square, with pro-reform party leader Zhao Ziyang being toppled for sympathising with the student protesters.Mr Li, who had become acting premier in November 1987, told student leaders during a confrontational meeting that the situation "will not develop as you wish and expect".The next night, he went on national television to announce martial law in the capital "to end the turmoil" - and hundreds of people were killed by troops when they invaded on 3 June.In a lengthy eulogy read by the state broadcaster CCTV to mark his death, the current regime honoured the "resolute measures" he took to quell the protests.But it was not just Tiananmen that made him unpopular with some.He spent his final years in power pushing through approval for the multi-billion pound Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River, which forced 1.3 million people to leave homes that were swallowed up by its enormous reservoir.He eventually stepped down as premier in 1998 to become chairman of the Chinese parliament, before retiring.Mr Li rarely appeared in public in his later years, usually seen only at official gatherings aimed at displaying unity.
There were two diametrically opposed views of Li Peng: In the official Communist Party version of events, he performed an honorable and necessary service to the country, to the party and to the Chinese people by restoring what they saw as stability.
Li Peng, a former hard-line Chinese premier best known for announcing martial law during the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests, has died on Monday July 22, 2019 of unspecified illness. This was a very serious counter-revolutionary situation. But in the eyes of many other people, at least those who remember what happened on June 3, June 4, 1989, Li Peng will probably be remembered as the “butcher of Beijing.” “I was in all these places and seeing the deaths, the bloodshed and the people dying next to me.” But I think you have to remember that in many ways Li Peng was an accidental leader. https://www.foxnews.com/world/tiananmen-square-mastermind-li-peng-dies-at-90 He was a party functionary who happened to be in this position at a time of crisis. On the night of June 3, the army began moving down the Avenue of Eternal Peace, shooting everything that stood in their way. The Chinese premier who ordered a bloody crackdown in Tiananmen Square to counter pro-democracy protests has died. Initially it was a small group of students. Hundreds of people died that night. And he basically did what he was told to do by the people who were really calling the shots, who were the party elders — though he certainly backed that decision with great vigor, and to his dying days showed no sign of any remorse.By Natalia V. Osipova, Andrew Higgins and Robin SteinExamining Li Peng’s Tiananmen Legacy as the ‘Butcher of Beijing’ You cannot talk about this, never mind question the official version of what happened. Li Peng: Chinese premier who ordered Tiananmen Square crackdown dies But as the students began to increase in numbers, they were joined by workers demanding a dramatic overhaul of the way the Communist Party in China functioned. He was 90.