China defends Tiananmen Crackdown

China has defended crackdown on protesters around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square 30 years ago. Chinese Defence Minister at the Shangri-La Dialogue called the protests by students and workers demanding democratic changes and the eradication of corruption in 1989 as political turbulence and said that the government took decisive steps to stop the turbulence.

Tiananmen Protests

Tiananmen Square is located at the heart of Beijing. After the death of Hu Yaobang in April 1989, a former Communist Party leader who had worked to move China toward a more open political system, thousands of mourning students marched through the capital to Tiananmen Square calling for a more Demdemocratic government.

In the following days, thousands of people joined the students in the square to protest against China’s Communist rulers. Students also began a hunger strike.

After the failure to pacify the protestors, the Chinese regime imposed martial law. The government opened fires at the protestors and brought the movement to a standstill. The estimates of the death toll range from several hundred to thousands.

Shangri-La Dialogue

Shangri-La Dialogue is Asia-Pacific s premier defence summit where the ministers from the region debate the most pressing security challenges, engage in important bilateral talks and come up with fresh solutions together.

It was launched in 2002 to build confidence and foster practical security cooperation, by facilitating easy communication and fruitful contact among the region s most important defence and security policymakers.

Shangri-La Dialogue is an annual summit organised by the independent think tank, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) at Singapore.