Question

what sparked the Tiananmen Square protests?

Answer 1

There were many factors that led to the Tiananmen Square protest in 1989, but a number of these causes can be traced back a decade prior to Deng Xiao Ping’s 1979 “opening” of China to major economic reforms.

In that era, a nation that had lived under Maoism and most recently, the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution, suddenly experienced a taste of greater freedom. The Chinese Press began to report on issues they had never been able to cover before, students debated politics on college campuses and on the “Democracy Wall” – a long brick wall in Beijing where people posted political writings from 1978-1979.