===Tiananmen Square massacre===
[[File:Wmr1a.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Remains of what used to be [[human being]]s in the Tiananmen Square [[democracy]] protests.<ref>http://www.cnd.org/HYPLAN/yawei/june4th/</ref>]]
:{{Main article|Tiananmen Square massacre}}
After Zhao became the party General Secretary, the economic and political reforms he had championed came under increasing attack. His proposal in May 1988 to accelerate price reform led to widespread popular complaints about rampant inflation and gave opponents of rapid reform the opening to call for greater centralization of economic controls and stricter prohibitions against Western influence. This precipitated a political debate, which grew more heated through the winter of 1988-89.
:{{See also|Tiananmen Square massacre}}The death of Hu Yaobang on April 15, 1989, coupled with growing economic hardship caused by high inflation, triggered protests provided the backdrop for a large-scale protest movement by students, intellectuals, and othersother parts of a disaffected urban population. The protesters University students and other citizens camped out in Beijing's Tiananmen Square to mourn Hu's death and to protest against those who would slow reform. Their protests, which grew despite government efforts to contain them, called for an end to official corruption and for defense of freedoms guaranteed by the Chinese constitution. Protests also spread to many other cities, including Shanghai, Chengdu, and Guangzhou.
Martial law was declared on May 20, 1989. Late on June 3 and early on the morning of June 4, military units were brought into Beijing. They used armed force to clear demonstrators from the streets. There are no official estimates of deaths in Beijing, but most observers believe that casualties numbered in the hundreds.
Near the end of the [[Cold War]] China's Communist Party faced the challenge of large-scale protests in Beijing's [[Tiananmen Square]] and in more than 100 other cities including [[Shanghai]] between April 15, 1989, and June 4, 1989. Disagreements about how to respond split the top Party leadership and forced out the Party General Secretary at the time, Zhao Ziyang. The decision by Deng Xiaoping, then China's Paramount Leader, to order the [[People's Liberation Army|People's army]] to break up pro-[[democracy]] protests by force undermined the Party's legitimacy.
In the months prior to the fall of the [[Berlin Wall]], pro-democracy movements worldwide flourished and socialism fell into disrepute. In an object lesson about the duplicity of socialist slogans, buzzwords, and phrases geared toward the youth and the naive - China's People's Army killed 10,000 of China's own people.<ref>"[https://dailycaller.com/2017/12/24/chinese-killed-at-least-10000-at-tiananmen-square-newly-declassified-documents-claim/ Chinese Killed At Least 10,000 At Tiananmen Square, Newly Declassified Documents Claim]", ''Daily Caller'', 12/24/2017.</ref> In fact, China's People's Army has killed more of China's own people than it has ever been used against any foreign enemy in its entire history.
After June 4, while foreign governments expressed horror at the brutal suppression of the demonstrators, the central government eliminated remaining sources of organized opposition, detained large numbers of protesters, and required political reeducation not only for students but also for large numbers of party cadre and government officials.
===Persecution of Falun Gong===