Word: tiananmen
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...replace him with the more conservative and orthodox President Yang. Beijing analysts discounted the theory as overly sensational. In fact, Deng is the most hard-line enemy of the students. Only the party turmoil may have delayed him from lining up support for his position. The massive sweep through Tiananmen could not have been facilitated without the cooperation of the various military factions that owe fealty to such veterans of the revolutionary war as Yang, Li and Peng Zhen...
Many suspect that Yang is the true champion of the military push into Tiananmen. While Deng heads the shadowy but omnipotent Central Military Commission, the President has placed relatives in key positions in the military hierarchy; one of the units involved in the Tiananmen massacre was under the personal command of his brother Yang Baibing. If Deng, through loss of face or life, ceased to rule China, Yang Shangkun might attempt to maneuver himself into the leadership of the Central Military Commission and replace Deng as China's most eminent leader...
...show its desperation. It organized antiliberal rallies that became unwitting parodies of the strident Red Guard style of the '60s. The authorities tried to rein in the press. Foreign correspondents were warned to stop covering student activities, but few reporters took heed. Chinese television ceased live coverage from Tiananmen Square and began carrying statements from leaders expressing support for martial law. "Nobody takes the news broadcasts seriously these days," said an office secretary. "They are all a sham...
...first alert came from Correspondent David Aikman, a former Beijing bureau chief who had returned there from his present base in Washington to help with our coverage. "The army has made a semi-serious effort to break into Tiananmen Square," he reported. "The police launched a tear-gas attack, and a number of people were injured. Unpleasant incidents are taking place. We saw six people carried off. Huge numbers of bicyclists and pedestrians are in the streets. There is a feeling that a serious move may be tried...
Soon thereafter, Beijing Bureau Chief Sandra Burton, who was with the crowds in Tiananmen Square when the shooting began, reached Assistant Managing Editor Karsten Prager. A strategy for coverage was formulated, with Aikman, Burton and Correspondent Jaime A. FlorCruz alternating between typing out details of the carnage and heading back out to the streets to gather more information. In New York City, Contributor Jesse Birnbaum and Staff Writer Howard G. Chua-Eoan sat down at their computer terminals and began updating the story that Associate Editor Jill Smolowe had finished Friday evening. Picture Editor Michele Stephenson sorted through color photos...