Remembering Tiananmen

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Twenty-five years ago, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) violently cleared Beijing's Tiananmen Square of protesters, ending a six-week demonstration that had called for democracy and widespread political reform.

The protests began in April of 1989, gaining support as initial government reactions included concessions. Martial law was declared on May 20, troops were mobilized, and from the night of June 3 through the early morning of June 4, the PLA pushed into Tiananmen Square, crushing some protesters and firing on many others.

The exact number killed may never be known, but estimates range from several hundred to several thousand. Today, China's censors are blocking Internet access to the terms "six four," "23," "candle," and "never forget," broadening extensive efforts to silence talk about the 25th anniversary of China's bloody June 4 crackdown. Here is that story, in images and words.

A student displays a banner with one of the slogans chanted by the crowd of some 200,000 pouring into Tiananmen Square, on April 22, 1989 in Beijing.

Students from Beijing University stage a huge demonstration in Tiananmen Square as they start an unlimited hunger strike as the part of mass pro-democracy protest against the Chinese government, on May 18, 1989.

A truck is almost buried in people as it makes its way through the crowd of thousands gathered in Tiananmen Square in a pro-democracy rally, on May 17, 1989.

Unidentified Beijing youths chant as they drive to Tiananmen Square to lend their enthusiastic support to striking university students, on May 19, 1989.

Enthusiastic demonstrators are cheered by bystanders as they arrive at Tiananmen Square to show support for the student hunger strike.

Pro-democracy demonstrators raise their fists and flash the victory sign while stopping a military truck filled with soldiers on its way to Tiananmen Square on the day when then Prime Minister Li Peng declared Martial Law.

Workmen try to drape the portrait of Mao Tse-tung in Beijing's Tiananmen Square after it was pelted with paint, on May 23, 1989.

Beijing University students listen as a strike spokesman details plans for a rally in Tiananmen Square, which they have occupied for the last two weeks, on May 28, 1989.

A student plasters the neck of a "Goddess of Democracy", a 10-meter-tall statue erected in Tiananmen Square on May 30, 1989.

Beijing University students put the finishing touches on the Goddess of Democracy in Tiananmen Square, on May 30, 1989.

A senior citizen airs her views on democracy in a discussion with striking students, on May 31, 1989 in Tiananmen Square.

A dissident student asks soldiers to go back home as crowds flooded into central Beijing, on June 3, 1989.

A young woman is caught between civilians and Chinese soldiers, who were trying to remove her from an assembly near the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, on June 3, 1989.

Pro-democracy protesters link arms to hold back angry crowds, preventing them from chasing a retreating group of soldiers.

Exhausted, humiliated soldiers are hustled away by protesters.

A huge crowd gathers at a Beijing intersection where residents used a bus as a roadblock to keep troops from advancing toward Tiananmen Square June 3.

Soldiers leap over a barrier on Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, during heavy clashes with people and dissident students. The PLA was reportedly under orders to clear the square by 6:00 am, with no exceptions.

An armored personnel carrier, in flames after students set it on fire near Tiananmen Square, on June 4, 1989.

Bodies of dead civilians lie among crushed bicycles near Beijing's Tiananmen Square, on June 4, 1989.

A girl wounded during the clash between the army and students near Tiananmen Square is carried out by a cart.

Early on June 4, 1989, violence escalated between pro-democracy protesters and Chinese troops, leaving hundreds dead overnight.

A rickshaw driver fiercely pedals wounded people to a nearby hospital, with the help of bystanders, on June 4, 1989. PLA soldiers again fired hundreds of rounds towards angry crowds gathered outside Tiananmen Square at noon.

A handcuffed man is led by Chinese soldiers on a street in Beijing, in June of 1989, as police and soldiers searched for people involved in the April-June pro-democracy protests.

(1 of 2) Three unidentified men flee as a Chinese man, background left, stands alone to block a line of approaching tanks, in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, on June 5, 1989.

(2 of 2) A citizen stands passively in front of Chinese tanks in this June 5, 1989, photo taken during the crushing of the Tiananmen Square uprising.

A crowd of people clear a path to give a busload of foreign tourists a view of a dead body as soldiers shot their way into Tiananmen Square to crush pro-democracy protests, on Monday morning, June 5, 1989.

A truck drives Chinese soldiers down Chang'an Boulevard in Beijing, on June 5, 1989, one day after violence between government troops and pro-democracy protesters left hundreds dead.

Chinese onlookers run away as a soldier threatens them with a gun as tanks took position at Beijing's key intersections next to the diplomatic compound.

People on Chang'an Boulevard in Beijing hold up a photo that they described as dead victims of the violence against pro-democracy protesters.

Beijing residents inspect the interior of more than 20 armored personnel carriers burned by demonstrators to prevent the troops from moving into Tiananmen Square.

A wall of tanks greet bicycle commuters near Tiananmen Square, on June 13.

Crowds of tourists and security personnel gather on Beijing's Tiananmen Square, on June 4, 2012.

Zhang Xianling holds a photo of her late son who was killed in the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, during an interview in Beijing, on May 28, 2012.

Tens of thousands of protesters take part in a candlelight vigil in Hong Kong's Victoria Park to mark the 25th anniversary of the military crackdown on the pro-democracy movement at Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989.