In 1989, many young students gathered in Tiananmen Square to protest their current form of government. Each young citizen in that group wanted and rallied for a democratic government. They received instead retaliation from the Chinese government. The Chinese government was okay and even encouraged economic change but would not stand for political change which is why Deng sent in troops to arrest and even shoot shoot the pro-democractic protestors. The CNN, was present for the massacre and managed to capture footage of the event. This footage shocked Westerns and shamed China. The Western view of China was greatly changed. The Chinese government not only killed 400-800 of the students at the Tiananmen Square Massacre but they also lied to the rest of the world about the number of deaths. They claimed that no one died, but the rest of the world had seen the footage and knew the truth. This event only confirmed China's stance on political and economic change. Economic change was embraced but political change was another story.
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While the 30 million deaths from the Great Leap Forward may not be as well known as the holocaust it still ranks as one of the top three worst genocides of the 20th century. While Mao may not have meant to cause 30 million deaths he still did, end up starving his own people. Like Stalin, Mao tried to create great industrial and scientific activity with little success. He didn't have machines to build dams so instead put thousands of people to work. He forced people to try and meet quotas when they possessed none of the supplies needed. They were forced to melt pots and pans. Material that ended up being useless. Because all of theses people were needed to industrialize, there was no one farming. With no food, 30 million people starved. While Mao may not have meant to kill his people, he did little to change it and just allowed it to happen as people tried to meat the quotas. The Great Leap Forward is one of the three worst genocides of the both century, following closely behind Hitler and Stalin. Wether or not it was done on purpose , its still one of the worst the world has seen.
Sun Yat Sen while not a communist leader did lean towards the socialist style of leadership. The leader after Sun Yat Sen, Chiang surrounded himself by people such as Mao who strongly believed in communism. And while China was not communist yet, it did have a number of leaders that wanted it to become communism. Which is why Chiang tried to get rid of the communist leaders inside China's government. However they didn't go far, and when the Japanese invaded Manchuria, Mao helped to defend China. While Chiang cut deals with the Japanese. The Chinese saw this as a betrayal and at the end of the Civil war they wanted and fought for Mao. Which is how Mao became president creating communist party in China. Thanks to the Japanese Mao was able to gather the support he needed to defeat Chiang in he civil war and become president. Creating an era of communism in China.
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