This blog will focus on chapter two of Nepstad's book on revolution. The topic of chapter 2 is the revolt in Tiananman and a failed revolt in China. Many students in Beijing started to protest because of economic uncertainty presented by the Chinese Communist Party. After weeks of protest, the protestors failed, and no governmental changes occurred.
The protests started because the government started taxing businesses and controlled worker wages. Along with this, there were no changes being made politically. The protests were highly organized, being controlled by The Beijing Provisional Federation of Autonomous Students Association, which was formed from the student protestors to petition for personal freedoms and political reform. During the protest, the people started to march upon the square, where they broke through the police lines blocking the students from advancing. The protestors had hoped that the soldiers would not advance or get involved, and this was a safe bet at the time because the police and soldiers had shown non-publicly that they supported the Chinese people. The protestors had started to slightly win over the government slightly when the Chinese protestors started to become split between goals and leadership. During early June, the military advanced, using tear gas and other methods to break up the crowd. The people responded, throwing rocks and bashing on military vehicles to try to force troops to retreat. The troops then started to fire on the people, with reported great brutality. A reported thousands of people were killed. The remaining students left the city.
It is said that the protest failed because the students alienated workers, which split the two parties. If they had united together, then things could have happened differently. The students also did not coordinate that well with newcoming protestors, who could of been of more use if they were used properly.
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