The Tien An Men Square Incident

Seeing the violent attacks in the press on Teng, and by implication Chou, the people were naturally confused and afraid. The Tien An Men Square incident reflected to a degree the anxiety and fear about the effect of Chou's death on the political situation; it was also a demonstration for Chou and his policies which they thought were going to improve their lives.

It should be noted that the Chinese mourned Chou's death on a mass scale, and with a degree of spontaneity that was unusual - workers, soldiers and students expressed their sorrows visibly, as reported by foreign and Chinese press. There can be no doubt of the respect of the people for Chou.

The Tien An Men incident started off innocently enough with isolated groups laying wreaths at the Monument of People's Heroes to pay respect to Chou, in accordance with the traditional customs of the Ching Ching Ming Festival in April. But the trickle of people quickly built up into a torrential flow until by April 4 there was a sea of 40-50,000 people who came to pay their respect to Chou. It was also clear by then that the gathering was no longer participating in a cultural event but rather one of a political nature.