The document summarizes the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 in Beijing, where hundreds of thousands of students and citizens gathered to demand democracy and an end to corruption. As the protests grew, the government declared martial law and sent troops to break up the demonstrations, resulting in hundreds or thousands of deaths as troops fired upon protesters in Tiananmen Square on June 4th. The event symbolized the Chinese people's desire for democracy but ultimately did not change China's communist system of government.