Editing 1976 Tiananmen incident (section)

== Incident ==
On the night of April 4, the [[Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party]] held a meeting to discuss the situation in Tiananmen Square. Party elders such as [[Hua Guofeng]] and [[Wu De]], who were not close allies of the Gang of Four, expressed criticism at the protesters and some of their slogans which were critical of the Gang of Four and party leadership. Meanwhile, the Gang of Four seemed to have been alarmed by the personal attacks at the event, and began to use their controlled newspapers to accuse Deng Xiaoping of encouraging and controlling the protesters.<ref name="Cheng">[[Nien Cheng|Cheng, Nien]], (1996). ''[[Life and Death in Shanghai]]''. New York. Penguin Books. 543 pages. pp. 470–471. {{ISBN|014010870X}}</ref> They consulted with the sickly Mao Zedong, claiming these people to be "[[capitalist roader]]s" who were hitting back at the Proletarian Revolution.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}}

Government action began on the morning of April 5, when the [[People's Liberation Army]] began removing articles of mourning from Tiananmen. On the morning of April 5, crowds gathering around the memorial arrived to discover that it had been completely removed by the police during the night, angering them. Attempts to suppress the mourners led to a violent riot, in which police cars were set on fire and a crowd of over 100,000 people forced its way into several government buildings surrounding the square.<ref name="Spence"/>{{page needed|date=April 2021}}

In response, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party made the decision to forcibly clear Tiananmen Square of mourners.<ref name=Revisited /> Security forces under the PLA's Beijing detachment, alongside urban militia under the control of the Gang of Four, went into the Square to forcefully clear the area.<ref name=Revisited /> The militia were reported to have been carrying wooden clubs and leather belts.<ref name=Revisited>Teiwes, Frederick C. and Warren Sun, "The First Tiananmen Incident Revisited: Elite Politics and Crisis Management at the End of the Maoist Era," ''Pacific Affairs'' Vol: 77 Issue: 2 (2004) pp. 211–235.</ref> Approximately 40 arrests occurred with no casualties, and by the morning of April 6, all articles of mourning had been removed.<ref name=Revisited />

By 6:00 pm, most of the crowd had dispersed, but a small group remained until 10:00 pm, when a security force entered Tiananmen Square and arrested them.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}} Many of those arrested were later sentenced to "people's trial" at [[Peking University]], or were sentenced to prison work camps.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}} Incidents similar to those which occurred in Beijing on April 4–5 occurred in [[Zhengzhou]], [[Kunming]], [[Taiyuan]], [[Changchun]], [[Shanghai]], [[Wuhan]], and [[Guangzhou]].{{citation needed|date=August 2020}} Possibly because of his close association with Zhou, Deng Xiaoping was formally stripped of all positions "inside and outside the Party" on April 7.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}}