Editing May Fourth Movement (section)

== Protests ==
=== May 4, 1919 ===
[[File:Burn Japanese goods, Tsinghua School, 1919.jpg|thumb|[[Tsinghua University]] students burning Japanese goods]]
[[File:May Fourth Movement students.jpg|thumb|[[Peking Normal University]] students detained by the government during the May Fourth Movement]]
On the morning of May 4, 1919, student representatives from thirteen different local universities met in Beijing and drafted five resolutions:
# To oppose the granting of Shandong to the Japanese under former German concessions.
# To draw and increase awareness of China's precarious position to the masses in China.
# To recommend a large-scale gathering in Beijing.
# To promote the creation of a Beijing student union.
# To hold a demonstration that afternoon in protest to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.
On the afternoon of May 4, over 4,000 students of [[Yenching University]], [[Peking University]] and other schools marched from many points to gather in front of [[Tiananmen]]. They shouted such slogans as "struggle for the sovereignty externally, get rid of the national traitors at home", "Give Qingdao back to us!",<ref>{{Cite web |title=A brief history of the May Fourth Movement |url=https://english.pku.edu.cn/news_events/news/focus/8388.html |access-date=2024-05-29 |publisher=Peking University}}</ref> "do away with the Twenty-One Demands", and "don't sign the Versailles Treaty".

Protestors voiced their anger at the Allied betrayal of China, denounced the government's spineless inability to protect Chinese interests, and called for a [[boycott of Japanese products]]. Demonstrators insisted on the resignation of three Chinese officials they accused of being collaborators with the Japanese. After burning the residences of these officials and beating some of their servants, student protesters were arrested, jailed, and severely beaten.{{sfnp|Wasserstrom|2005}}

=== Participants ===
[[File:Female students participate in demonstration as part of the May Fourth Movement, in 1919.jpg|thumb|Female students participate in May Fourth demonstrations]]
On May 4, 1919, a group of Chinese students began protesting the contents of the Paris Peace Conference. Under the pressure, the Chinese delegation refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles. The original participants of the May Fourth Movement were students in Paris and Beijing, who joined forces to strike and take to the streets to express their dissatisfaction with the government. Some advanced students in Shanghai and Guangzhou joined the protest movement as it progressed, gradually forming a wave of mass student strikes across China. In June 1919, the Beijing government carried out the "June 3" arrests, in which nearly 1,000 students were arrested. However, this did not suppress the patriotic student movement, instead further angering the Chinese public and increasing revolutionary sentiment. Workers and businessmen across the country went on strike in support of the students' movement, marking the entrance of the Chinese working class into the political arena.

With the emergence of working-class support, the May Fourth Movement developed to a new stage. The center of the movement shifted from Beijing to Shanghai, and the working class replaced students as the main force of the movement. The Shanghai working class staged a strike of an unprecedented scale. The growing scale of the national strike and the increasing number of its participants led to a paralysis of the country's economic life and posed a serious threat to the government in Beijing. The working class took the place of the students to stand up and resist. The support for this movement throughout the country reflected the enthusiasm for nationalism and national rejuvenation, which was also the foundation for the development and expansion of the May Fourth Movement. [[Benjamin I. Schwartz]] added, "Nationalism which was, of course, a dominant passion of the May Fourth experience was not so much a separate ideology as a common disposition."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schwartz |first=Benjamin I. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D175DwAAQBAJ&q=may+fourth+movement&pg=PP3 |title=Reflections on the May Fourth Movement |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1973 |isbn=978-1-684-17175-0 |location=Cambridge, MA |page=10 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

During the May Fourth era, pledges of [[celibacy]] were a means through which participants resisted traditional marriage and devote themselves to revolutionary causes.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Wang |first=Xian |title=Gendered Memories: An Imaginary Museum for Ding Ling and Chinese Female Revolutionary Martyrs |date=2025 |publisher=[[University of Michigan Press]] |isbn=978-0-472-05719-1 |series=China Understandings Today series |location=Ann Arbor}}</ref>{{Rp|page=97}}

=== Expansion ===
On May 5, students in Beijing as a whole went on strike and in the larger cities across China, students, patriotic merchants, and workers joined protests. The demonstrators skillfully appealed to the newspapers and sent representatives to carry the word across the country.  On the morning of May 6, students from Shanghai gathered at [[Fudan University]] in response to the events in Beijing. By the evening, meetings and special committees were held at various campuses in Shanghai, and telegrams were sent to the Beijing government in the name of the 33 representatives of different campuses in Shanghai to express their protest. Over the next few days, the movement grew in size. Students in Shanghai began striking at the end of May. During this time, disagreements arose within the protesters about the intensity of the protests, but the protests as a whole were seen to be intensifying.

On June 3, police in Beijing arrested a large number of students. To express their disapproval to it, businessmen and workers in Shanghai joined the strike. The center of the movement shifted from Beijing to Shanghai. Chancellors from thirteen universities arranged for the release of student prisoners, and Cai Yuanpei, the principal of Peking University resigned in protest. Although at this point the event was defined as a multi-class protest action, overall it was still a student-led movement.

Newspapers, magazines, citizen societies, and chambers of commerce offered support for the students. Merchants threatened to withhold tax payments if China's government remained obstinate.{{sfnp|Hao|1997}} In Shanghai, a general strike of merchants and workers nearly devastated the entire Chinese economy.{{sfnp|Wasserstrom|2005}} On June 12, the general strike ended because under intense public pressure, the Beijing government dismissed [[Cao Rulin]], [[Zhang Zongxiang]] and [[Lu Zongyu]] that had been accused of being collaborators with the Japanese. Nevertheless, students continued to express their protest against the content of the Versailles Peace Treaty by organizing rallies and other events at that time, and organized the National Student Union. Finally, Chinese representatives in Paris refused to sign the Versailles Treaty: the May Fourth Movement won an initial victory which was primarily symbolic, since Japan for the moment retained control of the Shandong Peninsula and the islands in the Pacific. Even the partial success of the movement exhibited the ability of China's social classes across the country to successfully collaborate given proper motivation and leadership.{{sfnp|Wasserstrom|2005}}