Following the April 5, 1976 Tiananmen Square demonstrations mourning Premier Zhou Enlai—forcibly suppressed by authorities—the political fallout strengthened hardliners around Mao Zedong and undermined Deng Xiaoping, who was blamed for the unrest and soon purged. The episode became a dry run for the far larger Tiananmen protests of 1989.
In early April 1976, tens of thousands of Beijing residents gathered spontaneously in Tiananmen Square, ostensibly to observe the Qingming festival honoring the dead but really to mourn Premier Zhou Enlai, who had died in January, and to voice veiled criticism of the radical Gang of Four. Wreaths, poems, and posters filled the square for days.
On April 5 itself, authorities cleared the square by force, removing wreaths overnight and then confronting the crowds that returned angry the next morning; clashes left an uncertain number injured or arrested. The Politburo, dominated by radicals, labeled the gathering a 'counter-revolutionary incident' and used it to formally strip Deng Xiaoping of his posts days later.
The episode was officially reversed after Mao's death and the Gang of Four's fall, becoming celebrated as the 'April Fifth Movement' and a precursor to the reformist opening under Deng. Chinese authorities drew an uneasy, unspoken parallel to it thirteen years later when tanks entered the same square.
Key people: Hua Guofeng, Mao Zedong