Mao had died 13 years earlier. This gave China the chance to develop differently. And China had taken a different path in the 13 years since Mao's death. The students wanted the shadow of Mao to be left entirely behind so that China could become a democracy and corruption be ended. So the Chinese would have a better life and more freedom. [19] Officially, it was said that a riot had to be prevented. The army was supposed to restore peace and order. But there was no turmoil. The only problem was that Deng disagreed with the students. [19] At first, I thought Deng Xiaoping only wanted to intimidate the students and civilians with the army. I never would have believed that he - a Communist Party member who described himself as a revolutionary - would actually order to shoot. Soldiers from your own army shooting at students! That is incredible. "

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Mao had died 13 years earlier. This gave China the chance to develop differently. And China had taken a different path in the 13 years since Mao's death. The students wanted the shadow of Mao to be left entirely behind so that China could become a democracy and corruption be ended. So the Chinese would have a better life and more freedom. [19] Officially, it was said that a riot had to be prevented. The army was supposed to restore peace and order. But there was no turmoil. The only problem was that Deng disagreed with the students. [19] At first, I thought Deng Xiaoping only wanted to intimidate the students and civilians with the army. I never would have believed that he - a Communist Party member who described himself as a revolutionary - would actually order to shoot. Soldiers from your own army shooting at students! That is incredible. "" in the context of "On the suppression of the student protests in 1989, from an ARD interview with Bao Tong, 2014 https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/interview-bao-tong100.html" to mean that wisdom is timeless.