[4] The lack of response from Hu Yaobang, who was the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at the time, would result in his removal from power on January 15, 1987, and his replacement by Zhao Ziyang.
[5] The 1986 student demonstrations took place in the context of economic difficulties caused by an inflation rate of 16% which led to large increases in living costs.
[11] The demonstrations began at the University of Science and Technology in the city of Hefei on December 5, 1986, in response to students' demands to nominate their own candidates for the National People's Congress instead of choosing from a government selected list.
[22] The protesters also focused on the problem of corruption and cronyism in the government, which affected students abilities to gain employment and slowed Chinese economic growth.
[24][25] The reasoning behind this deliberate vagueness is largely attributed to previous attempts of students to sit in on provinicial and municipal committees during the Cultural Revolution.
While most protesters at the time were too young to have witnessed the chaos amidst the movement, the suffering faced by their predecessors and parents caused enough trepidation that they were reluctant to initiate extreme action.
While some cited the reasons as the wave of economic reform initiated under Deng Xiaoping's leadership, others went as far to question the validity of a socialist state.
The waves of protest came to a head when several thousand students assembled on New Year's Day, disregarding government bans on unauthorised demonstrations.
The government adopted a much harder approach, and the official press began to raise campaigns underlining the rise of "bourgeois liberation," initiated by Deng in an attempt to curb excessive liberalisation.