In May 1986 -- 30 years after intellectuals were expelled by Mao Tse-Tung into the countryside -- the first student call for democracy took place. Even though it was quickly put down, the demonstration's leader, Fang Lizhi, became a hero to students and liberal intellectuals.

Rumors in Beijing in 1986 linked Li Peng, who would later be an instrumental figure behind the Tiananmen massacre, with the death of Hu Yaobang, a politician popular with students and intellectuals. In the aftermath of the 1986 crackdown, students began to assume the leadership of China's reform movement, Pye said.

For the Chinese, the saying "sticks and stones can break my bones but words can really shatter me" holds, according to Pye. The Chinese regime tried to paint the leaders of the 1986 demonstration as hooligans, and spread the idea that the students were misled. This escalated the confrontation between the government and students, Pye said. Three years later, this confrontation would result in the Tiananmen Square incident.

In May 1989, students began to occupy Tiananmen Square. The students in the square displayed heroism, standing up even in death, Pye said. He added that although some students began writing wills, they never expected to die.

The students understood that world attention would be focused on China for the 70th anniversary of the "May 4" democracy movement and for Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's visit at the month's end, Pye said.

On May 13, workers joined the students in a hunger strike. The mood was getting nasty, but students were committed to using non-violence as their approach towards reform.

Deng declared martial law at the end of May. The students wrote a final will "in defense of the people's square." On June 3, Deng ordered Chinese troops to clear the students out of the square, resulting in the massacre.

China found modernization difficult because it had a historic political order in which the emperor was equal to a moral god, Pye said. The government felt morally justified in using repression as a way to achieve stability.

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