The "pro-democracy movement" in the summer of 1989 posed the biggest challenge to the CCP regime in PRC history. What were the causes of the movement and why did it fail? What is your assessment of the prospect for China's democratization?

Abstract

"We are going to take back the powers of democracy and freedom from the hands of that gang of old men who have grabbed those powers away from us". Those are the words of Wand Dan, student leader, during a speech on Tiananmen Square at the end of April 1989.
Since 1984 and the acceleration of the political reforms, the Chinese regime seemed open to deep transformations. But the events of 1989 cruelly broke the hopes of a vast part of the population. Seizing the excuse of Hu Yaobang's passing (15th of April), students and reformist intellectuals initiated many pro democracy demonstrations in Beijing at Tiananmen Square, bringing together more than 1 million people.