With the support and nomination of Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin became General Secretary at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 13th CCP Central Committee, and that same year he took over as Chairman of the Central Military Commission.
During the 1989 protests, because he advocated resolving issues within the framework of democracy and the legal system, Zhao Ziyang was stripped of all his posts by Deng Xiaoping and subsequently placed under house arrest in Fuqiang Alley, Beijing, for fifteen years until his death from illness.
After the 1989 June Fourth, Deng Xiaoping appointed Jiang Zemin as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
On June 21, 1989, Xu Guoming, Bian Hanwu, and Yan Xuerong, who had been sentenced to death in the Guangxin Road crossing incident in Shanghai, were executed. They had been sentenced to death in the first instance on June 15, and the West German ambassador to China had called for the three not to be put to death.
In June 1989, the Shanghai High People's Court rejected the appeals of Xu Guoming, Bian Hanwu, and Yan Xuerong, upholding the death sentences; the three were executed on June 21. The specific date of the second instance was reported to be around June 20.
On June 15, 1989, the Shanghai Intermediate People's Court sentenced Xu Guoming, Bian Hanwu, and Yan Xuerong to death in the first instance, to be executed immediately, with political rights stripped for life; only 9 days elapsed from the case on June 6 to the verdict.
Afterwards, Deng Xiaoping issued a victory proclamation, defining the June Fourth incident as a counter-revolutionary riot.
After the Guangxin Road crossing incident, Shanghai police arrested those involved, including Xu Guoming, Bian Hanwu, and Yan Xuerong. English-language materials say 11 people were arrested at the scene; the claim of dozens of arrests and nighttime raids from June 7 to 9 could not be verified.
At 20:43 on the evening of June 6, 1989, Train No. 161 traveling from Beijing to Shanghai entered the Guangxin Road railway crossing in Putuo District and plowed into a crowd gathered to mourn the victims of June Fourth and protest the massacre, killing 6 people and seriously injuring 6 others. The tragedy enraged the people at the scene; tens of thousands gathered in protest, train carriages were set on fire, and Beijing–Shanghai railway traffic was cut off. The incident is known as the "Guangxin Road Crossing Incident" or the "Shanghai June 6 Incident."
On the night of June 4, 1989, CCTV Evening News anchors Du Xian and Xue Fei wore dark clothing, speaking in extremely slow and subdued tones to broadcast the news of martial law troops entering the city, and were subsequently transferred from their posts.
Chinese students and citizens gathered in Beijing Tiananmen Square to demand reforms, anti-corruption measures, and freedom, and were met with a military crackdown by troops and tanks.
As a power crisis loomed, Deng Xiaoping used tanks and machine guns to suppress the student movement, blocking China's path to freedom and democracy.
At the Fourth Plenary Session of the 13th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in June 1989, Zhao Ziyang was officially removed from the post of General Secretary. Before that, Deng Xiaoping had the Central Guard Group place Zhao Ziyang under house arrest, and Wen Jiabao, then director of the General Office of the CCP Central Committee, discovered that the Central Guard Bureau took orders only from the Central Military Commission.
On June 15, 1989, Xu Guoming, Bian Hanwu, and Yan Xuerong were sentenced to death in the first instance by the Shanghai Intermediate People's Court for June Fourth, and were executed by firing squad on June 20, faster than in Beijing.