 The moderate reformers Zhao Ziyang and Yan Mingfu, China's best hope for democratic reform, were ousted from power following the June 4 crisis.”

"The Gate of Heavenly Peace" was produced and directed by Richard Gordon and Carma Hinton, who have collaboratively made numerous films about China.Their production company, the Long Bow Group, is a small non-profit company based in the Boston area.According to Gordon, "One of the reasons we wanted to make ["The Gate of Heavenly Peace"] was to give more depth to [the 1989] movement and not just show the final, violent conclusion, which is where people tend to focus.” Despite the hundreds of hours of Western media coverage, Hinton felt that "everything was reduced to slogans and hand clapping.