Quelling the People: The Military Suppression of the Beijing Democracy Movement
Timothy Brook
 Quelling the People investigates the conflict between the Chinese democracy movement in Beijing, China and the communist-ruled Chinese state's People's Liberation Army. The democracy movement began during the Beijing Spring in 1978 and the conflict culminated in a mass confrontation between the citizens of Beijing and the People's Liberation Army at Tiananmen Square in June 1989. The immediate conflict at Tiananmen Square was brought to an end by the People's Liberation Army which used force, causing the death of hundreds of the protesters. The massacre was followed by a "media silence" and the suppression of the democracy movement. In the book, which centres around a "detailed reconstruction of the Tiananmen Square massacre on June 3 and 4, 1989," From the book's back cover "blurb". the author examines the confusion of, and mistakes made by, the Chinese authorities, as well as the role of the "Tank Man", the student who famously stood his ground in front of a column of four approaching army tanks.