On the morning of 4 June, police forcibly broke up the student demonstration taking place in Chengdu's main square. The resulting violence killed eight people, and injured hundreds.
The suppression on June 4 marked the end of a period of relative press freedom in China and media workers—both foreign and domestic—faced heightened restrictions and punishment in the aftermath of the crackdown. State media reports in the immediate aftermath were sympathetic to the students. As a result, those responsible were all later removed from their posts.