The Chengdu Protests started out as a memorial gathering to mourn Hu Yaobang's death in Tianfu Square and it took around five days before larger-scale protests broke out. While the Chengdu students were protesting in support of the students in Beijing, they were demanding different things than the Beijing students.
According to Paul Goldin, who was an American student studying Chinese at Sichuan University and is now a Professor of Chinese thought at the University of Pennsylvania, the protests were “never a protest in favour of democracy.” Goldin believed that “it was a protest against corruption” and it was not until “very very late” that students began using words like “democracy” and “freedom.”
On April 21 and 22, there were large marches and arrests, but it was not until May 15 that class boycotts and hunger strikes began.
On May 16, there were around 30,000 students, faculty, and clerical workers gathered at Renmin Square. The crowd was there largely to support the students in Beijing but also to protest police tactics. On May 17 there was another demonstration, at 10 p.m that night and around 100 students announced they were going on a hunger strike.
On May 18 at 4 p.m, “Provincial Vice-Party Secretary Gu Jinchi, Provincial Standing Committee member and Propaganda Department Director Xu Chuan, Provincial Standing Committee member and Chengdu Municipal Party Secretary Wu Xihai, Provincial Vice-Governor Pu Haiqing, Chengdu Mayor Xie Jinxiang and other leading comrades from the provincial and municipal party and government went to Chengdu’s South People’s Road Square” and visited the students who were hunger striking and petitioning.
Gu Jinchi was supportive of the students and told them that he “fully [understood their] patriotic enthusiasm, fasting in support of some Beijing students’ hunger-strike action, opposing corruption, promoting democracy and the rule-of-law, and demanding a deepening of reforms. Party Center is attaching a great deal of importance to your actions.” However, he also wanted them to cease hunger striking and return to classes. The “leading comrades” did show concern for the health and safety of the students.
On May 18, “hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life” marched in support of the students who were on hunger strike. There were several workers groups at the march, the Chengdu Aeronautics Company, Chengdu Automotive Factory, Chengdu Telecommunications Bureau, Chengdu Car and Tractor Accessory Factory, the Number 701 Post and Telecommunications Factory, Chengdu Insurance Cabinet Factory, and the Municipal Lumber Company, and there were also groups of scholars in attendance as well. The march was also covered by a variety of news outlets stationed in Sichuan.
The protests remained peaceful and after martial law was declared in Beijing, the protests in Chengdu started to dwindle. By then, only a handful of students were still having sit-ins and local residents were beginning to lose interest.
June 4–8
On June 4, the Chengdu Public Security Bureau “announced that traffic into the square on People’s South Road would be halted.” After the announcement more than half of the 300 students sitting in front of the square left. The police forced the 51 remaining students to leave at 7:45 that morning. Later on that morning 2000 students from “Sichuan University, West China Medical University, Chengdu University of Science and Technology, and Sichuan College of Education” marched onto People's Road.
The students held banners that read “Blood debts must be repaid in blood,” “Seven thousand Beijing students were suppressed,” and “Give us back our fellow students.” Their march was stopped by a line of police who used tear gas and electric prods to quell the protest. By 3p.m, “the precinct station on People’s East Road was set on fire” and “the station and some nearby stores and restaurants burned to the ground.”
The fires continued on June 5 with the burning of the People's shopping mall in southwest Chengdu, the Rose Empress Restaurant, a movie theatre, and two police stations. The next day the newspaper kiosk in front of the Rose Empress Hotel was also set on fire. There was also a lot of damage done to state property, like police trucks and ambulances.
On June 6 “five thousand students left their campuses.” Many of the shops were closed. Three hundred police from Public Security and the People's Armed Police arrested the suspects who set fire to Sichuan Exhibition Hall and robbed the Tiancheng Jewelry store.