if you read more you should know the situation is much more complex than that, involving the social issues of the economic reform and interventions of foreign intelligence. The latter is the main cause making this not ended peacefully. All of the videos on RU-vid titled "PLA tank ran over protesters" show a tank constantly trying to get around a guy on the left and right. No "ran over" scene at all. Chai Ling, one of the leaders of the protests, made the claim that she hoped the Chinese government to kill the students (you can even find film footage on RU-vid). It's very easy to see which party benefits from all of these. "In 1979 Deng, with strong encouragement from US circles, made the decisive shift to the 'socialist market economy.' It was a brilliant and daring move, but not one without danger. In 1989, at the same time as a US strategy had led to the downfall of the Soviet Union, the CIA, acting through US Ambassador to Beijing Winston Lord and his CIA-tied successor, James Lilley, set off a chain of events that came to be known as the 'Tiananmen Square massacre.' All indications are that it was intended to create political chaos inside China aimed at weakening the control of the Communist Party over China’s economic transformation. In any case, the US plot failed, but not before exacting a high price in terms of isolating China in the world politically and economically." - cited from Author's introduction ('Boiling Frogs Slowly' section) in "Target: China: How Washington and Wall Street Plan to Cage the Asian Dragon" by F William Engdahl