In Beijing, the most outspoken posters appeared on a section of wall near the Forbidden City, and this became known as Democracy Wall. At first, the new leadership under Deng Xiaoping allowed the posters to stay.

But criticism continued to mount and protesters started arriving in the capital demanding that rulings handed down during the Cultural Revolution be reversed.

The most prominent critic, Wei Jingsheng, called for China to adopt democracy as the "fifth modernisation", implicitly criticising Deng who had said China only needed four.

The Party decided to act, arresting and imprisoning the movement's leaders.

Mr Wei spent the next 18 years in jail, before being exiled to the US in 1997.