Background
Tian Mingjian (born in 1964) was a First Lieutenant stationed at an army base in Tongxian County, a suburb of Beijing. He had been in the military for over ten years, originally was a sharpshooter and was highly skilled in the military technological field. He was once promoted to regimental staff officer for military affairs, but due to his bad temper and irritability was eventually demoted to acting company commander. At the time of the shooting he served in this position in the 12th Regiment of the Third Guards Division of the Beijing Garrison Command. He was said to have violated discipline by beating other soldiers and had a grievance against his superiors for being reprimanded about this.
Tian was married, but due to his demotion his wife was not allowed to live with him at the base. He sent gifts to the regimental political commissar, who then promised to help him in this matter, but two days prior to the shooting the commissar returned the gifts and hinted that he would punish Tian. It was also reported that Tian had a quarrel with his superiors, because they had forced his wife to have an abortion when she was pregnant with their second child. According to differing accounts she either died during this procedure, or was still alive at the time of the shooting.
Read more about this topic: Tian Mingjian Incident
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