It's Been 30 Years Since Tiananmen Square & China Is More Powerful Than Ever

It was 30 years ago today, the Chinese Red Army brutally destroyed the '89 Democracy Movement which had been taken root in Beijing's Tiananmen Square and peacefully protested the Communist regime for seven weeks.


Three decades later, the Chinese Communists are more powerful than ever, no mention is made of Tiananmen Square in mainland China much less the events which led to massacre of June 4, 1989. The West certainly bears some responsibility as it seeks to curry favor with China which has become an economic and military powerhouse and eagerly imports its good even as China steals intellectual property conceived and developed in the West.


Needless to say, apart from lip service, there will be no pressure brought to bear upon China from the West. Oh, President Trump may impose tariffs, but these do more harm to America than they do to China. In all honesty, Trump greatly admires China. He certainly yearns for the sort of power. When he spoke at a GOP fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago in March 2018, Trump praised Chinese President Xin Jinping on becoming president for life:


He’s now president for life. President for life. No, he’s great. And look, he was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot some day.


In an article I wrote for NRO, I argued "such views ought to be anathema to any American president." I elaborated upon this thought:


Could you imagine President Reagan praising the Soviet political system before Gorbachev embarked upon glasnost and perestroika? Trump’s remarks should have also been anathema to all Americans. Frankly, the Republican audience ought to have jeered Trump the moment he entertained any notion of becoming president for life. The fact that they didn’t signals not only the fundamental change which has taken place within the Republican party in the Trump era, but an abandonment of the principles set out in the United States Constitution.


Trump's praise for authoritarianism should hardly come as a surprise. The year after Tiananmen Square, Trump told Playboy:


When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it. Then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength. That shows you the power of strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak.


If the President of the United States thinks the Chinese Communists "almost blew it" by not killing democracy activists sooner then don't expect Chinese Communists to change their behavior anytime soon.


The only way things in China will change would be with the emergence of another pro-democracy movement. Chances are such a movement would be put down more swiftly and violently than was the case in Tiananmen Square 30 years ago today. But if they don't try again then who will?