All the while, the interested parties have been paying too much attention to the Tiananmen massacre that took place on 4 June 1989. Prof Xin tells us that there are actually 4 phases in this uprising. The final phase took place in the provinces outside Beijing. People had gone berserk, rioting on the streets and for the first time since 1949, openly called for an end to CCP rule.
The world had missed a golden opportunity to help China democratise. Too much attention was focussed on the “stars” at Tiananmen, most of whom had already fled the country, swarmed by journalists. The biggest threat to the party actually came from protesters who brought the revolution to the next level in the 20 days following 4 June. If the free world had reported on and supported the protesters before they were rounded up and summarily executed, Chinese history might have taken a different course from then on.