It’s significant as a potential turning point, in that it was an existential crisis for the Party and had it succeeded we’d be looking at a very different China today.
In Chinese politics I think you could argue that it was such a threatening and frankly embarrassing incident for the Party that they’ve been far more responsive to public attitudes since, to head-off the growth of oppositional-to-government movements again. I mean there’s a reason we haven’t seen anything remotely similar happen in China since.
In terms of how Westerners see it though, it’s not really significant beyond being a stick to beat China with. It was definitely a tragedy that should’ve been avoided, but the attention given to it over 30 years later is only there because it’s geopolitically convenient.
It’s significant as a potential turning point, in that it was an existential crisis for the Party and had it succeeded we’d be looking at a very different China today.
In Chinese politics I think you could argue that it was such a threatening and frankly embarrassing incident for the Party that they’ve been far more responsive to public attitudes since, to head-off the growth of oppositional-to-government movements again. I mean there’s a reason we haven’t seen anything remotely similar happen in China since.
In terms of how Westerners see it though, it’s not really significant beyond being a stick to beat China with. It was definitely a tragedy that should’ve been avoided, but the attention given to it over 30 years later is only there because it’s geopolitically convenient.