A year ago, I wrote a piece on Cake commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, which culminated in brutal violence towards the protestors by the People’s Republic of China. One year later and 31 years after the Tiananmen Square protests, the United States is in a state of unrest over the killing of George Floyd. I don’t need to rehash what happened to him. 

Earlier this week, protestors were shoved out of the White House area so that Donald Trump could have a photo op in front of a church. The amount of force used to shove the protestors out of the way wasn’t to the same degree as what happened in China, but there was use of rubber bullets and tear gas to get the protestors out of the way. Protestors who were protesting peacefully. 

It got me to thinking whether or not a Tiananmen Square situation could happen in the United States. It’s an uncomfortable question, but when we see peaceful protestors getting shot with rubber bullets and tear gas, isn’t that a step towards the type of authoritarianism we saw in Beijing? 

Looking back on "Tank Man" and Tiananmen Square (天安门) 30 years later30 years ago in early June of 1989 was the famous protests for Democracy at Tinanmen Square in Beijing, China. As one who is learning Chinese and was also born in June of 1989, the events that took ...www.cake.co

As far I know there have been plenty atrocities on this land, so am not sure what you mean.

It got me to thinking whether or not a Tiananmen Square situation could happen in the United States. It’s an uncomfortable question, but when we see peaceful protestors getting shot with rubber bullets and tear gas, isn’t that a step towards the type of authoritarianism we saw in Beijing?

I think that’s a fair question. What’s encouraging is that there is not uniform support for Trump’s continual overreach. Former Defense Secretary Mattis called him out on it, current Defense Secretary Esper reversed the decision to deploy the military on US soil, and Senator Murkowski expressed doubts whether she could continue to support the President.

On the other hand, the federal government has over 100,000 federal law enforcement officers at Trump’s disposal.

The Story Behind Bill Barr's Unmarked Federal AgentsThe motley assortment of police currently occupying Washington, D.C., is a window into the vast, complicated, obscure world of federal law enforcement.t.co

Well that’s the thing. There seems to be blowback to what Trump is doing, yet he seems to be testing the limits. What’s alarming is that a lot of people in the military are conservative and generally supportive of Trump. It’s theoretically possible that those folks could follow orders if Trump wanted to take things to another level.

America is founded on freedom of speech and the right to demonstrate. A Tiananmen Square situation would be uncharted waters for the United States. Especially in this era.

That story behind the unmarked agents took me a half hour to read because it’s so mind blowing and new to me. I kept having to go back and ask, what? How could this be? I still can’t remember half of it.

One question I’ve always had is how we came to have 25% of the world’s population of prisoners, by far the highest per capital rate in the world? You would think that would be Russia or Syria, not us.

Even through a Republican lens, how is this small government and freedom?

The amount to which our prisons are filled up is jaw-dropping.

Haun's Mill massacre (anti-Mormon)? Nueces massacre (anti-German, pro-slavery)? Wounded Knee Massacre (anti-native Americans)? Lattimer massacre (killing of striking coal miners)? Ludlow Massacre (again, killing of striking coal miners)? Ponce massacre (protestors killed by police)? Kent State shootings (National Guard shooting at unarmed students)? Plenty of Tiananmen Square cases to choose from.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_the_United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_incidents_of_civil_unrest_in_the_United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_worker_deaths_in_United_States_labor_disputes

Soviet gulags were not the only labor camps, and China is not the only country that imprisons real or imaginary political and religious enemies of the people. At least it is not as cold in Appalachia as in Magadan.

Very good points, here. I guess in some ways the United States has seen similar atrocities.

People here are no better, and perhaps some are quite worse here, than anywhere else. I can only surmise the naivety of new born generations whose only cultural heritage is the iphone or Elon Musk. Sorry for being harsh, it's nothing personal.

I totally get that. Btw, the people of China are awesome. It’s their government that’s got issues.

Kinda wanted to comment in this post after what happened at the Capitol last week.

It wasn’t a Tiananmen Square because thousands weren’t murdered and it wasn’t a peaceful protest. But...we did see the president of the United States unleash his own army in an attempt to overthrow an election. I don’t know how to compare it to the Tianamen Square massacre other than to say that both events were horrifying and threatened Democracy.

Full disclosure, when I wrote this post, I never thought something as horrible as what happened at the Capitol could actually happen.

The Tiananmen Square incident was in opposition to concentrated power. The incident on January 6 was in support of an attempt to concentrate power.

Completely opposite goals.