In late 1989, democracy and market capitalism were finally winning the cold war. Solidarity was heading towards political victory against the incumbent Communist party in Poland. Germany was on the road to reunification. Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution was brewing. Hungary was adopting a multi-party electoral system. Bulgaria would follow soon after. The people of Eastern Europe were pulling the plug on International Communism’s life support.

But on June 3rd, twenty years ago today, the government of the People’s Republic of China wasn’t having any of that. Thousands of students and intellectuals seeking political and economic reforms had gathered in Tiananmen Square in April to honor the death of Hu Yaobang, a political reformer. After two weeks of martial law, and protesters blocking soldiers from entering the square, the army got serious and things went south in a hurry. Armored personnel carriers and troopers with fixed bayonets closed in. Shots were fired by the soldiers, firebombs thrown by protesters, and over the next two days an unknown number of people would die.

China’s still a communist dictatorship. Political freedom remains next-to-nonexistant. A great many economic reforms have come through, allowing many to benefit and suffer from the freedom and predations of a limited market economy. A search of images.google.cn for “tiananmen square massacre” still looks just like a search for “tiananmen square,” but at least they’ll bow to explicit searches for “tiananmen square tank.” Maybe there’s some political progress after all.