What if Communism had fallen in 1989 in China?

Basically, I would also like an explanation of how the PRC could fall by 1990 at the most, but what Im really interested in what would happen to the PRC after the fall of the regime.
 
Basically, I would also like an explanation of how the PRC could fall by 1990 at the most, but what Im really interested in what would happen to the PRC after the fall of the regime.

I'm curious about this to.

I don't have any special predictions, but I will raise a couple points that people have brought up in past Tiananmen discussions.

One, people often bring up that, although protests were widespread, they were mostly an urban phenomenon and they never truly threatened the regime.

I think this is true, but understates things. Most revolutions don't truly threaten the destruction of a regime. An Iran '79 type situation -- where the whole governing structure and army just dissolved -- are very rare. In most cases, even severe protests only succeed because of elite defections. Ruling figures and/or the army decide to cast their lot with protesters.

In China, we know that top ruling officials were split. It could easily have been a situation where the leadership decided to make concessions instead of cracking down.

Second, people sometimes argue that even Zhao Ziyang wasn't likely to concede electoral democracy. You'd get a release of dissidents, more rights to free speech, greater personal freedoms, etc. Again, I think this understates things. Reformist leaders might well have hoped to stop short of full democracy, but the flow of these kinds of events is such that concessions and negotiations probably would have led to free elections. You'd see an opening, further protests, and quite quickly things would escalate.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if a reformist Communist Party, perhaps renamed something like the Socialist Party or the People's Party, were to triumph in free elections afterwards, powered by rural voters.

Beyond that, who knows? I suspect Chinese growth rates would have been lower in the following years, given the difficulties democracies face with forcing through major policies. That said, such growth might have proven more equitable, and something like the Three Gorges Dam might not have been built. Xinjiang and Tibet would probably even more restive. No idea how cross-straight relations would go, or if Hong Kong would be willing to settle for a less autonomous arrangement than OTL. Would N. Korea still survive, or would it at least be forced to liberalize economically if devoid of a Chinese patron?
 
Successful Tiananmen Protests do not equal the end of Communism in China. A main target of the protests were the economic reforms. If anything the protesters were more left-wing than the regime.
 
Successful Tiananmen Protests do not equal the end of Communism in China. A main target of the protests were the economic reforms. If anything the protesters were more left-wing than the regime.

I know, thats why I stated 1989 as the date, the POD can really be wherever, I should've made this an AHC. my knowledge of Chinese history is really only large in the context of the Warlord period.
 
From talking with some folks who were there, the folks who were protesting had no clear ideas of what exactly they wanted to happen and were not the kind that could have ruled the country if given the chance.

The government was / is the kind to tolerate a little dissent and discussion as long as it stays away from threatening subjects. That is why they appear to have a great Internet presence among citizens but will easily censor and restrict discussions at times.

It seems to work pretty well in creating a citizen that sees the world as they would like even though that citizen has probably more knowledge of world events than the typical American.

To answer the original question, I believe that China would have dissolved into anarchy if the protesters had been successful.

- Ivan.
 
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