WI the Tiananmen Square movement in 1989 was not crushed?

King Thomas

Banned
Is there any chance without ASBs that the Tiananmen Square protests could have had a different ending then they did?
 
Is there any chance without ASBs that the Tiananmen Square protests could have had a different ending then they did?
No. There was a power struggle within the party but the hardliners won against weak opposition. Some student leaders were also deliberately trying to provoke a massacre to trigger a larger scale uprising.

The only realistic chance for the events to unfold another way was for the government to crack down early on before it reached the point of no return. But as I said, there was a power struggle within...
 
You would need a POD in late 1986 or early 1987. The battle between the hardliners and the reformers was more-or-less resolved with the sacking of Hu Yaobang as Secretary General. If Deng manages to ensure the survival of Hu, then there is potential that the reformers will be in a stronger position when Hu dies in 1989 (his death is what started the protests in the Square) and that stronger position is inherited by Zhao Ziyang.
 
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