[GauntletWizard]

The protestor at Tiananmen Square changed nothing. Twenty-five years after the incident, most chinese have no idea it ever occured; If they've heard about it at all, they heard about a minor student riot. The rest of the world has seen that totalitarian tactics do work, and that false promises and imagined enemies are the best ways to control a population.

[tsaoutourpants]

I disagree. Tiananmen Square is a source of shame for the Chinese ruling party, and many of the people there are indeed aware of it -- moreso every day with the coming of the Internet.

[AutoCorrect]

and that may be the biggest success of the action: that the leaders have to live with a little voice inside them, telling them that they did wrong there. Depending on the person it could either make them into a total tyrant or push them more toward a democractic view.