The Lesson the West Failed to Learn

A political entity willing to slaughter its own people is not someone you should trust or do business with.

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Photo by BBC Creative on Unsplash

Another year marks another anniversary of the June 4th Tiananmen Massacre.

Thirty-four years ago, the Chinese Community Party ordered the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers to open fire at peaceful pro-democracy protestors (most were 20-something college students) in Tiananmen Square. We still do not know how many young lives were violently taken. Alan Donald, the British ambassador at the time, estimated the death toll between 2,700 and 3,400. This event revealed the true nature of the CCP and should have been a watershed moment for the West: a political entity willing to slaughter its own people is not someone you should trust or do business with.

For a short period, many in the West seemed to have learned that lesson. Leaders of Western democracies quickly condemned the CCP’s brutality against the Chinese people and discussed plans to impose sanctions on China. Outwardly, the CCP was defiant. Internally, however, sources later revealed that the CCP’s leadership was apprehensive.