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Civic Forum

The Anatomy of a Crackdown

Lessons from Beijing 1989 for LA 2025

Rory Truex's avatar
Rory Truex
Jun 08, 2025
∙ Paid

This week marked the 36th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, which passed remarkably quietly in China and felt muted even among the overseas Chinese diaspora, from what I could observe.

I tend to think comparisons between contemporary American politics and Chinese history are a bit tired, especially those that try to recast this moment as som…

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