Then, a shock happened that led everyone to question just about everything. In 1989, a movement to democratize China grew into the demonstrations that led to the crackdown known as the Tiananmen Square incident. The leadership was split on how to handle the movement. Deng made the defining choice, which was to sideline the liberal forces and go ahead with the conservatives’ crackdown. Most Chinese people I spoke with at the time were worried that China would slip back into its old Mao/Gang-of-Four-type ways.
