My mother was actually @ tiananmen ...
Can't say I agree with you, but on 6-4 the CCP had more than 600,000 security personnel in all of Beijing, soldiers, police, PAP (I think at that time they had a different name).
Even if tough tactics are necessary for your precious weiwen (you better know what this word is) there are nonlethal tactics (civilized tactics) and huaren's tactics (another pun for those who know Mandarin).
In New York, the police and mayor's office can flood any major demonstration with several thousand police at short notice, ensuring that there is enough personnel to control angry crowds using nonlethal weapons.
In China, they could have sent 6,000 personnel (just 1% of the security people in that city on June 4, 1989) with truncheons and that would clear the square. Instead they sent tanks, live ammunition, etc. Truly something the First Emperor himself would have done. Use maximum violence at the slightest sign of opposition.
In contrast, the First President of the USA was characterized by two things:
1) refused the title of King when some bootlickers tried to persuade him to crown himself
2) did not respond to vicious press attacks during his second term, leaving an example of respecting press freedom for future Americans
As for burnt bodies of Chinese soldiers, most of these happened after the Tiananmen massacre, when angry Beijing residents lynched any soldiers they could get their hands on.
Ironically, the Chinese capital itself is filled with descendants of very military people - Manchus, Mongols, Turkic tribes, etc. That's why Beijingspeak is so different from the ancient Chinese language (closest to Cantonese).
Beijing has been an armed camp since about the 10th century, relying on military supplies and political power rather than being a natural center of economic production and transport hub like Lin-an, Kaifeng, Nanjing, Chongqing, (the other capitals of China during this period) etc. Not enough troops in Beijing to contain a tiny gathering? Not for the last 1000 years!
