The idea of Tiananmen Square being one of the top ten most important historical events in that time period is wild to me. Just in terms of death toll, the highest estimate mentionedon Wikipedia of 10,000 comes from a US ambassador citing an anonymous “friend,” and is many times higher than any other estimate - a more realistic estimate is closer to 1,000. Let’s compare that to the lowest estimates from the list of genocides page:

• Gaza: 38,000 (ongoing)
• Darfur: 98,000 (ongoing)
• Congo (Effacer le tableau): 60,000 (2003)
• Congo (Massacre of Hutis): 200,000 (1997)
• Rwanda: 491,000 (1994)
• Bosnia: 31,000 (1995)
• Somalia (Isaaq): 50,000 (1989)
• Iraq (Kurds): 50,000 (1989)
• Cambodia: 1,386,000 (1979)
• Indonesia (East Timor): 85,000 (1999)
• Uganda: 100,000 (1978)

The same year that Tiananmen Square happened, two separate genocides were ongoing that, even by the most ridiculously generous comparisons possible, each killed at least 5 times as many people. Searching “Isaaq” on both .world or .ml gives exactly one hit which is a comment listing off a bunch of genocides, like I’m doing now. Entire cities were leveled and hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee the country, but nobody ever talks about it (myself included, until today).

In addition to that list, if we’re talking about events in general, then we should also look at the list of wars (again, lowest estimates):

• Persian Gulf War: 29,000 (1991)
• War in Abkhazia: 25,000 (1993)
• First Congo War: 235,000 (1997)
• Kosovo War: 16,000 (1999)
• Eritrian-Ethopian War: 53,000 (2000)
• Second Chechen War: 20,000 (2000)

* These numbers only refer to the initial invasion, not to occupations, which killed hundreds of thousands.

There’s ongoing conflicts in Myanmar, in North Africa, in Mexico, and in Sudan, and more, each of which has left more dead than Tiananmen this year and the year’s not even over yet.

So it doesn’t seem especially significant in terms of raw numbers, but you could argue that it’s more significant because of the effect it had on Chinese politics, as the controversy led to the resignation of the head of state, Deng Xiaoping. Except that I never ever see anything like that discussed. Either way, it didn’t change the broad direction of the reforms.

I could give my own reasons as to why it’s given such a high position of importance, but I’m genuinely curious to hear your own explanation of why Tiananmen would warrant a spot on a top ten list of important events, compared to any of the other events I’ve listed.