An open hand with a bullet wound in the middle probably lies somewhere in the dark security storage of the Sanhe Public Security Bureau.

The hand — a painting, not literal rotting flesh — is the artwork of the Gao Brothers titled, “Memory 1989” or “Pierced Memory,” a memorial honoring the victims of the Tiananmen Square Massacre that took place 36 years ago today.

Like that piece of art, Gao Zhen, one half of the artist duo, sits locked away in a prison cell in Beijing, awaiting sentencing on charges of “slandering China’s heroes and martyrs.” All for drawing attention through art to what Beijing has been trying to erase from history for nearly four decades — the moment when those who fought for freedom were shot down by state bullets.

On June 4, 1989, the Chinese Communist Party answered a generation’s call for reform, first with silence, then steel, crushing not just bodies but the very idea of political possibility. What began as a tribute to reformist leader Hu Yaobang’s death blossomed into a peaceful student-led movement calling for dialogue: press freedom, transparency, anti-corruption measures, and modest democratic reforms.

It became one of the largest acts of civil resistance in modern Chinese history, reverberating across 400 cities. At the heart of it all, more than a million people filled Tiananmen Square, their hunger strikes, banners, and speeches illuminating a fragile hope that the system might bend.

Instead, the system broke them. Martial law was declared at midnight.

In the immediate aftermath of the massacre, some Chinese leaders feared Tiananmen would leave an indelible blemish on the country’s history, a lasting memory of the free world that would exclude China from the global order. The fear of isolation never really materialized. At the time, many Western policymakers believed that market reforms would eventually usher in political liberalization.

In the years since, the Chinese Communist Party has been debunking the assumption that capitalism necessarily breeds democracy. It has carved out a space on the global stage to accommodate its “China model” and infiltrate democratic institutions. Far from........

© The Hill