Why do people seem to think the Tiananmen Square protests came at the beginning of China’s problems? (Not saying you do, but that is the inference of your statement, and I’ve seen it here before).

China had been subjected to decades of Communism at this point. Decades in which students and children had reported and condemned their elders en masse. Decades in which tens of millions starved to death peacefully. Decades in which nobody fought back in any meaningful way. Decades in which things like this weren’t seen as a problem. This only meant something because the populace needed it to.

My point is, the lesson of Communist China is that sometimes it takes a generation or two after the takeover for people to start pushing back. Sometimes it takes the brutality of cold experience to wake enough people up.