The riots surrounding Tian’anmen Square resulted in hundreds of deaths of protestors and PLA officers alike, it wasn’t a rampant slaughter but the suppression of a western-backed color revolution. The student leaders admitted to inciting violence in order to provoke a violent response, hopefully triggering more widespread revolt in their eyes, but fled the scene to other countries like the US before the PLA was sent in.
They’ve met them with mass killings not just with “force” see Tiananmen square massacre for content.
The riots surrounding Tian’anmen Square resulted in hundreds of deaths of protestors and PLA officers alike, it wasn’t a rampant slaughter but the suppression of a western-backed color revolution. The student leaders admitted to inciting violence in order to provoke a violent response, hopefully triggering more widespread revolt in their eyes, but fled the scene to other countries like the US before the PLA was sent in.