It might help to include the name: Xu Qinxian

Acts like this, along with rebellion against malicious use of authority when believed to be necessary (Hugh Thompson Jr., etc), are heroes of humanity imho.

The article mentions where Xi Jinping was.

> China’s leader, Xi Jinping, was the little-known party chief of a city in the coastal province of Fujian during the unrest in 1989. But the PLA’s crushing of that unrest, and the failure of the Soviet army to do the same in Moscow in 1991, leading to the Soviet Union’s collapse, clearly left a deep impression. He has often referred to a critical lesson from it all: the PLA must remain the party’s army and it must be kept under control. It all helps explain Mr Xi’s relentless “anti-corruption” drives among the high command.

Xi was 36 years old in 1989, older than almost all of the current Politburo members. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had very minor roles at that time. Xi’s role was at least partly because he was a princeling - his father was a comrade of Mao Zedong from the old days.

Either abroad or early career cadre in prefectures well outside of Beijing. What's more interesting is where were their parents doing during the Massacre.

I recommend reading Yashen Huang's "Rise and Fall of the E.A.S.T." [0] - it has a good overview of the cadre during Tiannamen - along with the dated but very comprehensive Tiannamen Papers [1]

[0] - https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300274912/the-rise-and-f...

[1] - https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/liang-zhang/the-tia...

Xi Jinping was probably in a province near Taiwan not at all close to Beijing power, it was a long time ago. His family had seen some hardships in the political game.

Not only US allies but the US himself.

To others: if you’re downvoting a link a massacre because it feels like the wrong kind of comment, I encourage you to at least read through about the event. I had not learned about this before. It’s perfectly interesting and I think the comment is worth considering in its intent.

“On 14 August 2013, the Egyptian police and to a lesser extent the armed forces, under the command of then-Defense Minister Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, used lethal force to clear two camps of protesters in Cairo. Estimates of those killed vary from 600 to 2,600.”

You're being downvoted, but it's true, and that's what we get with Western propaganda. The US (and many of its vassal states in Europe for example) turn the other way when governments they support take part in massacres. Be it in Bahrain or the most recent example: Syria. Not to mention the atrocities they directly committed over the years in various countries.