The 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre was a turning point in more ways than one.

At a time when many thought that the fall of Communist regimes was inevitable, the Chinese Communist Party demonstrated that unlike its Russian counterparts, it was still willing to use ruthless force to stay in power.

The East German model would not succeed in Beijing.

It was also an early preview of the corruption and ineptitude of America’s political class.

When the PRC put down democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square, and the first Bush administration shrugged, and the PRC’s most-favored-nation status endured because American business had become dependent on China.

That’s why every effort to link China’s human rights to most-favored-nation status collapsed.

Bill Clinton had promised that China’s most-favored-nation status would depend on its human rights. But, like most of Clinton’s promises, this turned out to be another lie. Instead, Clinton insisted that trade would open up the Communist dictatorship and encourage it to respect human rights.

The Tiananmen Square helped kick off another generation of global tyranny in China and beyond. It showed that the model of democracy and freedom America had been selling to the rest of the world was bankrupt.

And neither we nor the world ever recovered.

To the Westerner the image of a lone protester facing down a tank in Tiananmen Square is a show of moral courage by an individual. To the ambitious Chinese citizen it is a despicable act of crazed selfishness being properly suppressed by a patient and loving state which has reached its limits. We see ourselves in the protester. They see themselves in the tank. Similarly to the Westerner, the Muslim girl beaten bloody for sneaking off with a boy is a horrible indictment of the culture. To a Muslim, it is a horrible indictment of her.

America could have changed that, Bush I and Clinton could have treated China like any other Third World country and applied economic and military pressure. Would it have worked? Maybe. Maybe not. But we would have broken our addiction to Made in China before it poisoned our entire society and economy.

But it would have required undermining the lucrative business opportunities and we couldn’t let a guy standing in front of a tank change that. Bush I and Clinton sold out America’s soul.

And we lost all the money too.

China robbed us blind, stole our technology, and is killing us every day.

The intellectual property theft, hacking and fentanyl overdoses are another legacy of Tiananmen Square.