I’m tired of people saying that China denies anything happened on that day. Like you said, the reality is worse. The Government admits that there was a protest and the army did indeed put it down forcefully, but they say that it’s because it was turning into a dangerous riot that would have plunged the city into chaos. They said that the protestors were bloodthirsty and wanted to overthrow the Government, and they were the ones who “shot first” (figuratively—guns are banned in China) against the police. They say that the Chinese government respects the people’s right to protest peacefully but only when the protest turned into a riot after and the demonstrators refused all of the Government’s very reasonable concessions that they called in the army.