Nick Schifrin:

Yesterday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo released a statement, saying: "We salute the heroes of the Chinese people who bravely stood up 30 years ago."

The Chinese Embassy responded, saying "Whoever attempts to patronize and bully the Chinese people will never succeed. They will only end up in the ash heap of history," which is where China wants these images to die.

But Beijing also uses them as a warning. As police guarded Tiananmen Square today, a pro-Communist Party newspaper wrote, the crackdown was a — quote — "vaccine against future turmoil, an anniversary that actually guarantees stability."

And we explore the legacy of Tiananmen and the impact that Tiananmen has had on today's China with Minxin Pei, professor of government at Claremont McKenna College. Thirty years ago, he was a student in the U.S. and a democracy activist and appeared on the "NewsHour" on June 5, 1989. And Orville Schell, the director of the Center on U.S. and China Relations at the Asia Society, he was in Beijing during the protests.

Welcome to you both back to "NewsHour."

Minxin Pei, let me start with you.

Take me back to those days. The protests weren't only in Beijing. They were across about 200 different cities. The government was divided on how to respond. The army tried to get in Beijing, and couldn't even reach there in the days before.

How existential were these protests as a threat to the Chinese government?