Post-Tiananmen China wields iron fist in golden glove

BEIJING: China's Communist Party has a tighter grip on power than ever, analysts and activists say, courtesy of its economic boom and vast surveillance mechanisms, rather than the tanks and bullets of the Tiananmen crackdown.

There has never been any repetition, and any fledging citizens' reform movements that do emerge - let alone an overt pro-democracy campaign - are rapidly crushed in the bud.