Taiwan’s president Ma Ying-jeou’s thoughts on the 21st anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre. They could be applied far beyond China:- 

Surveying history, we see that in conflicts between governments and people which end in bloodshed, governments, as the public authority, must assume the heaviest responsibility. The existence of a government is dependent on the people’s trust. When it resorts to use of armed force against the people, it is not only the people that are hurt; the trust between the government and the citizenry is also damaged, and recovery from such an event takes a long time. In such situations, therefore, governments must bravely face up to this reality and, with the utmost patience and tolerance, take steps to rebuild trust.