The irony is that most of the people that died (let's not pretend that no one died) in Beijing were actually fighting for Communism.
The economic reforms in the 80's meant that people would for the first time be possibly fired, and without a job they would not have a home or healthcare (both provided by the workplace), they were suffering from widespread inflation (due to the lifting of price controls), and as a result food security became an issue. This was the main driver of the protests throughout the city and constituted most of the deaths. The students in the square were just a fraction, and relatively unscathed.
