Wait, 1989 was not a good year for Chinese liberalization...
I think the high point was really under Hu Jintao. The transition from Hu to Xi was a very tumultuous period. Xi, unlike his predecessors, had a very contentious transition and had to fend off numerous fractions inside the CCCP. After surviving that, based partly on the backing of the PLA (his father was a PLA general), he really, really consolidated power. He now has a path forward to be president for life. His ideas are now literally part of the Chinese constitution, elevating him to the same level as Mao. Liberalization is, in some ways, the opposite of centralization. Therefore, liberalization must be stemmed.
Hu Jintao, on the other hand, didn't really have that much power. There was always Jiang and his fraction. When power is divested, liberalization is more likely.
Agreed that 2008-2012 was relatively much more liberal. Hosting the Olympics boosted China's confidence as a prosperous and prominent nation on the world stage. There were growing grass root movements against corruption and restrictive cultural policies. Technology tools available around that time were not sophisticated enough to effectively carry out censorship. Google had quit the Mainland Chinese market but most of their services were still accessible without VPNs (which were easily obtainable and almost always worked with minimal tweaks) via google.com.hk. Weibo was filled with great social commentary and critique. It got optimistic enough that some individuals hoped that Xi Jinping as the incoming president will actually carry out political liberalization. Obviously it did not take long for him to show his true colours.
You have to understand the liberalization that led up to June 4th 1989 was pretty unprecedented. That it resulted in a horrible knee jerk is really sad.
China was liberalizing at an unprecedented rate in the 80s, to the point that the government didn't immediately react when a bunch of students gathered in Tiananmen square to protest. That could not have happened in 2008 and definitely not 2012.
Hu Jintao was not a reformer, not even close. Power was divested for sure, but the general direction of his reign was a show of opening before the olympics and then quick repression. Xi consolidated power, but did not "reverse course" on liberalization, it was already going in that direction.
I think the high point was really under Hu Jintao. The transition from Hu to Xi was a very tumultuous period. Xi, unlike his predecessors, had a very contentious transition and had to fend off numerous fractions inside the CCCP. After surviving that, based partly on the backing of the PLA (his father was a PLA general), he really, really consolidated power. He now has a path forward to be president for life. His ideas are now literally part of the Chinese constitution, elevating him to the same level as Mao. Liberalization is, in some ways, the opposite of centralization. Therefore, liberalization must be stemmed.
Hu Jintao, on the other hand, didn't really have that much power. There was always Jiang and his fraction. When power is divested, liberalization is more likely.