Replying to @blakehounshell @blakehounshell Not if you consider that it came from a man whose ex-wife said he kept this by his bedside: pic.twitter.com/AM0z8sSLXC 

 As for Trump using "riot" to describe Tiananmen, do I think he intentionally aped Beijing's description? No. It's very revealing, however. 

 HONG KONG — During the Republican presidential debate on Thursday, Donald J. Trump was forced to defend his earlier comments about the Chinese government’s 1989 crackdown on the Tiananmen protests in Beijing. He said that he did not endorse the crackdown, which he called “horrible.” But critics pointed out that in his comments on Thursday he called the protests a “riot,” which matches the Chinese government’s description of the events. 
 
 In 1990, Mr. Trump told Playboy magazine that Beijing showed “the power of strength” when it used military force to quell the student-led demonstrations the year before. 
 
 “When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it,” he said. “Then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength. That shows you the power of strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak ... as being spit on by the rest of the world.” 

 Two US Republican presidential candidates have been locked in a debate over the Tiananmen Massacre of 1989, with Donald Trump calling the event a “riot” which was put down by a “strong powerful government”. 
 
 During a CNN Republican debate on Thursday evening, the interviewer referred to comments Trump had made in the past on the Tiananmen Massacre. In 1990, Trump had said in an interview with Playboy Magazine: “When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it. Then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength. That shows you the power of strength.” 
 
 Trump, however, denied that his statements meant he agreed with the acts. “That doesn’t mean I was endorsing that… I said, that is a strong powerful government that put it down,” he said. 
 
 “They kept down the riot, it was a horrible thing,” he added. 
 
 When asked whether it meant that he was complimenting the Chinese leaders and Putin despite the atrocities they committed, Trump replied, “Strong doesn’t mean good.” 
 
 However, Republican candidate and Ohio Governor John Kasich jumped to the students’ defence, saying, “The Chinese government butchered those kids… And when that young man stood in front of that tank — we ought to build a statue of him over here when he faced down the Chinese government,” Time Magazine reported. 
 
 The Tiananmen events of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident, occurred at the end of student-led protests triggered by the death of former Communist Party General Secretary Hu Yaobang, who had been purged due to his liberal, reform-minded political stance. 
 
 The demonstrations were suppressed when the government sent troops and tanks into the city, killing and injuring many of the protesters. To this day, the PRC government has not apologised for its actions and terms relating to the massacre are heavily censored online. 
 
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– Add pro-democracy Chinese groups to the list of people Donald Trump has offended. During Thursday night's GOP debate, the candidate was asked to defend remarks he made to Playboy in 1990, when he discussed China's brutal 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. "They were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength," he said at the time. "That shows you the power of strength." During the debate, he said he wasn't endorsing the crackdown, but was describing how a "strong, powerful government" kept down the "riot," which the Washington Post notes is the Chinese government's way of describing the massacre of hundreds, possibly thousands, of pro-democracy demonstrators. "Counter-revolutionary riot" was the Communist Party's official verdict on the Tiananmen protest and crackdown, mentions of which are heavily censored in mainland China to this day, the Hong Kong Free Press notes. "Do I think he intentionally aped Beijing's description? No. It's very revealing, however," tweeted Trump critic and former Beijing professor Patrick Chovanec, per the New York Times. The Guardian also rounds up some quick condemnation appearing on social media. ("Unbelievable," reads one tweet.) John Kasich, meanwhile, gave what the Guardian describes as a more "morally clear" response. "I think that the Chinese government butchered those kids, and when that young man stood in front of that tank, we ought to build a statue of him over here," he said. (Here are some of the debate's best lines.)