Who woulda guessed the liberal anticommunist turned out to be toothless when it comes to opposing genuine fascism?

The riots surrounding Tian'anmen Square resulted in hundreds of deaths of protestors and PLA officers alike, it wasn't a rampant slaughter but the suppression of a western-backed color revolution. The student leaders admitted to inciting violence in order to provoke a violent response, hopefully triggering more widespread revolt in their eyes, but fled the scene to other countries like the US before the PLA was sent in.

They did not "break free." 7 million people died, life expectancy plumeted, social safety nets were destroyed, poverty skyrocketed, sex trafficking skyrocketed, and the large majority of people who lived in the Soviet Union prefer it over modern Capitalism.

Communism is democratic. Liberalism, which you are likely referring to, is tied to fascism. Fascism is liberalism when the conditions of society necessitate the bourgeoisie's use of unrestrained violence to prevent changes to the status quo.