During the Deng Xiaoping era, China embraced capitalism and its economy grew, leading the First World to expect that rising income levels would naturally lead to democratization.
The reality was the brutal slaughter of its own citizens at Tiananmen, showing the world they had zero intention of ever doing the 'democracy thing.'
Meanwhile, Mongolia was seen as just another irrelevant, backwater communist dictatorship, so nobody even bothered to hope for its democratization.
When the pro-democracy movement broke out in 1990, many in the Party and military argued for a forceful crackdown like China did a year prior. However, the General Secretary at the time, Jambyn Batmönkh, opposed the use of force, stating, 'Mongolians must never shed each other's blood,' which paved the way for democracy. Among Asian communist states—where many are still under communist rule or transitioned into other forms of dictatorship—Mongolia is the only one that successfully shifted to a true democracy. Since Mongolia was a small nation that the world didn't care much about, they could have easily crushed the movement and distorted the facts, but they were lucky to have the right leader at a pivotal moment.
"Netizens are impressed by Mongolia's 'peaceful transition' compared to China's 'tank' approach, though some debate whether China's massive size makes democracy a logistical nightmare."
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