There was an international reaction, for example various forms of Western military cooperation came to a halt that were valuable to China technologically. "Intervention" has a much broader conventional meaning, however, and in the normal sense was simply impractical. China was both a nuclear power and a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Basically, it enjoyed all imperial prerogatives and could act domestically precisely as it chose.

Regarding escalation of protests, it must be remembered that Government control of the media was absolute. Furthermore, since the earliest days of the October revolution civil control over the military has been perfected by communist states. The existence of parallel domestic security services, the system of political commissars and no less importantly the habit of military non-involvement in politics it cultivated, together have always served to ensure that across the communist world the political authorities' grip on the army barely ever wavered.

Facing a media blackout, with no means of communication, suffering the shock of the extravagant violence of the Tiananmen crackdown, and lacking either leadership or prior organisation, further overt resistance against a military firmly under government control was unrealistic.