Women’s Marches in America drew more protesters today than Tiananmen Square did in 1989

| 3:30 pm EST January 21, 2017
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Estimates are still pouring in for the crowd sizes at the Women’s Marches that are taking place in cities across the United States and the world today, but the reported numbers have already set a surreal milestone. The number of Americans who turned out for the Women’s Marches in various cities today have surpassed the total number of people who are believed to have turned out in China for the Tiananmen Square anti-government protests in 1989.

The Women’s March in Washington had an estimated participation of 500,000 people. The Women’s March in Los Angeles drew another 750,000. Chicago drew an additional 250,000. The crowd size at the New York City March, which may have been the largest of all, is still unknown. With marches having taken place in hundreds of U.S. cities, the total nationwide turnout can easily be pegged two to three million or more.

So how does this compare to other modern instances of civil unrest? According to CNN, the Tiananmen Square protests drew an estimated 1.2 million Chinese citizens at their height on May 19th, 1989. Is it fair to compare the combined turnout in several cities across America to the protests in a single city in China? That’s up to you to decide. But this much is indisputable: based on the number of people who turned out, Americans are more angry at Donald Trump than the Chinese were at their authoritarian government when they took to the streets a generation ago.