In 1989, two historic events took place that would come to shape world politics. The People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union were the two most populous and powerful communist powers on the globe. In November 1989, the Berlin Wall in East Germany was torn down. This wall was a symbol of communism's hold on Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Its fall marked the end of the hegemony of the Soviet Union. By 1991, the Soviet Union was replaced with the democratic Russian Federation. In June 1989, tens of thousands of protestors flooded into Tiananmen Square in Beijing. These students were demanding more rights in the communist People's Republic of China. The communist leaders violently crushed the demonstrators by sending in tanks. Two dramatically different approaches towards demands for reform. China reformed at a slow pace that kept intact their political structure while transforming their economic system. Whereas the Soviet...