It might still be a bad idea to remove them, but if they were just doing standard protests in public areas, it'd be much less of an issue.
Merely arresting people and forcing them out of the square would've meant it would be a blip in history. The Tiananmen Square massacre is famous because it was a massacre. Even official figures said that hundreds of people died.
Absolute unfreedom also exists nowhere.
Still, some places are more free than others. alephnerd made a number of comparisons of the US to China; you have refuted none of them. You merely complain that the US is not absolutely free of consequences for your actions. Well, that's true, but if that's what you're looking for, try an uninhabited island (and you may not even find it there).
Police will inevitably crack down on protests everywhere, yet protests continue to happen on a daily basis in the US with minimal long term ramifications.
Also, none of what you pointed out actually refutes my points above about internet censorship, and as such clearly shows an attempt at whataboutism.
P.S. Both HRW [2] and Amnesty [3] have unequivocally voiced their support for the right to protest in the US, and as such if you try to say "oh human rights organizations are a tool of the west" it's complete bullshit.
[0] - https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/01/26/china-free-white-paper-p...
[1] - https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa17/3086/2020/en/
[2] - https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/04/26/us-universities-should-r...
[3] - https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/amnesty-internatio...
I cannot access BBC in China without using a VPN, and can potentially be prosecuted for either action.
I can say Biden/Trump are horrible and need to rot in jail, and my comment with not be deleted by a censor. If I say "Xi dada needs to step down and Li Keiqiang should have been Premier instead, and HK was never an integral part of China" it will get deleted on Sina, and if they really had it out for me prosecute me under NSL.
I can Google for Jan 6th photos without censorship. I cannot Baidu search photos of the Tiannamen square protests and subsequent massacre.
The freedom house index does have issues, but China is absolutely unfree.
Authoritarian states aren't completely unfree (it's organizationally impossible), but China is definetly fairly unfree compared to other authoritarian states like Russia or even Vietnam (though Vietnam is trending towards a more authoritarian future now that Tô Lâm is almost assured to be the next leader)