Safer? I guess that Great Firewall does work: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1...
I don't approve of their actions, they reacted way too late and were too violent. A faster intervention, something like mass arrests (+ releases after everyone cooled down) would have probably been the best compromise.
It's easy to judge them from outside.
To be fair, isn't that the only way to judge this? China forbids discussion of the Tiananmen Square protests and censors informations, younger generations aren't even aware of it.