Thirty years ago, during the protests of 1989 on Tiananmen Square in Beijing and in other Chinese cities, students and workers-led demonstrations called for democracy, greater press freedom and freedom of expression. Thirty years on after the massacre of the 1989 movement, state repression has been increasing once more as the Xi Jinping government uses new tactics and modes of repression to restrict freedom of expression. After briefly assessing the legacy of the movement, we will discuss the prospects for human rights and democracy activism in China today.