Word: communist
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Split by factional strife and confronted by a clamorous, hostile public, the Communist Party leadership faced its most serious challenge in the state's 40- year existence. Every hour seemed to bring a fresh rumor, especially after the government ordered the restriction of China Central Television and the end of foreign television transmissions. Deng remained very much in charge, stripping power from Zhao Ziyang, the Communist Party leader who only days earlier had been host of a banquet for Gorbachev. Premier Li Peng assumed control of the party as well as the government, but the bond between the Chinese people...
...rumored to be under house arrest, was the most telling proof of a rift in the leadership between conservatives and reformers. According to some sources, Zhao offered to resign when his proposals to + accommodate the students were rejected by the Politburo Standing Committee, the highest policymaking body of the Communist Party. Others in Beijing claim that the party chief's fall, which could well presage a purge of other liberal reformers, came partly because of remarks he made during a remarkable predawn visit with Li to the hunger strikers on Friday...
...help the government restore order. If anything, it probably widened the chasm between state and society. Though Zhao was originally a protege of Deng's, his popularity rose because the public knew he opposed suppressing the demonstration. His eviction from power further alienated those already hostile to the Communist Party. It also narrowed the party's options for restoring order, making force seem virtually the sole choice...
Beyond these immediate wishes of the crowds, the picture becomes fuzzy. Democracy, the rallying cry of the demonstrators, is an ambiguous word. For some of the protesters, who have no experience and little knowledge of democratic practices in other countries, democracy meant the opposite of everything associated with Communist Party rule. "They can't enumerate concretely what they want," says a diplomat in Beijing, describing the antigovernment movement as fundamentally a "scream of the damned." As Grace, 19, a pig-tailed student who spent Friday night in Tiananmen Square, put it, "We think everything must change...
...years since Warsaw Pact tanks brought an end to Dubcek's brief experiment with liberalization, the former Communist Party leader, now 67, has been living humbly in Bratislava, working as a minor forestry official until his retirement in 1982, when he turned his attention to gardening. During the same period, Havel has become internationally famous both for his plays, such as The Memorandum and Temptation, and for his role as a leader of Czech dissent...