Word: deng
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...outpouring of discontent, and the authorities' decision not to stop it, represented an unprecedented humiliation for Deng Xiaoping and his government. Wisely deciding not to use force to end the march, the Chinese government acceded to demands for a dialogue with the students. "The demonstration marks the raising of democratic consciousness of the people," triumphantly said a graduate student of philosophy from Peking University...
...before Thursday's protest, there was every indication that the government was ready to crush even the smallest sprig of dissent. On Tuesday Premier Li Peng and President Yang Shangkun reportedly informed Deng that the movement had spread "to high schools, the countryside and even among the workers." Deng, whose sole official government title is Chairman of the Central Military Commission but whose ironhanded control of the government has led the students to dub him the "Emperor," agreed that the protesters intended to overthrow the Communist Party. Referring to the turmoil that has accompanied political reform elsewhere in the socialist...
...wielding police. The demonstrations were widely interpreted as a revolt against the leftist policies of the so- called Gang of Four, who at the time had effectively seized power from the dying Mao Zedong. Two days later the Gang of Four, led by Mao's wife Jiang Qing, sacked Deng, the recently rehabilitated Senior Deputy Premier whom they suspected of masterminding the demonstrations. But after Mao died five months later, the military overthrew the Gang of Four and Deng returned to power...
...most important lesson of last week's events was the degree to which China has changed since the deaths of Zhou and Mao, the downfall of the Gang of Four and the emergence of Deng. Says Fang Lizhi: "At the time of Premier Zhou's death, the people liked him, but they thought of him as a good dictator. The people were still Marxists then." By contrast, continues Fang, who welcomes the transition, the people no longer speak of Marxism, and when | they venerate a man like Hu Yaobang, they are paying homage to him not as a benign dictator...
Perhaps no one is more aware of China's changing realities than Deng Xiaoping, whose revolutionary credentials are far stronger than those of most of his academic critics. Diplomats who have seen him during the past two months believe that he remains in good form for a person of his age. But he is surely aware that his political power, especially among the young, is on the wane. He can afford to allow university students to let off steam occasionally in pursuit of democracy or in memory of a fallen hero. The test will come if, when the ceremonies...