Word: deng
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Observers saw a close relationship between the students' call for democracy and the sluggish pace of Deng's economic reforms. The experiment is aimed at spurring productivity and raising efficiency by taking power from the bureaucrats and giving it to the peasants and local plant managers. The urban phase of the program, which began in late 1984, has raised overall productivity impressively, but has lately begun to falter. Just two weeks ago the government reported that industrial production costs are up and profits are declining. Deng's lieutenants blame the foot-dragging on entrenched, stubborn and sometimes powerful mid-level...
Some students have expressed frustration at the slowness of such political reforms. But their demands frequently seemed to reflect a breezy assumption that Western-style democracy could be grafted painlessly onto Deng's bold economic experiment. Indeed, foreign reporters covering the demonstrations in Shanghai were sometimes cheered and applauded by the crowd. Said one student: "We simply want to have the freedom to do what we want." A medical student said his idea of democracy was "freedom of expression, freedom of the press, publication and association." At one confrontation between Shanghai students and the city's reform-oriented mayor, Jiang...
Such idealism would not normally engage ordinary workers, but the protests have worsened dislocations created by Deng's economic reforms. In Shanghai, Peking and other Chinese cities, reports have circulated of panic buying and hoarding in anticipation of price increases that are part of the government's deregulation program. Noodles, rice, toilet paper and matches are said to be out of stock in many stores. Declared a Peking intellectual: "The ordinary masses might not be able to relate to calls for democracy, but they sure would take to the pavement if the issue turns to price increases...
...past the Deng government has been able to suppress student unrest with a minimum of violence by using the worst threat at its disposal: assignment upon graduation to an uninteresting job in a remote location. But as the last month's events have suggested, some seem willing to risk even a promising future. "Somebody has to do it," says a recent Peking University graduate. "The fate of the country is at stake." The demonstrations, he added, "will eventually be viewed as a boon to history because they are keeping our leaders on their toes, forcing them to speed...
Peking faces a particularly dangerous dilemma. The more "democracy" it allows the students, the more they will continue to demand. But the more their "freedom" is abridged, the more inevitable will further protests become. Unless Deng and his colleagues play their hand with exquisite skill, the result could be just the kind of harsh crackdown they desperately fear and seek to avoid...