Word: deng
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Though of greater magnitude, the massacre was gruesomely reminiscent of the Tiananmen Square riots of 1976. Widespread revulsion over that bloodbath led to the downfall of the infamous Gang of Four, headed by Mao's wife Jiang Qing, and the ascendance to power two years later of Deng. Unable to accept the new world crying out from the streets, Deng appears to have reverted to a hoary Maoist maxim: "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." With devastating carnage, Deng proved he could unleash the firepower. But now that his regime is riding the military tiger...
...bloody denouement of the demonstrations seemed to be the direct result of Deng's attempts to retain the upper hand in a protracted power struggle among China's leaders. The disarray was signaled by the failure in recent weeks of party elders to reach consensus on the formal ouster of party chief Zhao Ziyang, who had lost favor because he sympathized with the student protesters. Within the party rank and file, the hard-liners' attempts to brand Zhao a counterrevolutionary had met with silent resistance and even mutters of bu dui (not correct...
Added to that was the sudden re-emergence early in the week of a quartet of octogenarian revolutionaries, among them economist Chen Yun and former President Li Xiannian. This seemed to indicate that Deng was seeking support against Zhao from the very men he had once sidelined for resisting his economic reforms. Analysts in Beijing feared that Deng had cast his lot with this ideologically rigid Gang of Elders, as the group was dubbed. Such fears were buttressed by renewed government denunciations of "bourgeois liberalization," the phrase that presaged a conservative crackdown two years ago. Some Chinese found a good...
Apparently Deng's strategy prevailed. Throughout the week, party documents circulated detailing the events that contributed to Zhao's unofficial removal. As recounted by President Yang Shangkun in these papers, Zhao's offenses included failing to support a harsh editorial in the People's Daily that condemned the demonstrators and refusing to join other Politburo members in backing martial...
...rumor-heavy press in Hong Kong suggested an altogether different scheme. Newspapers claimed that the ultimate target of the Gang of Elders was not Zhao but Deng; the elders, it was said, intended to force Deng out of his role and replace him with the more conservative and orthodox President Yang. Beijing analysts discounted the theory as overly sensational. In fact, Deng is the most hard-line enemy of the students. Only the party turmoil may have delayed him from lining up support for his position. The massive sweep through Tiananmen could not have been facilitated without the cooperation...