Word: deng
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...throngs of university students actually had a much more provocative, and important, goal in mind: a demand for greater democratization in the world's most populous country. Implicit in the spreading protest campaign was a call for a shake-up in China's Communist leadership, including the retirement of Deng Xiaoping, 84, after a decade in power. In a scene never witnessed in the 40 years of Communist rule, more than 1,000 students assembled outside the ornate red-lacquered gate of Zhongnanhai compound, where the top leaders officially live and work. Sitting on the pavement, lotus-like, they exhorted...
...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...
...students have called for Premier Li Peng to resign and say senior leader Deng Xiaoping, 84, is too old to rule. But most say their campaign is not anti-government...