Word: deng
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...students' feelings about the need for more personal freedom were legitimate enough, declared a front-page commentary in the official party newspaper, the People's Daily. Indeed, Paramount Leader Deng Xiaoping had recently acknowledged that China's "deep economic reform should be accompanied by corresponding political reform." But, surely, continued the editorial, the students did not want to re-create the "anarchism" of the Cultural Revolution, when young people were mobilized to foment widespread turmoil. Anyone who tried to "obstruct the progress of the reform," warned the People's Daily, "would eventually eat bitter fruit...
...With that, the engine of student unrest began to sputter, though at week's end thousands of students took to the streets of Nanjing to protest the government actions. The ongoing demonstrations presented the government with one of its toughest political tests in recent years. The question: Could the Deng regime keep its promise to tolerate the dissent and open debate that seemed to go hand in hand with its free-market economic policies? The answer: a resounding maybe. The Communist regime had waited weeks before moving to close down the student protests, but when it acted...
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...