Word: reform
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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That spoof of Peking's reaction to weeks of seething unrest was not far off the mark. Last week in a front-page editorial, the Communist Party newspaper People's Daily denounced the students in the strongest possible terms, saying that their marches for university reform, elections and a free press were an "inevitable outcome" of "the spread of bourgeois liberalization." The editorial almost certainly had the full approval of Chinese Leader Deng Xiaoping and the full Central Committee...
...week's end it was clear that the government intended not only to clamp down on new demonstrations but sharply limit future political discussion and purge officials who have gone too far in advocating reform. Rumor had it that at least one official had already been removed: Fang Lizhi, a vice president of the University of Science and Technology in Hefei, who has strongly supported demands for more democracy. The biggest loser, however, may be Politburo Member Hu Qili, a leading advocate of political reform, whose position as a likely successor to Hu Yaobang as Communist Party General Secretary seems...
...question now: How long will the official chill on dissent last? While the repercussions may be less draconian than in the past, Deng has made it clear that Western-style democratic reform is out of the question. Indeed, some Western China watchers believe the Dengists have been extraordinarily lenient with the demonstrators, in part so that they could use the continuing disorder as an excuse to cut off political discussion...
Then came the students. Their massive marches in December, protesting a selective-admissions policy contained in a university reform bill, were in many ways quintessentially French. But the anarchist and Marxist youths who emerged among the students were reminiscent of young Italian zealots who consider the Communists stodgy old fogies...
...center of the controversy is Susan Miller, 43, a onetime Southern Baptist and civilian employee of the Colorado Springs, Colo., police. In 1982 she embraced Reform Judaism, adopting the Hebrew first name Shoshana. When Miller moved to Israel in 1985, the Interior Ministry questioned the validity of her conversion because it had been supervised by a Reform rabbi. Thus, said the government, Miller was not eligible for the automatic citizenship granted Jews under Israel's Law of Return...