1. From Democracy Wall to Tiananmen Square

2. Political struggle in the late 1970s
The Question: How far should China hold to the goals of the 1960s
“Gang of Four”: Class struggle the key link
Deng Xiaoping: Seek truth from facts
Important political implications for many people
Hua Guofeng: Two Whatevers

3. Deng Xiaoping’s policies
Four Modernisations and Four Cardinal Principles
Economic modernisation
Political stability
People’s reactions to this
Democracy Wall

4. The Four Modernisations in Practice
Agriculture – household responsibility system (contracting)
Industry – allow private enterprises
Trade – Special Economic Zones
Government – retirement of party elders and rationalisation of the bureaucracy

6. Effects of the Reforms Problems for State Owned Enterprises
Employment of migrant labourers
→ urban workers conditions decline
Increasing gap between rich and poor
Rise of entrepreneurs
Increasing corruption
→Social unrest
→ more calls for political reform

7. Pressure for Political Change in the late 1980s
1986 student demonstrations
Zhao Ziyang “Primary stage of Socialism”
Social problems in urban areas
Economic downturn
Inflation
Businesses fail
Housing reform threatened
Corruption

9. 1989 Student Demonstrations (Tiananmen Square)
Aims
Initially student problems
Reassessment of Hu Yaobang
Calls for Democracy
Gorbachev visit to China
Army called in to crush demonstrations