Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
REFORM & PROTEST
Calls for Democracy
Deng Xiaoping (1904-97), backed by a group of veteran generals, seized power in a coup
d'état and threw Mao's widow, Jiang Qing (1914-91) and her ultra-leftist cronies into the
notorious Qínchéng prison outside the city, where Mao had incarcerated so many senior
party veterans. This still exists not far from the Ming Tombs.
The 'Democracy Wall' in Xīdān has disappeared and been replaced by a shopping mall.
The Democracy Wall
At the third plenum of the 11th Party Congress, Deng consolidated his grip on power and
launched economic reforms. At the same time thousands of people began putting up posters
along a wall west of Zhōngnánhǎi, complaining of injustices under the 'Gang of Four' (Ji-
ang Qing and her three associates) and demanding democracy. Deng initially appeared to
back political reforms, but soon the activists were thrown into jail, some in the Běijīng No
1 Municipal Prison (demolished in the mid-1990s).
Rising Discontent
Many of the activists were former Red Guards or exiled educated youth. After 1976 they
drifted back to the city, but could only find jobs in the new private sector running small
market stalls, tailor shops or restaurants. After the universities opened, conditions remained
poor and the intelligentsia continued to be treated with suspicion. Frustrations with the
slow pace of reforms prompted fresh student protests in the winter of 1986. Peasants did
well out of the first wave of reforms, but in the cities many people felt frustrated. Urban
life revolved around 'work units' to which nearly everyone was assigned. The work unit
distributed food, housing, bicycles, travel permits and almost everything else. Běijīng was
still a rather drab, dispiriting place in the 1980s; there was much more to eat but everything
else was in a lamentable state. For 30 years, there had been little investment in housing or
transport.
Contrary to popular belief, the violence that shook the city - and the watching world - during
4 June didn't take place in Tiān'ānmén Sq itself, but in the surrounding streets.
