THE COMMUNIST BLOC AFTER THE COLD WAR (II)

THE COMMUNIST BLOC AFTER THE COLD WAR (II)

By Van Nguyen

   China  

Ousted from office in the Cultural Revolution (1960-1969), Deng Xiaoping was reinstated. In 1972-73, the policy of détente between the United of States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics began.  In 1975, China introduced a new constitution and an economic plan termed “Four Modernization”--agriculture, industry, defense, and science and technology aiming to instate the country in a par with the West by the year 2000. In 1978, following a violent struggle against the Gang of Four led by Jiang Qing, Deng Xiaoping was forced to live in hiding. In 1977, he returned to office.  Economic reforms were introduced and foreign investment in the “Special Economic Zones” was encouraged. By 1981, Deng gained political supremacy and carried out radical economic modernization program in a continuing process of controlled modernization of the economy.  His economic policy, evaluated by observers, was a drift towards capitalism, with a substantial economic development of the country, especially in the rural areas

The economic reforms, however, met with stress during 1978-85. By 1987, China experienced major economic difficulties. Foreign debt shot up. Inflation was running at an annual rate of about 30 per cent. There was anger over corruption and division in the leadership. Events with violence following the USSR-China dispute across their long land frontier and the appearance of the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe coincidentally happened while China was engaging in a continuing process of controlled modernization. In spite of pressing difficulties, the leadership remained held firm maintenance of domestic affairs, politically and economically.

   

 In 1987, Deng Xiaoping retired from the Politburo and his position as chair of the State Military Commission, but still held control behind the scene. Political developments leading to the collapse of the European Communist Bloc, nevertheless, had great impact on China. The exciting changes in Eastern Europe stimulated expectations for change. In the early months of 1989, acute inflation rose, and an austerity program was imposed, fueling popular anger. This was also the background to a new wave of student demands for change. Encouraged by the presence of sympathizers with liberalization in the governing oligarchy, they demanded that the Party and government should open a dialogue with a newly formed and unofficial Student Union about corruption and reform. Protests and rallies calling for democracy ensued. The leadership was alarmed, but refused to recognize the Union as it might create the harbinger of a new Red Guards movement.

      Successive demonstrations occurred in many cities and as the seventieth anniversary of the May 4th Movement approached. The demonstrators evoked its memory as to give a broad patriotic fervor to their campaign, but they were unable to arouse strong support in the rural areas or in the southern cities. Encouraged by the obviously sympathetic attitude of the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Zhao Ziyang, protesters began a mass hunger strike. The campaign won widespread popular sympathy and support in Beijing. By the time tension reached apogee, the senior members of the government, including Deng Xiaoping, appeared to have been thoroughly alarmed.  Disorder spread. China faced a major crisis. A new cultural revolution would arise if the situation got out of control. On May 20, martial law was declared.

There were signs for a movement that the government might not be able to impose measures at its will to have the command of the situation. As a result, the repression which followed was ruthless. The student leaders changed tactics, focusing their efforts to an encampment in Tiananmen Square in Beijing where thirty years before, Mao had proclaimed the foundation of the People’s Republic. From one of the gates of the old Forbidden City a huge plastic figure of a “Goddess of Democracy,” was placed.  On June 2, the first repressing military unit entered the suburbs of Beijing on their way to the square. There was student resilient resistance mainly with bare hands and barricades. Military forces forced their way through. On June 4, the students and sympathizers were overcome by rifle-fire, teargas, and a brutal crushing of the encampment under the threads of tanks which swept into the square. Killing went on for some days, mass arrests followed. Thousands of people were repressed. Violence took place before the eyes of the world thanks to the international media in presence in Beijing.

Regardless of political events that shook the capital, the Party leadership was in tirm control of the political situation. The rural masses did not sympathize with the protesters; rather, they were against the changes in the ruling hierarchy. Gaining the command of the situation, the administration stepped up vigorous attempts to impose political orthodoxy. Thought reforms organs were reinforced again. Peace was restored. In many ways, China had not encountered critical problems as most countries in Eastern Europe had and was apparently not going the way of Eastern Europe or the Soviet Union.

    In foreign affairs China’s rift with Soviet Union over policy differences became irreconcilable.in 1982 when Russia sided with India during the Sino-Indian border war. Chia pursued thereafter the non-aligned strategy, projecting itself as the voice of the Third World Nations. The relations between the two countries were increasingly deteriorating. On the other hand, the reverse proved to be true with the West. After the massacre at the Tenement Square in June 1989, the relations with the West were increasingly warm and the Deng administration’s economic contacts with the West, especially with the United States, were broadening. In December 1989, US President George H. Bush sent a surprise mission to China, demanding the contacts as an effort to prevent dangerous isolation of China and as a way to engage it in constructive peace proposals for Kampuchea.

China after the Tiananmen Square tragic incident was peaceful. The masses seemed to be immune to political currents in the Communist Bloc. The Communist Party of China held firmly to the role of its government and acted as the vanguard to persevere Chinese Communist orthodoxy.  Economic modernization turned out in the end the real economic salvation, and not a mode of economic “westernization.” The People’s Republic of China emerged as a powerful nation, especially in the eyes of “non-aligned countries,” following the period of détente between the United States of America and the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics and the growing disintegration of the latter.