As China looms ever larger in the world economy, it is worth remembering that 20 years ago, the People’s Republic almost fell apart. By reunifying the Communist Party leadership and re-establishing solidarity between the Party and the urban masses, the crisis consolidated the Party's rule, and accelerated China’s momentum down its current path of rapid economic growth.
NEW YORK – The publication of secret, audio-taped memoirs by fallen Communist Party reformer Zhao Ziyang, who sought to “eradicate the malady of China’s economic system at its roots” and died under house arrest for his efforts, is reigniting debate over the complex legacy of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Indeed, as China looms ever larger in the world economy, it is worth remembering that 20 years ago this June, the People’s Republic of China almost fell apart. The protest movement that gathered in Tiananmen that year posed an existential threat to the Communist Party state, proclaimed in that very spot 40 years earlier by Mao Zedong.
NEW YORK – The publication of secret, audio-taped memoirs by fallen Communist Party reformer Zhao Ziyang, who sought to “eradicate the malady of China’s economic system at its roots” and died under house arrest for his efforts, is reigniting debate over the complex legacy of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Indeed, as China looms ever larger in the world economy, it is worth remembering that 20 years ago this June, the People’s Republic of China almost fell apart. The protest movement that gathered in Tiananmen that year posed an existential threat to the Communist Party state, proclaimed in that very spot 40 years earlier by Mao Zedong.