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China Resistance and the Campaign Against Bourgeois Liberalization
In late 1986, during the critical period when the Chinese
political system appeared threatened by student demonstrators
burning copies of party official newspapers, General Secretary Hu
Yaobang failed to act to restore order. Hu refused to denounce the
demonstrators or their intellectual mentors or to retreat from the
political reform agenda. Instead, Hu favored the introduction of
more "democratization" or plurality into the political system. He
called for more movement on political reform than the system could
bear. In effect, Hu had outstripped the consensus concerning the
pace and content of the reform agenda. In response, Deng Xiaoping
had to make the difficult decision to remove his protege from the
post of party general secretary, a step taken by unanimous decision
at an extraordinary expanded Political Bureau meeting in January
1987. Hu was replaced by Zhao Ziyang, one of the chief architects
of the economic reform program, who explained that democratic
reforms in China required a "protracted" process for their
implementation.
At the same time that Hu Yaobang was removed from office, a
campaign was initiated against "bourgeois liberalization." Given
heavy play in the official media, this campaign sought to discredit
Western political concepts and emphasize the importance of adhering
to the
four cardinal principles
(see Glossary). The campaign
against bourgeois liberalization became the means for conservatives
led by Political Bureau members Chen Yun, Peng Zhen, and Hu Qiaomu
to express their opposition to some of the reforms, especially the
pace of the reform agenda, and to the increased democratization
advocated by Hu Yaobang. Having responded to major conservative
concerns, Zhao then emphasized the limits that had been placed on
the campaign against bourgeois liberalization. The ideological
campaign was to be limited to the party, and it was neither to
reach the rural areas nor to affect economic reform policies. In
addition, experimentation in the arts and sciences was not to be
discouraged by this campaign. The imposition of these limits was
inspired no doubt in large part by the need to avoid disruptions
such as those that had accompanied the spiritual pollution campaign
in 1983 and 1984. Besides affirming his support for the ongoing
campaign against bourgeois liberalization, within specified limits,
Zhao stressed that the economic reform program--including opening
up to the outside world--would continue.
In March 1987 Deng Xiaoping made it clear that political reform
also was to continue and that a "tentative plan" for political
reform would be included on the agenda of the Thirteenth National
Party Congress in the fall of 1987. Deng's revelation suggested
that with Hu Yaobang removed, China's senior leadership had reached
a consensus on the sensitive issue of political reform, which had
been discussed by many of them in general and cautious terms for
some time. Even conservative senior leaders such as Li Xiannian and
Peng Zhen made statements supporting political reform. This
development did not limit the likelihood of very intense debate
before and during the next National Party Congress on the specific
implementation of this most sensitive program. But it did suggest
that, with Hu Yaobang's demotion, China's top leaders could discuss
key details of the future role of the party in China's reformed
political system at the upcoming congress.
Data as of July 1987
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