China Long Eighties Analysis

China underwent several changes and reforms throughout the 20th century, but the most important era during that century may have been during the “long eighties”, including a stretch of the late 1970s all the way until 1989 with the Tiananmen Massacre. Many important pieces of literature were written both during and after this period, with some calling for liberalization and democratic reforms in China and even some criticizing the very foundation that Chinese society and government were based upon. Nevertheless, it is clear that these “long eighties” were an incredibly influential time period in China that had differing effects on Chinese political, economic, and societal development. Although two authors, Wei Jingsheng and Liu Xiaobo, wrote

However, the Chinese Communist Party still did whatever it could to retain its own power; Liu Xiaobo’s piece Xidan Democracyy Wall and China’s Enlightenment effectively describes the Chinese political situation during the “long eighties”. While he acknowledges that the Chinese Communist Party did make certain concessions through reform, the rulers of the Party-state made moves in order to protect the regime’s interests; they only reformed the economy, not the political system, and largely ignored social justice in favor of greater economic efficiency, despite popular opinion and protest. These same frustrations from the people ended up powering several protest movements pushing for reform throughout the “long eighties”, starting the with April 5th Movement in 1976, continuing with the Democrac Wall Movement from 1978 to 1979, and culminating in the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. Over this time period, one can see that people were completely disillusioned with the Cultural Revolution and were embracing enlightenment thinking’s emphasis upon liberalization and the individual as their revolutionary wills