Tension emerged between the rapid economic change and the much slower, more erratic political reforms. Significant political demonstrations occurred in December, 1986, and much more serious demonstrations were organized in the spring of 1989. Started by students, the 1989 demonstrations spread to the general citizens. The unrest threatened the Communist Party leaders, who finally lashed back with military force against unarmed Beijing citizens gathering at Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. Hundreds, if not thousands, died. This set the reform process back briefly, but Deng continued to support further economic reform. After that, Chinese economic growth was dramatic until the Asian economic downturn in 1998. While the nation's economic growth slowed at the end of the twentieth century and beginning of the twenty-first century, most international observers still maintained that the country was showing an impressive rate of growth.
Ninety-three-year-old Deng Xiaoping died on February 19, 1997. His death was not unexpected, and he had presumably transferred his power to others when he retired a few years earlier. When Chinese president Jiang Zemin celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Communist Party's assumption of power in 1999, he emphasized the continuity of the Chinese government from 1949, through the years of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping and into the time of his own administration. Clearly, the official view was that the Communist Party would rule China indefinitely, despite political and economic change. In the short term, it did not appear that party control would end. Despite the increasing complexity of the economy and problems of corruption and domestic order, there was no clear replacement for the party. However, political reform posed a difficult challenge for a singleparty state, and it remained uncertain whether another party would eventually replace China's Communist Party or China would evolve into a multiparty system that would include the communists or fall into serious domestic disorder.
In November, 2002, the Chinese Communist Party designated a new leadership. Nine relatively young men, in their late fifties and early sixties, were appointed to the Politburo Standing Committee, the supreme ruling council of China. Among them was Hu Jintao, who became general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and was slated to replace Jiang Zemin as president. It appeared that this would maintain China's direction as a country under the control of the party with increasing capitalist involvement, as Hu was an ally of Jiang.
Some progress in liberalizing the regime has occurred. For example, the government has allowed low-level village officials to be elected in nonparty elections in which more than one candidate runs for a single position. In the long run, this may serve to introduce democracy to China. These low-level elections still leave the Communist Party virtually in complete control at the county, provincial, and national levels. This means that any progress toward democratization will take many years.
This toleration of free elections may also lead to political disorder if a demand for the expansion of free elections threatens the control of the national leadership. This is particularly true if an economic downturn creates doubts about the wisdom of the Beijing government. A worldwide economic crisis could lead to substantial turmoil. However, some efforts at broadening the base of the Communist Party did take place under Jiang Zemin. On July 1, 2001, Jiang called on the party to admit capitalists— individuals who had been in private business. Although there was opposition to this comparatively radical revision of Marxist practice, in September of 2001 the central committee of the party decided to support Jiang's call.
World History
