Sowing the Seeds of Democracy in China: Political Reform in the Deng Xiaoping Era

The West's leading authority on the role of intellectuals in contemporary China presents a percipient account of the efforts at political reform in the Deng Xiaoping era. Merle Goldman describes a group of highly placed intellectuals who, with the patronage of Deng Xiaoping's designated successors Hu Yaobang and then Zhao Ziyang, attempted to reshape both China's Marxist-Leninist ideology and its political system. When they found their efforts had produced negligible results, they tried to introduce new institutions such as a free press, a legislature with real power, the rule of law, and truly competitive elections. Through an exhaustive search of the current literature and in-depth interviews, Goldman shows that the writings and activities of the democratic elite and its supporters through the 198Os provided the intellectual context for the pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. The Party's crackdown on June 4, 1989, was directed as much against this elite as against the student and worker demonstrators. Yet despite the efforts of the ruling elders, the intellectuals have introduced ideas and advocated actions that have gradually limited the all-encompassing power of China's party-state and helped to make possible the beginnings of democracy. Steady media attention has been devoted to China's economic reforms, yet little notice has been paid to efforts toward political change. Sowing the Seeds of Democracy in China introduces the reader to the agents of such a change and chronicles the growing pains of China's loyal opposition.