Politics in China - Research Paper Example

China’s Constitution had an article regarding the freedom of the press but due to the shortcomings in the structural system it was hardly implemented. The other parties of China were hardly allowed to voice their opinion. The only way to end this autocracy was the establishment of democracy (Han & Han, 1990, p.34). In the light of the above scenario this paper seeks to examine the Tiananmen Square protests and the government’s response. Further our aim would be to examine the reason for the survival of the Communist Party when its counterparts in Eastern Europe and Soviet Union were dismantling.

In what ways were the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square, and the Party/State’s response, a critical juncture? The output of China following the socialistic pattern of society was commendable but soon it had suffered the same fate as faced by many “mature socialistic” economies. Reduction in economic growth and consumption pattern resulted in a series of reforms since late 1978 which was a deviation from the traditional socialistic pattern. The crux of the new economic policy was based on private ownership, free play of market forces for allocation and determination of market prices (Harding, 1987, p.99-100). In the month of June 1989, many students had gathered peacefully to protest against the reforms which had taken place and they also wanted to voice their opinion for a more responsible government which safeguarded democracy.

They also wanted to protest against the corruption that was there within the government. The essence of the protest was not to follow a democracy style like the US instead they wanted wealth and prosperity of the nation like their western counterparts. They had no intentions of overthrowing the PRC (Lusted, 2010, pp. 1-12). The response of the PRC to the peaceful protests was not only repressive in nature but there was an absolute violation of human rights (Brown, 2002, p. 94). The government had warned the protesters of drastic actions to control the “social chaos”.

True to their words army action was taken against the protesters and they were shot dead (1989: Massacre in Tiananmen Square, 1989). The Tiananmen Square massacre was etched in history not only for its harsh outcome but also for the fact that it had occurred at such a point of time when communism in two of its strongest base was losing its hold. The protest of 1989 was the first of its kind after 1949 and it was for the sake of reforms. The protests of the people showed their dissatisfaction with the existing government.

Though the incident had occurred at this critical juncture, the response of the government was very stern. They used every possible measure to crush the uprising. Why did the Communist Party in China not fall in 1989 unlike the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe? The disintegration of communism started in Poland in mid 1989 and eventually it had spread to other East European countries. Finally, it ceased to exist in its place of origin, that is, Soviet Union by the end of 1991. The displacement of communism in Soviet Union did not have much bloodshed.

However it is considered as one of the most important political event of the twentieth century (Zuzowski, 1998, p. 1). The poor performance of the Russian economy had prompted their leader Mikhail Gorbachev to initiate a series of reforms in different phases. Though his reforms were meant to bring about economic improvement but it