Dilemmas of Reform in China: Political Conflict and Economic Debate by Joseph Fewsmith

Author:Joseph Fewsmith [Fewsmith, Joseph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, General, Ethnic Studies, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781315287157
Google: _ooYDQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-09-16T04:30:26+00:00

5

Conservative Criticism and Emerging Fissures Among Reformers

* * *

In the wake of the 1984 Third Plenum and the Decision on Economic Structural Reform, reformers worked to create a more open intellectual atmosphere that would support rapid economic reform. At the Fourth National Congress of the Chinese Writers Association in December 1984, Hu Qili delivered a dramatic congratulatory speech to the opening session criticizing “leftist” mistakes the CCP had frequently committed with regard to literature and art. Hu vowed that political labels would no longer be pinned on writers and promised them “freedom of creation.”1 In this more open atmosphere, the Chinese Writers Association elected a new leadership, including such reform-minded writers as Wang Meng, Liu Binyan, and Lu Wenfu.2 It was perhaps the high point of intellectual relaxation in post-Mao China. Official policy had never gone so far, and it would not go so far again.

This upbeat, even ebullient, ideological atmosphere was reinforced by the publication of Deng Xiaoping’s book, Building Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, in December 1984. It had been the interview with Deng on building socialism with Chinese characteristics in August 1984 that had signaled Deng’s determination to push ahead with reform; the new book, coming just a year and a half after the publication of Deng’s Selected Works, was intended to provide ideological backing for the implementation of reform.

In addition to Hu Qili’s speech and the publication of Deng’s book, Zhao Ziyang toured Guangdong Province and the lower Yangzi valley (the area contiguous to Shanghai) in late December 1984, declaring that it was necessary to “accelerate the pace of economic construction in the coastal areas to spur economic development in the interior.”3 Zhao followed this call with a major change in agricultural policy. The three-decade-old state monopoly over the procurement and sale of agricultural produce was to be replaced by a “contract” system that would, it was said, put state-society relations on a more economic and less coercive basis.4 Shortly thereafter, Vice Premier Tian Jiyun, whom Zhao had brought with him to Beijing from Sichuan, gave a major address outlining the principles to be followed in undertaking price reform. Suggesting caution, Tian urged an incremental approach, “crossing the river by feeling the stones,” and “tackling easy” questions first and difficult ones later.5

Reflecting the mood of the times, People’s Daily’s annual New Year’s editorial betrayed not the slightest worry about the economic difficulties that would soon slow efforts at reform. It was necessary, the editorial said, to “accelerate economic development so that the country could become powerful and prosperous and the people better off at a faster pace.”6

The high hope that this upbeat political and ideological atmosphere could be sustained did not last long. Conservatives argued that the relaxation of ideological restraints had gone too far and that too much attention was being paid to the “seamy side” of Chinese society, particularly through press exposés of corrupt behavior. In early February, Hu Yaobang yielded to conservative pressures by giving a speech on journalism in which he declared that “the party’s journalism is the party’s mouthpiece.

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