Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese revolutionary leader,military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. After Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong's death in 1976,Deng gradually rose to supreme power and led China through a series of far-reaching market-economy reforms earning him the reputation as the "Architect of Modern China". He contributed to China becoming the world's second-largest economy by nominal GDP in 2010.
Li Peng was a Chinese politician who served as the fourth Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1987 to 1998,and as the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress,China's top legislative body,from 1998 to 2003. For much of the 1990s Li was ranked second in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) hierarchy behind then Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin. He retained his seat on the CCP Politburo Standing Committee until his retirement in 2002.
The Tiananmen Square protests,known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square,Beijing,during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre,or in Chinese the June Fourth Clearing or June Fourth Massacre,troops armed with assault rifles and accompanied by tanks fired at the demonstrators and those trying to block the military's advance into Tiananmen Square. The protests started on 15 April and were forcibly suppressed on 4 June when the government declared martial law and sent the People's Liberation Army to occupy parts of central Beijing. Estimates of the death toll vary from several hundred to several thousand,with thousands more wounded. The popular national movement inspired by the Beijing protests is sometimes called the '89 Democracy Movement or the Tiananmen Square Incident.
Hu Yaobang was a high-ranking official of the People's Republic of China. He held the top office of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1981 to 1987,first as Chairman from 1981 to 1982,then as General Secretary from 1982 to 1987. Hu joined the CCP in the 1930s,and rose to prominence as a comrade of Deng Xiaoping. During the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976),Hu was purged,recalled,and purged again by Mao Zedong. His tomb is in Gongqingcheng,a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Jiujiang.
Jiang Zemin was a Chinese politician who served as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1989 to 2002,as chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2004,and as president of China from 1993 to 2003. Jiang was paramount leader of China from 1989 to 2002. He was the core leader of the third generation of Chinese leadership,one of only four core leaders alongside Mao Zedong,Deng Xiaoping and Xi Jinping.
Hua Guofeng,alternatively spelled as Hua Kuo-feng,was a Chinese politician who served as Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and Premier of the People's Republic of China. The designated successor of Mao Zedong,Hua held the top offices of the government,party,and the military after the deaths of Mao and Premier Zhou Enlai,but was gradually forced out of supreme power by a coalition of party leaders between December 1978 and June 1981,and subsequently retreated from the political limelight,though still remaining a member of the Central Committee until 2002.
Zhao Ziyang was a Chinese politician. He was the third premier of the People's Republic of China from 1980 to 1987,vice chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1981 to 1982,and CCP general secretary from 1987 to 1989. He was in charge of the political reforms in China from 1986,but lost power in connection with the reformative neoauthoritarianism current and his support of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
The premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China,commonly called the premier of China and sometimes also referred to as the prime minister,is the head of government of China and leader of the State Council. The premier is the second-highest ranking person in China's political system,under the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party,and holds the highest rank in the civil service of the central government.
Yang Shangkun was a Chinese Communist military and political leader,president of the People's Republic of China from 1988 to 1993,and one of the Eight Elders that dominated the party after the death of Mao Zedong.
Li Xiannian was a Chinese Communist military and political leader,president of the People's Republic of China from 1983 to 1988 under paramount leader Deng Xiaoping and then chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference from 1988 until his death. He was a full member of the Politburo from 1956 to 1987,and of its Standing Committee from 1977 to 1987.
The time period in China from the death of Mao Zedong in 1976 until the Tianamen Square protests in 1989 is often known as Dengist China. In September 1976,after Chairman Mao Zedong's death,the People's Republic of China was left with no central authority figure,either symbolically or administratively. The Gang of Four was dismantled,but new Chairman Hua Guofeng continued to persist on Mao-era policies. After a bloodless power struggle,Deng Xiaoping came to the helm to reform the Chinese economy and government institutions in their entirety. Deng,however,was conservative with regard to wide-ranging political reform,and along with the combination of unforeseen problems that resulted from the economic reform policies,the country underwent another political crisis,culminating in the crackdown of massive pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square.
In the People's Republic of China,Deng Xiaoping formally retired after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre,to be succeeded by former Shanghai CCP secretary Jiang Zemin. During that period,also known as Jiangist China,the crackdown of the protests in 1989 led to great woes in China's reputation globally,and sanctions resulted. The situation,however,would eventually stabilize. Deng's idea of checks and balances in the political system also saw its demise with Jiang consolidating power in the party,state and military. The 1990s saw healthy economic development,but the closing of state-owned enterprises and increasing levels of corruption and unemployment,along with environmental challenges continued to plague China,as the country saw the rise to consumerism,crime,and new-age spiritual-religious movements such as Falun Gong. The 1990s also saw the peaceful handover of Hong Kong and Macau to Chinese control under the formula of One Country,Two Systems. China also saw a new surge of nationalism when facing crises abroad.
Hu Qili is a former high-ranking politician of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He was a member of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee and a member of its Secretariat between 1987 and 1989. In 1989,he was purged because of his sympathy toward the students of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and his support for General Secretary Zhao Ziyang. However,he was able to get back into politics in 1991. In 2001,he was named chairman of the Soong Ching-ling Foundation.
Bao Tong was a Chinese writer and activist. He was Director of the Office of Political Reform of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Policy Secretary of Zhao Ziyang. He was also Director of the Drafting Committee for the CCP 13th Party Congresses,known for its strong support of market reform and opening up under Deng Xiaoping. Prior to this,he was a committee member and then deputy director of the Chinese State Commission for Economic Reform. During the 1989 Tian’anmen square protests,he was one of the very few Chinese senior officials to express understandings with the demonstrating students,which led to his arrest shortly before the June Fourth incident.
Chen Xitong was a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party and the Mayor of Beijing until he was removed from office on charges of corruption in 1995.
The April 26 Editorial was a front-page article published in People's Daily on April 26,1989,during the Tiananmen Square protests. The editorial effectively defined the student movement as a destabilizing anti-party revolt that should be resolutely opposed at all levels of society. As the first authoritative document from the top leadership on the growing movement,it was widely interpreted as having communicated the party's zero-tolerance position to student protesters and their sympathizers.
In anti-capitalist Mao Zedong thought,a capitalist roader is a person or group who demonstrates a marked tendency to bow to pressure from bourgeois forces and subsequently attempts to pull the Revolution in a capitalist direction. If allowed to do so,these forces would eventually restore the political and economic rule of capitalism;in other words,these forces would lead a society down a "capitalist road".
Deng Liqun was a Chinese politician and theorist who was one of the leading figures of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during the 1980s,most well known for his involvement with the party's propaganda work. Deng was born in Guidong County,Hunan province,and joined the CCP in 1936. He came from an intellectual family and joined the party out of intellectual commitment. He was often referred to as "Little Deng",to be distinguished from Deng Xiaoping,the "Old Deng".
The four-day Sino-Soviet Summit was held in Beijing from 15-18 May 1989. This would be the first formal meeting between a Soviet Communist leader and a Chinese Communist leader since the Sino-Soviet split in the 1950s. The last Soviet leader to visit China was Nikita Khrushchev in September 1959. Both Deng Xiaoping,the paramount leader of China,and Mikhail Gorbachev,General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union,proclaimed that the summit was the beginning of normalized state-to-state relations. The meeting between Mikhail Gorbachev and then General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),Zhao Ziyang,was hailed as the "natural restoration" of party-to-party relations.
Deng Xiaoping's southern tour,or 1992 southern tour,was the tour of Deng Xiaoping,late Paramount leader of China,in southern China,including in Shenzhen,Zhuhai,Guangzhou and Shanghai,from January 18 to February 21,1992. The talks and remarks made by Deng during the tour resumed and reinforced the implementation of his "Reforms and Opening-up" program in mainland China,which came to a halt after the military crackdown on 1989 Tiananmen Square protests ordered by Deng himself. The 1992 Southern Tour is widely regarded as a critical point in the modern history of China,as it saved the Chinese economic reform as well as the capital market,and preserved the stability of the society.
