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Is Another Cultural Revolution in the Making?
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15292 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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8 / 1989 |
2,034 Words |
| Author
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June Teufel Dreyer
June Teufel Dreyer is professor of political science at the
University of Miami. Her latest book, China's Political
System: Modernization and Tradition, was published by Paragon
House in 1993. |
Comparisons between the present disturbances in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Cultural Revolution that racked the country during the last half of the 1960s are inevitable: Even China's leaders have made them. There are, however, some difficulties in comparing the two. Most notably, we have the advantage of two decades of perspective on the Cultural Revolution. Unlike the present situation, the effect of the Cultural Revolution on the leadership and on the Chinese people can be assessed. There are also a large number of eyewitness accounts in print for interested parties to parse and discuss. Finally, the Cultural Revolution can be definitively said to have ended; the events of the spring of 1989 may only be the opening round of a lengthy process.
These limitations notwithstanding, some striking similarities are evident between the events of 1966-1976 and those of 1989. In both, social upheaval stemmed from factional differences--including considerations of political philosophy and personal prestige--at the highest levels of leadership. And in the initial stages of both, young people provided the medium through which these disagreements were expressed. Later, as chaos and disorder spread, the respective leaderships turned to the army to restore order.
The dissimilarities, however, draw the most interest. First, the protests of 1989 grew out of long-standing popular frustrations with party and government on a wide range of issues. The protester's demands on the leadership widened differences of opinion within that leadership that had heretofore been muted. In the case of the Cultural Revolution, one faction of the leadership, the radicals, became frustrated with its efforts to have an orthodox
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