Abstract

When, in order to legitimate its repression, Deng Xiaoping's regime denounced the May-June 1989 democracy demonstrators as counterrevolutionaries seeking to violently replace a socialist revolution with a reactionary democratic bourgeois dictatorship, the question of revolution tragically resurfaced. Surprisingly, the demonstrators were not urging a violent overthrow of the government. Many regretted the original revolution which brought Mao Zedong to power. Yet, they feared that a violent dash would intensify dictatorial tendencies on both sides and hinder a transition to a democracy capable of limiting state power and guaranteeing civil rights. They sought a gradual reform — a process that could last as long as an entire generation.