ABSTRACT
US scholars specializing in China paid episodic attention to Chinese mass sentiments. The first interesting fact is, as is seldom suspected, that the Chinese are great critics of their rulers, perhaps even more so than western people. The various post-Mao reforms were the Communist Party’s long-delayed reactions to the general sentiments and demands of the public in China. To invigorate social life and the economy, Deng Xiaoping’s administration was called upon to reduce the state’s presence in society and the economy. Deng wished to perform well this new task of the state in order to establish a degree of genuine legitimacy for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), but that would require expanding the state, instead of restraining it. In 1993, signifying the Communist elite’s recognition of the rising importance of public opinion, a high-ranking propagandist of the CCP expounded a new theory on the mass behavior of the Chinese.
