ABSTRACT
Of all the momentous political upheavals in 1989, few captured wider attention and sympathy than the Chinese protests that spring. Despite the apparent sophistication of the young Chinese protesters in dealing with the international media, their movement also remained for the most part within a distinctly Chinese political pattern. Little wonder that democracy advocates like Fang Lizhi allude to the need to limit peasant political participation; democracy demands an enlightened citizenry—something that in China only the intellectuals claim to be. Most of China's twentieth-century political follies have been centered in the cities, where intellectuals themselves have played a central role. The traditionalism of student protesters was not due to some immutable Confucian culture, forever lurking like a sea monster beneath the surface of China's political waters—waiting to seize and sink any unsuspecting would-be democrat who happened to swim by. Equally damaging to the democratic project has been the exclusion of other key social groups: entrepreneurs and workers in particular.
