ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the broader context of the problems of spontaneous social movements within state socialist contexts. The spontaneous demonstrations that broke out in Beijing and other cities in the spring of 1989 were unprecedented in the history of the People’s Republic of China. The rise in spontaneous political and social movements in certain state-socialist societies over the last decade has created the need to re-examine some of the basic notions about political activity in systems. The Beijing People’s Movement must be understood in the context of the breakdown of the reform program from the mid-1980s onward. Three interrelated sets of issues are of relevance: why, in particular, the students took up the challenge; how they organized themselves; and what kinds of issues they raised. The two main reactions within the leadership to the challenge posed by the students are linked to contrasting general views of the relationship between party and society: traditional orthodox and pragmatic reforming.
