ABSTRACT
After Mao's death in 1976, Deng Xiaoping came to the forefront among China's leaders and began a series of reforms that touched almost every segment of society. The changes in agriculture, industry, education, and in party leadership had China watchers writing about a "second revolution", one that would make China a serious competitor in the world economy and bring prosperity to greater numbers of Chinese than at any time since 1949. Of all the changes that comprise the "second revolution", agricultural reforms were clearly the most far-reaching and successful. China's centrally planned economy emphasized heavy industry and was tightly controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Chinese authorities attempted to curtail the most flagrant abuses, but with difficulty. CCP conservatives had pushed for Hu's ouster for his alleged failure to quash the 1986 prodemocracy movement. Demands for greater freedom of expression, more freedom of association, and more say in the government were condemned by the CCP leadership as "bourgeois liberalism".
