ABSTRACT
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) had its most troubled year for a decade in 1989, the fortieth anniversary of its foundation. The major events of the year can be placed in perspective from three points of view. The first is the view from outside China. The second is to look at the same events from the inside. The third is to take a longer perspective by looking at the first forty years of the PRC as part of the modern history of China. 1989 began as the eleventh year of reform, but already, the world could see that economic problems for the PRC were mounting. These problems were exacerbated by rising social and political discontent which reached a climax in May and ended in tragedy on 4 June. Since that date, the government in Beijing has insisted that its reform programme has merely been slowed in order to solve specific economic difficulties as well as to consolidate earlier gains, but from afar, it appears that the momentum for reform has been lost.
