ABSTRACT
Many of the changes in China after the death of Mao in 1976 received broad popular support from the majority of the Chinese people and, in general, the last two decades of the century were decades of hope. Prosperity reached into the country side as farmers set their own prices for their products and built new homes or added new rooms to the old ones. Yet the changes gave rise to unanticipated problems and new challenges for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Surveyed below are challenges that emerged in the 1980s and 1990s for Chinese society as a whole and for the CCP in particular. These include China's growing levels of environmental pollution and their consequences; a continuing increase in crime and corruption; discontent among minorities over limits on religious practice; and the need for greater equity in access to education and employment. All the issues raised above constituted new challenges to the government.
