1989

Under imperialist pressure, Chinese intellectuals during the late Qing dynasty and the Republican era persistently sought a strong state that could defend the nation, an action that finally led to the rise of communism. Yet the communist state, the strong sate of which intellectuals had dreamed, became a problem because the state performed less well in economic modernization than it did in implementing political repression. The painful experience of intellectuals during Mao's era pushed them to fight for democracy. Still, the intellectuals themselves also inherited Maoist legacies: the unchecked state power under Mao had frightened Chinese intellectuals and drove them to take democracy as the prerequisite of Chinese modernization; the long-standing Marxist mode of education had given them a utopian vision (a linear worldview and a strong desire for social engineering on a grand scale); Mao's mass mobilization had nourished a populist understanding of democracy; and 30 years of repression and isolation had created an educated class with a great info deficiency and with opportunistic attitudes. All these factors contributed to the dominance of idealism, opportunism and radicalism among Chinese intellectuals, forming an ethos which in turn shaped intellectuals discourses during the 1980s and facilitated the rise of the 1989 movement.

Hua Guofeng's new leap forward (four modernization) required big science and high tech. Thus the roles of intellectuals was greatly emphasized. The mutual reinforcement of state policy and social demands led to a great expansion of higher education. Between 1977 and 1985, both the number of universities and general university enrollment increased rapidly. The greatest increases in enrollment occurred in the social sciences and humanities.

The four modernization proved to be unsustainable. Deng Xiaoping changed the policy, which emphasized the role of market. Chinese students and intellectuals were ambivalent toward this change. Their pro-Western pretensions led them to strongly support the new policy, but they were unhappy about their economic status under it. They thought that a market economy would bring the country prosperity, but they never expected that market forces would also degrade the prestige and privileges that intellectuals in traditional societies had enjoyed. Besides, even though Chinese government put great emphasis on higher education, its increases in funding lagged far behind  the growth of enrollment.

Four obvious periods:
(1) 1978-1978 study fever
(2) 1980-1982 studied a less hard than had the Cultural Revolution cohort, but overall enthusiasm for study was still very high
(3) 1983-1986 diploma fever  affected by the urban economic reform that had started in 1984
(4) 1987-1988 tired of study

The university in an underdeveloped nation tends to be a foreign institution with few indigenous roots. It teaches a foreign culture and is an engine for forced modernization and against tradition.

While a few radical activists did take democracy as a primary goal, most students participated in the movement in reaction to China's rising market economy. They didn't trust the state and didn't understand the market economy. They believed that the reform would bring intellectuals more benefits, and when it turned out that the opposite was true, they were very angry. To this population, democracy remained more a "borrowed language" than a clearly understood political program.

The decline of political control system had a great impact on the rise of the 1989 movement. The weakening of political control was mainly a result of the declining ideological legitimation of the state and of changing channels of status attainment.

The social problems that had the greatest impact on the Chinese and were most directly related to the rise of the 1989 Movement were rampant corruption, high inflation, and increasing income disparities.

rent-seeking  Under the newly introduced dual-track price system for raw materials, state enterprises still received their yearly quota at the lower subsidized prices, but enterprises of other sectors had to buy raw materials at the market price. (Arbitrage chance)

The high inflation was a combined result of the financial deficit, the overheated economy, rampant corruption, price reforms and the decreasing confidence of the general public in the state.