Economics helped spur Tiananmen Square protests
The decades before the protests
CCP controlled almost everything, including food
Lack of freedom, could not choose "haircuts", jobs
Liu, the interviewee, sent to a electronics factory
After CR, exams resumed, got into university and became a teacher at that school
Iron rice bowl
mployer provided food, housing and medical care
However, was being chipped away
The crackdown comes
A decade of China’s reforms
In 1978, CCP announced an economic liberalization policy called “Reform and Opening.”
became visible to Liu in the 1980s, when he saw more imported goods, including western salads
For Americans in China, imports felt limited
Economic anxieties leading up to 1989
Public optimism about the economic reforms waned
When the CCP announced it would lift price controls in 1988, there was panic buying
Revealed uncertainty in the reforms
Inflation hit 18% in 1989
Jobs were low end
Not the jobs that graduates were looking for
Needed connections to succeed
“There were all kinds of widely-discussed cases of the children of senior officials or well-connected individuals making a great deal of money,”
Students wanted political and personal freedoms
In mid-April of 1989, they began protesting in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square
“The call for greater political participation is in so many ways also a call for greater economic power and greater power in the labor market,” Gewirtz said.
Protests began in other cities, then Chinese workers started to join in
CCP sent in the troops
CCP still stands by their decision
Economic anxieties in 2019
However, the CCP did make some concessions
More choices of what to buy, more consumerist
Freely travel abroad
Government wary of economy slowing down, especially due to US trade war
Corruption and inequality
Difference is that citizens concerns can be monitored due to the use of social media, dissent not at the levels in 1989