e party over how far and how fast economic reform ought to go. At the party Congress in 1985, Chen Yun had spoken for the more conservative old guard of the party when he called for a return to communist ideals and complained about all the talk about the desirability of markets, and about the over-heating of the economy caused by a period of extremely rapid growth. This group in the leadership also complained about the inequality of reform with a disproportionate amount going to the coastal regions. There were also worries that the centre was giving up to much control over the provinces and that those provinces doing well were avoiding paying taxes to the centre, reducing government funds. The old guard called for a retreat or at least a slow down in reform. But the reformist faction led by Hu Yaobang (head of the party) and Zhao Ziyang (premier) (Deng's two proteges) was keen to press on. Not only did they keep the economic reforms going but they restarted the debate on political reform which had been stifled when Democracy Wall was crushed. Once a high level signal had been given that political reform might be on the agenda, a few prominent people spoke out notably astro-physicist Fang Lizhi who addressed audiences at several universities and called for far-reaching political change in China and for people to be able to exercise their human rights. Fang became something of a student hero and it is no co-incidence that the student demonstrations broke out first in Hefei where Fang was vice-president of the University of Science and Technology. The demonstrations began here in December 1986 and spread to universities in other cities. The demonstrations called for more democracy and more public participation in political life and for an end to corruption amongst party officials. So in terms of their main concerns they can be seen as a direct forerunner of 1989. But the main event that sparked off the demonstrations shows that political d...
