The 13th Congress of the CCP was held between October 25 and November 1, 1987. To anyone who wanted to see, it was clear that China would democratize when the frogs grew hair, but the unrepentant optimists could see some sparks of hope: 90 veterans the hard wing, who had criticized the economic reforms, were retired;the liberal Zhao Ziyang saw his position exalted from him;economic reform was linked to political reform, but it was insisted that China was a “socialist democracy” and that democracy did not mean introducing a Western democracy.It simply implied an improvement in the CCP's working methods and a de-bureaucratization.The moment of truth for democracy in China came in 1989. The last months of 1988 had been difficult.The obstacles put up by the conservatives had prevented the shock therapy that the heating of the economy demanded from being carried out.One of the consequences of this was that two markets had been formed: one of prices fixed by the State and another based on the market.All you needed was the right contacts to get rich, buying at low and stable prices in state stores and reselling them on the free market.There were shortages, inflation and capital outflows from the banks.There were citizen protests due to the disruptions caused by the economic reforms, which were sometimes joined by protests calling for far-reaching political reforms.All this gave arguments to the conservatives to defend that the reforms had gone too far and that it was necessary to set back.In April 1989 Hu Yaobang died.His funeral, like that of Zhou Enlai thirteen years earlier, was the trigger for students to take to the streets calling for reforms.To further complicate matters, on May 15 Gorbachev arrived in Beijing on a visit that had already been scheduled.Gorbachev was then the man of the moment, the person who had set out to liberalize the USSR, although it was often overlooked that he wanted to liberalize it to save it, not to destroy the communist model.The Chinese authorities managed the visit as best they could and should have breathed a sigh of relief when the guest left.The democratic hopes raised by this visit died (sometimes literally) in the events of Tienanmen on June 4, 1989. A description of what happened on that date and what was discussed within the Party can be found in the memoirs “Prisoner of the State”, which Zhao Ziyang secretly recorded and which were taken out of China by his friends and published abroad in 2010, five years after his death.This is a recommendable memoir for anyone who wants to know what happened then, but it should be read with a pinch of salt.In them Zhao is presented as an angelic politician, liberal and full of good intentions.The reality has many more nuances, beginning with the fact that no one reaches the Politburo of a communist party because he is a good person.A summary of what Zhao tells is that the conservative elements of the CCP, who were the majority, took advantage of the student demonstrations to make Zhao's bed and eat Deng Xiaoping's ear so that he would declare martial law.In my opinion, Deng didn't need much ear picking.The stability and maintenance of Marxism were priorities for him.At most, what those leaders did was strengthen Deng, making him see that if he acted harshly he would have the majority of the Party behind him.Tiananmen was a shock to the West as the seemingly more intractable Soviet Union was liberalizing by leaps and bounds and without bloodshed.After the initial shock, the Western attitude was to think that Tiananmen had been an accident, a temporary setback on the road to democracy in China.The myth that economic growth would create a middle class that, in time, would ask for more political freedoms, persisted.Tiananmen, in addition to leaving behind many student corpses, left behind a political corpse, Zhao Ziyang.Many assumed that his successor would be the tough and conservative Li Peng, who had been uncompromising during the Tiananmen crisis.The surprise came when at the plenary session of the CPC Central Committee on June 23-24, the Party leader in Shanghai, Jiang Zemin, was elected as the new General Secretary of the Party.Jiang Zemin was the Party leader in Shanghai.Jiang represented a good formula for consensus: he was a supporter of Deng's economic reforms, he had proven to be an effective administrator, he was loyal to Deng, and he could not be expected to be fanciful about political liberalization.Jiang was aware that his age lacked the legitimacy of having been an early revolutionary and that his main asset was that he had been chosen by Deng Xiaoping.In 1997, with Jiang fully settled, the 15th CPC Congress was held.There were two interesting aspects in the Congress.The first was the return of the military to the barracks.Everyone knew that when Tiananmen it was the People's Liberation Army that had saved the Party, but communist regimes do not usually like strong Armies with their own ideas.In the XV Congress, some key members of the Armed Forces were retired, while a Permanent Committee of the Politburo was constituted without soldiers.All this should serve as a touchstone for their professionalization.Economically, Jiang managed to impose his reformist agenda and the legal changes necessary for his victory.This implied a series of far-reaching ideological changes.Deng Xiaoping was placed on a par with Sun Yat-sen and Mao, placing the reforms initiated by Deng in 1978 on the same level as the collapse of the imperial regime or the establishment of the People's Republic.At this Congress the policy of any two was finally eliminated (any political decision made by Mao had to be upheld; any instructions he had given had to be rigorously observed);Chinese pragmatism meant that the respect of any two depended on the circumstances, but it was better to rescind it, because symbolism is loaded by the devil.In exchange, the “three favorable” were instituted: everything is valid and correct if it contributes to the development of the productive forces, to improving the living conditions of the people and to strengthening the socialist state in China.In March 1999, a minor amendment to six articles of the Constitution was made.The main changes consisted of: 1) Enshrining the leading role of Deng Xiaoping Thought;2) The private sector rose in category, going from being a “complement to the socialist economy” to being “an important component” of the national economy;3) There is talk of a socialist government in accordance with the Law;4) The duty of the State to maintain public order and suppress treasonous or criminal activities that endanger state security is reaffirmed.It penalizes activities that distort the socialist economy.We want to get to know you so that we can offer you content according to your preferences. 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