Deng Xiao Ping brought many revolutionary reforms. Many of them were of a deviant nature from the Socialist Principles. He made Party control very strong. He brought in a Socialist market system. In 1978 the Party declared its four reformist goals, known as four modernizations. They were developments in science, industry, agriculture, and defence. He allowed debates that did not question party lines.
In the new free atmosphere, new ideas developed. On 5 December 1978, there was a wall writing declaring the fifth modernization. It declared that without democracy all other modernizations were useless. It also criticized the Communist Party for not solving the problem of poverty and for not ending sexual exploitation. But all the demands were suppressed. In 1989 more intellectuals in China demanded
greater democracy. It demanded the ending of unchanging ideologies. In 1989 students protested in the Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The protests were cruelly put down by the army and many students died. This incident was condemned by the whole world.
There were debates about the development of China after the reform period.
There are three distinct views.
1. The first view was that through strict political control, economic liberalization and cooperation with the global market, development was possible. The Party supported this view.
2. Many questioned the stress on the market. Critics pointed out that inequalities among social classes and regions and gender inequality would cause conflicts in the society.
3. There was also a view that the ideas of Confucianism should be revived. They argued it was possible to build a new society by using their own traditions and without borrowing ideas from Western models.