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full contours of this covert US-Vatican support would not become known
until much later, counterintelligence organs of the Polish communist party
(formally known as the Polish United Workers Party, PUWP) understood the
broad contours of what was going on. Twice in 1988 Solidarity launched mas-
sive strikes and street demonstrations demanding reform.
Confronted by widespread unrest, fearing economic regression, and facing
strong international criticism, the PUWP agreed in early 1989 to “Round
Table” talks with Solidarity and other opposition groups. Those talks began on
February 6 and continued to April 4, 1989—eleven days before Hu Yaobang’s
death—when an agreement was signed laying out a path for Poland’s transi-
tion from Leninist dictatorship. The PUWP went into the Round Table talks
confident of its continued ability to dominate Poland. The party’s key strategy
was to co-opt opposition leaders into the existing structures of power, thereby
dividing the opposition and depriving it of key leaders. Tolerance of some
opposition would, PUWP leaders calculated, assuage opposition and help le-
gitimize continued party rule, while continued party control over traditional
mechanisms of power (police, the economy, the media, etc.) would ensure
that the PUWP would be able to control the process. This strategy was not
much different from Zhao Ziyang’s strategy of “guide and split” via “dia-
logue” with China’s opposition in April–May 1989.
PUWP calculations soon proved wrong. Rather like the convocation of
the Estates General by France’s monarch in 1789, Poland’s Round Table Talks
quickly gained a momentum of their own. Opposition leaders refused to de-
fect. Instead, they escalated their demands. Widespread desire for change
welled up in society. Splits occurred within the PUWP. The agreement that
resulted from the talks provided for a major change in the structure of power.
The PUWP was compelled to abandon its monopoly on state power and ac-
cept democratic arrangements that would swiftly produce its exit from power.
Labor unions and political parties independent of communist party control
and in opposition to that party were legalized. New, popularly elected organs
were established, and election processes reformed. Solidarity candidates
routed PUWP candidates in the new, democratic elections. When elections
for a new upper house of the legislature were held, Solidarity candidates won
99 percent of the seats. Poland was the first communist party–ruled country
in which democratically elected representatives gained real power. Poland’s
pivotal elections, producing an overwhelming Solidarity victory, were held
on June 4, 1989—the same day PLA forces crushed China’s democracy move-
ment. The juxtaposition of the Polish and the Chinese communist response to
popular demands for liberty was graphic, and had a deep impact on Western
opinion. While Polish communists were finally acceding to Polish demands
for liberty, the Chinese Communist Party resorted to old-fashioned repres-
sion. The bold breakthroughs toward democracy in Poland in February and
April had greatly inspired students in Beijing.