468 { China’s Quest
as a direct challenge to the party’s traditional mechanisms of dictatorial rule
and, explicitly or implicitly, a positive force. Andrew J. Nathan and Perry
Link suggest that China’s leaders paid special attention to more analytical
and interpretative foreign journalistic reports, because reports from the MSS
were purely descriptive in nature.
The proreform faction led by Secretary General Zhao Ziyang favored more
subtle methods. This point of view was exemplified by Vice Premier Tian
Jiyun at the Politburo meeting discussed above. The reason why the masses
supported the student movement, Tian explained, was that the students had
articulated attractive slogans that the masses identified with.^5 Zhao Ziyang
did not dispute that “a tiny minority” sought an end to the CCP dictatorship
or that “foreign forces” encouraged the students. Zhao believed, however, that
the CCP needed to learn to rule in a new way, that the repressive ways of the
past no longer worked or were acceptable to “the masses.” Zhao explained at
a Politburo meeting on May 1—shortly after promulgation of the pernicious
Renmin ribao commentary of April 26, and the day after Zhao returned from
his ill-timed trip to North Korea:
Times have changed, and so have people’s ideological views. Democracy
is a worldwide trend, and there is an international countercurrent
against communism and socialism that flies under the banner of de-
mocracy and human rights. If the Party doesn’t hold up the banner
of democracy in our country, someone else will, and we will lose out.
I think we should grab the lead on this, not be pushed along grudgingly.
We must, of course, insist on Communist Party leadership and not
play around with any Western multiparty system. This basic principle
can allow no compromise.... In sum, we must make the people feel that
under the leadership of the Communist Party and the socialist system,
they can truly and fully enjoy democracy and freedom. The socialist
system can demonstrate its superiority only by increasing the power of
its appeal to the people.^6
The appropriate response to the student protest movement, Zhao argued to
the Politburo on May 1, was to “guide and split” it. A large part of the student
movement was not opposed to party leadership, Zhao believed, and via “dia-
logue” a substantial section could be persuaded to cooperate with the party in
further reform. The crux, Zhao felt, was to convince the student “masses” that
the party was willing to change and adopt new, less repressive methods or
rule, and move China in the direction of democracy—albeit still socialist de-
mocracy. Zhao later, while under house arrest long after June 1989, explained
his view at that time:
My view was that the Party’s ruling status need not be changed, but the
way it governed had to be changed. Moreover, in order to realize “rule