510 { China’s Quest
Johanes said.^14 Qian Qichen warned him: “Some international reactionary
forces are always attempting to seize opportunities to oppose or even sub-
vert the socialist system. Socialist countries should be on guard against such
at tempts.”^15 The two sides were clearly discussing the wisdom and modalities
of using resolute measures to defend the socialist system.
Twelve days after Johanes left China, on November 17, the Czechoslovak
government tried the Chinese approach when it used police force to break
up an anticommunist demonstration of perhaps 15,000 in central Prague.
Repression backfired. The next day, the authorities confronted an even larger
and angrier crowd. Strikes and demonstrations spread. The Czechoslovak
military command informed its Communist Party leadership that it was
prepared to repress the opposition. But once again, as in the GDR, the
Communist Party leaders decided to try compromise and conciliation with
the protesters. The party elected an entirely new top leadership made up of
moderate, pro-perestroika leaders. Demonstrations grew even larger. Within
two weeks of the initial police firing on crowds, the Czechoslovak Federal
Assembly had abolished the constitutional article providing for Communist
Party leadership. Within a month, Czechoslovakia was ruled by its first non-
communist government since 1948.
Bulgaria came next. In May 1989, Todor Zhivkov, in power since 1954, dealt
with growing unrest by expelling from the country one group he deemed
particularly troublesome: Bulgaria’s ethnic Turks. This led to strong interna-
tional condemnation, which Foreign Minister Petar Mladenov had to handle.
Protests over Zhivkov’s harsh rule percolated through Bulgaria by mid-1989.
Mladenov was a supporter of Gorbachev’s perestroika, one of a handful of
such supporters within the Bulgarian Communist Party. Mladenov organ-
ized a high-profile international environmental conference for October and
invited a Bulgarian environmental group to participate. As in other East
European countries, environmental groups were among the earliest and
strongest elements of emerging civil society. When police beat up members
of the Bulgarian environmental group, Mladenov resigned as foreign min-
ister (on October 24) and issued a scathing criticism of Zhivkov’s rule. Several
months earlier, Mladenov and key like-minded comrades within the elite
had begun plotting Zhivkov’s removal, and had secured Gorbachev’s tacit
approval. Mladenov then made a four-day visit to Beijing for talks on the
international situation with Li Peng, Jiang Zemin, Wu Xueqian, and Qian
Qichen.^16 Mladenov’s CCP interlocutors almost certainly urged him to stand
firm against the rising forces of counterrevolution. Mladenov, however,
choose not to follow that advice. Very shortly after his return from China,
Zhivkov was removed from office and replaced by Mladenov, who began
dismantling the party state. On December 11, Mladenov announced that the
Bulgarian Communist Party was giving up its control of the state and would
conduct competitive multiparty elections.