Democracy Wall

Chubb, Andrew (2024) Democracy Wall. In: Routledge Resources Online - Chinese Studies :. Routledge.

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Abstract

Democracy Wall is arguably the starting point of the Chinese democracy movement after 1949, though the political goals of its participants varied greatly and generally remained within the frameworks of Marxism and socialism. From November 1978 to April 1979, ordinary citizens engaged in unprecedentedly wide-ranging public debates on previously taboo topics such as Cultural Revolution injustices, the relationship between socialism and democracy, official malfeasance, elite politics, and Mao Zedong’s legacy. Triggered by the official reversal of the ‘counterrevolutionary’ verdict on the 1976 Tiananmen Incident, the discussions initially took the form of thousands of handwritten posters pasted on a 200-metre stretch of brick wall in Beijing’s Xidan area in mid-November 1978. This ‘Democracy Wall’ attracted crowds of readers, who began holding impromptu street forums, leading to the formation of dozens of grassroots groups that published hand-produced unofficial journals. Such activities spread from Beijing throughout the country over the winter, until a succession of arrests in March and April 1979 signalled the end of CCP tolerance of independent publishing and activism. The nature of the movement defies simple description. On the one hand, Democracy Wall generated the PRC’s first independent political organisations and activists, many of whom became key figures in the Chinese democracy movement. But on the other hand, most participants were far from radical in their political orientation, and the broader movement pursued a diverse array of goals. A large volume of wall posters were personal in nature, appealing for redress over injustices suffered during the Cultural Revolution. Many expressed support for the rise of Deng Xiaoping within the party elite, or attacked his opponents. Some groups were focussed on opening up forums for artistic expression rather than explicitly addressing politics. A handful of poster-writers broke new ground by criticising Mao and exploring political reforms within the framework of Marxism and the socialist system. But only a handful argued for radical political changes such as the introduction of electoral democracy or individualist concepts of human rights. Overall, then, rather than a democracy movement in the sense suggested by the English-language term, Democracy Wall is better defined by a shared purpose of widening the scope of sociopolitical and artistic expression in China. The movement had a complex relationship with the party-state. It was sparked by developments in high-level politics, but also influenced arguments within the party elite. Various party-state officials and departments sought to understand, exploit, infiltrate, or curb the movement, while many activists and poster-writers hoped to feed their arguments into elite politics, including via the foreign media in a process referred to as ‘exports for domestic consumption’ [出口转内销]. Emerging amidst a crucial, month-long meeting of top CCP leaders that cemented a pragmatic political line, the movement manifested vivid popular support for Deng’s personal political authority and the repudiation of Maoist orthodoxy. In foreign policy, meanwhile, the apparent flowering of free speech in Beijing helped smooth the way for the normalisation of relations with the United States on 1 January 1979. Deng’s strongly positive comments about Democracy Wall, particularly in interviews with foreign journalists, suggested an attempt to take advantage of the movement to advance both domestic and international goals. However, Deng’s decision to launch a crackdown in March 1979 raises unresolved questions about whether the movement was manipulated opportunistically to serve Deng’s political interests or whether it developed spontaneously in directions unanticipated by CCP leaders.