The Tiananmen Square Massacre

The collapse of communist authority in Eastern and Central Europe and reaffirmation in China.

It made China one of the great success stories of international capitalism, but also led to rising expectations and difficulties in controlling information and contact with the outside world.

It focused on the impact of rapid market change and global economic integration on political systems, with supporters of capitalism seeing positive outcomes and others being skeptical.

The origins of China's hybrid system can be traced back to the 1970s when China opened up relations with the US and integrated parts of China into the global economy.

The Tiananmen Square massacre sent a clear and simple message to those who cared to listen that in spite of economic reform, there would be no tinkering with the fundamentals of the Chinese political system.

As China continued to engage with the world market, it was bound to evolve, and treating it as an enemy would delay any progressive change in its internal character.

China's hybrid system in the 1990s was characterized by strong residues of communist ideology, a powerful party bureaucracy, an inefficient state sector, and dynamic capitalist entrepreneurship driven by foreign investment.

In the 1990s, China became a major factor in regional politics and an aspiring power in its own right. China did not exercise its veto to halt UN actions against Iraq in 1990 and 1991, nor did it block the Security Council’s approval of the international protectorate over Kosovo. It peacefully reacquired Hong Kong from the British, approved the deployment of UN peace-keepers to East Timor, and acted responsibly during the Asia financial crisis of 1998.

Marketization and globalization led to a tide of rising expectations amongst an increasingly large Chinese middle class. The wider needs of a booming and modern market economy demanded more information and more contact with the outside world, which Chinese leaders found difficult to control. As China grew closer to the West economically, it found itself under growing pressure to abide by international political norms.