ABSTRACT
If reform dominated the news in Chinese domestic politics in 1984, 1 the biggest story to emerge in Chinese politics in 1985 was the discovery of the limits of reform. This is not to say that reform is dead in China, but that throughout 1985, especially in the second half of the year, a diffuse but very broad segment of the Chinese polity made its opposition to elements of the reform program clear. Students, cadres, urban dwellers, national minorities, and others all expressed some degree of dissatisfaction with aspects of the reform program. The views of these groups, the unintended negative consequences of the reforms themselves, the pervasive corruption found in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the failure of official ideology to guide and inspire the Party and the Chinese people, left Deng Xiaoping and his allies with the need to rethink their strategy and tactics fundamentally.
