The year 1986 marked the tenth anniversary of the death of Mao Zedong and the fall of the Gang of Four. A decade after the end of the Cultural Revolution, China experienced the consolidation of rural economic reform, continued progress in urban reform, a widening of the "open door" to the west, and, perhaps most important, the seemingly irreversible impact on Chinese society and culture of Deng Xiaoping's new policies. The political consequences of reform continued to create problems, as was seen at year's end in a dramatic series of student demonstrations and the disciplining of several high...