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Like Deng, who was hounded into exile by rampaging Red Guard demonstrators at the start of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, Jiang believes only a strong hand can stave off chaos in China. Yet time may be running out on that formula. Even now, says Mineo Nakajima, a Sinologist at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, "Jiang is using the police and security forces to control social unrest, but he will have difficulty if it continues to escalate." The country's volatile economic situation and its corruption accentuate the widespread sense of unfairness, feeding the "red-eye disease"--envy of those who are getting more, faster. And while China's masses are more interested in a higher standard of living than in profound political reform, Tiananmen and the forces that produced it still have a hold on the public's imagination.
The luster of the revolution and of the fighters who won it nearly a half-century ago is fading away, so the claimants to power in China need a new source of legitimacy. That makes a strong economy absolutely essential. But how can the market freedoms that are the basis for prosperity be reconciled with central political control? A search is beginning for a process in which China's people can have some say in public affairs and see some evidence that their leaders respect them. It is a commonplace that all-powerful, charismatic Mao and Deng were in the tradition of China's Emperors. Jiang Zemin and his rivals are mere politicians. They must be responsive ones, or the tiger will toss them off its back.
--Reported by Sandra Burton/Washington and Jaime A. FlorCruz and Mia Turner/Beijing