View source for Beijing Spring

{{Short description|Late-1970s period of liberalization in China}}
{{for|the pop band|Beijing Spring (band)}}{{History of the People's Republic of China}}
{{Chinese democracy movement}}

The '''Beijing Spring''' ({{zh|c=北京之春|p=Běijīng zhī chūn}}) refers to a brief period of political [[liberalization]] during the "[[Boluan Fanzheng]]" period in the [[People's Republic of China]] (PRC).<ref name=":0" /> It began as the [[Democracy Wall]] movement in [[Beijing]], which occurred in 1978 and 1979, right after the end of the [[Chinese Cultural Revolution]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=Brodsgaard|first1=Kjeld Erik|date=1981|title=The Democracy Movement in China, 1978–1979: Opposition Movements, Wall Poster Campaigns, and Underground Journals|journal=Asian Survey|volume=21|issue=7|pages=747–774|doi=10.2307/2643619|jstor=2643619|issn=0004-4687}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Levine|first1=Jill|date=2013|title=Deng Xiaoping, Dazibao and Dissent: A Critical Analysis of the Xidan Democracy Wall Movement|url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/10673321.pdf|journal=Senior Capstone Project|access-date=2020-05-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414001043/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/10673321.pdf|archive-date=2019-04-14|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=frontline: the gate of heavenly peace|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gate/|website=www.pbs.org|access-date=2020-05-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200508172348/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gate/|archive-date=2020-05-08|url-status=live}}</ref> The name is derived from "[[Prague Spring]]", an analogous event which occurred in [[Czechoslovakia]] in 1968.

==History==
{{see also|New Enlightenment (China)}}

During the Beijing Spring, the general public was allowed greater freedom to criticize the government than the Chinese people had previously been allowed under the [[government of the People's Republic of China]]. Most of this criticism was directed towards the [[Cultural Revolution]] and the government's behavior during that time. It was made public with the [[Democracy Wall Movement]], a [[Chinese democracy movement]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Opletal |first=Helmut |date=2021-12-30 |title=The 1978–1981 Democracy Wall Movement and the Reformists in the Communist Party Leadership after Mao’s Death |url=https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/jeacs/article/view/6561 |journal=The Journal of the European Association for Chinese Studies |language=en |volume=2 |pages=127–167 |doi=10.25365/jeacs.2021.2.127-167 |issn=2709-9946}}</ref>

===1990s===
The phrase "Beijing Spring" was also used during a more recent period of political thaw in the PRC from September 1997 to mid November 1998.  During this 'new Beijing Spring' the Chinese authorities relaxed some control over political expression and organisation.  The relatively trouble-free [[Hong Kong handover|handover of Hong Kong]] to China from the United Kingdom and the death of [[Deng Xiaoping]] in early 1997 were precursors to this brief period of liberalisation.

It was during this second "Beijing Spring" that the [[China Democracy Party]] was founded and legally registered by some local authorities. The Democracy Wall Movement dissident [[Wei Jingsheng]] was released and exiled, China signed the [[International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights]], and China was visited by US President [[Bill Clinton]] and UN Human Rights Commissioner [[Mary Robinson]] at this time.  By the end of 1998 the government had again cracked down on leading dissidents and those involved in the fledgling opposition [[Chinese Democracy Party]].

==See also==
{{Portal|China|Politics}}
*[[1976 Tiananmen incident]]
*''[[Beijing Spring (film)|Beijing Spring]]'' – 2020 documentary film
*[[Bourgeois liberalization]]
*{{C|Chinese democracy movements}}
*[[Democracy Wall]]
*[[Scar literature]]
*[[Wei Jingsheng]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://pekinger-fruehling.univie.ac.at/en/peking-spring/ "Beijing Spring" – Memories of the Chinese Democracy Movement 1978–1981] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190411130738/https://pekinger-fruehling.univie.ac.at/en/peking-spring/ |date=2019-04-11 }}

{{China topics}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Chinese democracy movements]]
[[Category:1970s in Beijing]]
[[Category:1990s in China]]
[[Category:Cold War history of China]]
[[Category:1977 in China]]
[[Category:1978 in China]]
[[Category:1997 in China]]
[[Category:1998 in China]]
[[Category:Cultural Revolution]]
[[Category:1979 in China]]