CHINA-What the Students Are Demanding

What the Students Are Demanding The massive student demonstrations in Beijing, says the author who taught in one of the universities in Wuhan in central China in 1985, are a culmination of continuing student unrest caused by the government's failure to really reform the educational system which has now become all-important in China as a means of gaining entry into the country's elite. Two significant new factors have in addition marked the current demonstrations: first, the population of Beijing has supported the students; and second, the demonstrations have been semi-political in that the students seem to think that a fundamental change in education cannot come about without a change in the government and perhaps even in the system.