The tenth anniversary of the bloody suppression of China's pro-democracy movement by the communist government on June 4th 1989 was an inconspicuous affair because of the heavy censorship and repression that continues to surround those events. Ten years on, China has been transformed by major changes which have privatised much of the economy and brought market criteria to bear. But it is still struggling with many of the problems highlighted by the Tiananmen protesters: the need to separate party and state controls, due legal process, corruption, democratic accountability and growing social and regional inequalities.
Tiananmen was the first great convulsion in what was to become a terminal year for Stalinist regimes in Europe. The Chinese government at the time was deeply divided over whether to accommodate the protesters with reforms or suppress them. Zhao Ziyang, the leader who favoured the reform course of action, is still under effective house arrest. He advocated more political and bureaucratic transparency, media freedoms and anti-corruption mechanisms within a framework of continuing communist party control of the political system. It can be seen as a Chinese form of the Gorbachev programme in the Soviet Union, summarised in the phrase perestroika (restructuring) plus glasnost (openness).
Suppression of the Tiananmen protest represented a decisive rejection of such political reforms, partly in the light of the criticisms made by the Chinese hard liners against the Gorbachev programme. In defence of their actions party spokesmen point out that China's vast territory and population has been held together, unlike the Soviet Union which disintegrated. While the argument is flawed - who can say with certainty that political reforms would break China up, given its long-standing cultural unity and history - it has been sufficient to frighten many of China's Asian neighbours and international interlocutors.
Over the last ten years, as market changes have swept through Chinese society, the ruling party has cultivated a defensive nationalism in response. It could be seen plainly last month in the protests over the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. It surfaces in universities, where political activism has become less fashionable as career opportunities have opened up in the private economy. It can also be seen in China's rearmament programmes and the continuing influence of its armed forces within party and governing structures.
But it remains stubbornly true that the issues raised by the reformers ten years ago are still pertinent and relevant. Market reforms are incomplete without a framework of due legal process. Corruption is a huge political issue. Inequalities between rich and poor Chinese have widened. There are many more people unemployed and there will be still more when difficult decisions to privatise heavy state-owned industries are taken. And while important steps have been taken to bring more openness and accountability to decision-making within the Communist Party it remains a closed, hierarchical organisation with a monopoly on political power.