When Chinese opened their doors for international trade and capitalism in 1970s, they invited social changes as well. Were the Chinese government, leaders, and society prepared for that change or not? The occurrence of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 showed that a social change was coming but the government was not ready at the time yet. Although the Chinese leaders successfully calmed down the masses momentarily but they knew that the social change will come sooner or later, and whether they want it or not.
Successful social changes always occur gradually and slowly. Whenever a social, cultural, or ideological change is imposed on a society, people usually suspect it as a foreign. Even if the change is not imposed, it takes time to take roots. We can see the changes tried in Iraq during USA invasion of Iraq in 2003 and other attempts to introduce democracy and Western cultured in all over the world, for example Vietnam, Thailand, India, Afghanistan, and several African countries. From this, Western people wrongly concluded that democracy is fit only for Western nations.
Whenever a sudden social change comes, the population and society is not prepared for that. This usually results in problems related to cargo-cult behavior. For example, in several countries we have a good democracy but it means only regular elections. It doesn't involve the democratic thinking of the society.
Before 1980s, China had very strong state and government and a weak society. By weak I mean there were no civil society institutions, no critical press, no open communication with the outer world, and no private business interests to influence government policies. The state was run completely like a bureaucracy. Now it is facing the pressure for weaker a government but stronger society. Rich Western nations demand from China to do an abrupt transition, similar to introduction of democracy in to Iraq and Afghanistan. When Western nations see a problem in other societies, and see that the problem is not there in the West, then they demand a change. Westerns do that without giving much thinking to the nature of the problems, social approach to the problems and the implications of sudden changes regarding to the problems.
On the other hand Chinese government is trying to shift the Chinese society from weaker to stronger slowly and gradually. Chinese society is very different now from the one of 1980s, but it will get more stronger and democratic in the coming decades while preserving social order, economy, and security.
