Editing Democracy movements of China (section)

==Government's response==
{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2024}}
[[Ideology|Ideologically]], the government's first reaction to the democracy movement was an effort to focus on the personal behavior of individual dissidents and argue that they were tools of foreign powers. In the mid-1990s, the government began using more effective arguments which were influenced by [[Neoconservatism in the People's Republic of China|Chinese Neo-Conservatism]] and Western authors such as [[Edmund Burke]]. The main argument was that China's main priority was [[economic growth]], and economic growth required political stability. The democracy movement was flawed because it promoted [[Radicalism (historical)|radical]]ism and [[revolution]] which put the gains that China had made into jeopardy. In contrast to Wei's argument that democracy was essential to [[economic growth]], the government argued that economic growth must come before political liberalization, comparable to what happened in the [[Four Asian Tigers]].{{cn|date=January 2024}}

With regard to [[political dissent]] engendered by the movement, the government has taken a three-pronged approach. First, dissidents who are widely known in the West such as [[Wei Jingsheng]], [[Fang Lizhi]], and [[Wang Dan (dissident)|Wang Dan]] are deported. Although Chinese [[criminal law]] does not contain any provisions for [[exile|exiling]] citizens, these deportations are conducted by giving the dissident a severe jail sentence and then granting medical [[parole]]. Second, the less well-known leaders of a dissident movement are identified and given severe jail sentences. Generally, the government targets a relatively small number of organizers who are crucial in coordinating a movement and who are then charged with endangering [[national security|state security]] or revealing official secrets. Thirdly, the government attempts to address the grievances of possible supporters of the movement. This is intended to isolate the leadership of the movement, and prevent disconnected [[protest]]s from combining into a general organized protest that can threaten the CCP's hold on power.{{cn|date=January 2024}}

===Chinese socialist democracy===
CCP leaders assert there are already elements of democracy; they dubbed the term "Chinese socialist democracy" for what they describe as a participatory representative government.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-01-11 |title=Interview with Ambassador Liu Xiaoming On Nile TV International |url=http://big5.fmprc.gov.cn/gate/big5/eg.china-embassy.org/eng/dsxx/cfyj/2002/t77035.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111065440/http://big5.fmprc.gov.cn/gate/big5/eg.china-embassy.org/eng/dsxx/cfyj/2002/t77035.htm |archive-date=2012-01-11 |access-date=2022-12-02 |website=[[Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China]]}}</ref>