Zhao Ziyang Quotes

14 Sourced Quotes

We should not rush to copy wholesale (a new political system) all at once. However, we must march towards this goal, and absolutely should not move in the opposite direction.

Zhao Ziyang
About Deng Xiaoping:
In Deng's political reform, dictatorship was the one thing that was not allowed to be changed.

Zhao Ziyang
Our current political structure, which took shape during the revolutionary war years, was basically established in the period of the socialist transformation. It developed in large-scale mass movements and in the process constantly intensified mandatory planning.

Zhao Ziyang
In the past, too many mandatory targets were assigned to enterprises directly by the state, the state had a monopoly on purchase and marketing, and goods were distributed according to a system of supply based on payment in kind.

Zhao Ziyang
On the Marxist ideology:
It is only natural that the people will discard some theses which are Utopian because they were formulated by our predecessors within the limits of their historical conditions. It is also natural that the people will reject dogmatic interpretations of Marxism and erroneous viewpoints imposed on it, and will further develop the theory of scientific socialism on the basis of new practice.

Zhao Ziyang
In many places where local official student associations cannot win majority support, reelections can be held. They should not be afraid of stepping down and letting others take over as a result of elections.

Zhao Ziyang
To students holding a hunger strike in Tiananmen Square in 1989:
You are still young, and have long futures ahead of you, unlike us; we are already old and do not matter anymore.

Zhao Ziyang
I also felt that if the student demonstrations could be resolved along the principles of democracy and law, through dialogue and an easing of tensions, it could possibly boost China's reform, including political reform.

Zhao Ziyang
Times had changed, and we needed to change this mentality to coincide with the trend of democracy and rule of law.

Zhao Ziyang
We knew that pricing reform was critical. And we always thought that at some point conditions would be right to take measures, all at once or in several steps, to transform the state-owned enterprises. This implied that the development of the market sector was a prelude to a final breakthrough.

Zhao Ziyang
Our main objective with price reform was to correct price levels and make enterprises meet market conditions through fair competition, so as to improve their efficiency.

Zhao Ziyang
The student demonstrators had expressed both approval of and dissatisfaction with the Party and the government, and that they were absolutely not against the basic foundations of our system. Instead they were merely asking us to correct some of our flaws.

Zhao Ziyang
In demonstrations of this magnitude, one could not rule out the fact that some people might want to manipulate things according to their own interests.

Zhao Ziyang
Meanwhile, on the topics of most concern to people and raised by the students—such as corruption, government transparency, democracy, rule of law, and public scrutiny of government—we needed to take active measures.

Zhao Ziyang