How It's Used

“China's position is that it must be 'developed' before it considers global leadership or the 'fifth modernisation' of democracy. The only viable alternative to waiting for that magic moment is to help it reach its goals by building political legitimacy rather than undermining it. A campaign of national liberation is not the answer, and even the democrats would agree that they lack an agenda that reflects that China is one country, not two.”

—Edith Terry, “Fight the Good Fight,” The South China Morning Post, April 28, 2004.

“Wei Jingsheng was 28, invigorated by the tide of optimism and unprecedented freedom of expression that followed the death of Chairman Mao in 1976, but angry at signals that Deng Xiaoping wanted public discussion to end. He made his way to the focus of the debate, a brick wall dubbed 'Democracy Wall', beside a bus station just west of Tiananmen Square on the Boulevard of Eternal Peace.

"There he pasted up a paper demanding an addition to Deng's drive to bring Four Modernisations to China after the chaos of the Cultural Revolution. Mr Wei called for a 'Fifth Modernisation': democracy.”

—Jane MacArtney, “Dissident's cry for democracy echoes down 30 years,” The Times (UK), December 5, 2008.

“Such manifestos are hardly new. In December 1978, the Fifth Modernization, a proposed liberalization of the political system to go with China's other moves toward modernity, was posted on Beijing's Democracy Wall -- and its author was handed a 15-year prison sentence. Evidence of the document was wiped from Chinese history.”

—Michael Wines, “A Manifesto on Freedom Sets China's Persecution Machinery in Motion,” The New York Times, May 1, 2009.

“Yet the Chinese have not given up their dream. In April 1976, they staged a pro-democracy movement, which was promptly suppressed. But it re-surfaced in 1979 as the Xidan Democracy Wall movement. Its most prominent figure was Mr Wei Jingsheng with his call for 'The Fifth Modernisation'.

"He argued that the four modernisations as proposed by the CCP - modernisation in agriculture, industry, defence and technology - would not bring about a truly modern China without the fifth modernisation. And that was political democracy. Mr Wei ended up in jail for 15 years.”

—Ching Cheong, “Mr Science is here, where's Mr Democracy?” The Straits Times, May 5, 2009.

“I wrote ‘The Fifth Modernization’ in only one night. I came home from work and just banged out this article. After I posted it on Democracy Wall, I still was unsure about doing it. What I posted was so outspoken that it would’ve been criminal just to look at it. When I posted the article, it was about 4 or 5 in the morning. Then I ate some breakfast and rode my bike back a couple of hours later. Whoa, there were a lot of people reading! It seemed like everyone was really interested in it and was happy to read it. So I quickly signed my name and phone number. At my side was an official. He tapped my shoulder and said, ‘Young man—you’re screwed.’”

—Wei Jingsheng in Elizabeth Dickinson, “Wei Jingsheng: An unlikely dissident, imprisoned for almost two decades for his 1978 democratic tract ‘The Fifth Modernization,’ looks forward to China’s democratic future,” Foreign Policy, September/October 2009, pp. 26-7.

Also Known As (AKA)

The Fifth Modernisation

Links

Related on eAlmanac
The Four Modernizations

Beyond eAlmanac
Wikipedia article on the Fifth Modernization