Beijing Spring
The end of the Cultural Revolution had also brought the advent of the Democracy Movement, which spearheaded a political liberalization process known as the Beijing Spring. The anti-authoritarian character of the Democracy Movement rejected the communist party's political monopoly and revived the anti-bureaucratic ideals of the early Cultural Revolution. In early 1979, Deng denounced the movement as anarchists and set about repressing them, arresting and imprisoning many of the movement's members, including the pro-democracy leader Wei Jingsheng. By early 1981, many pro-democracy activists were forced underground and the movement ceased to exist in the public sphere. Deng continued this authoritarian turn by abolishing the "four great freedoms" of the Cultural Revolution (including freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of association), replacing them with the "Four Cardinal Principles". Throughout the 1980s, Deng implemented a series of economic reforms, introducing a market economy under the theory of "Socialism with Chinese characteristics". Although this period initially saw a rise in living standards, it also brought an increase in cronyism and inflation, leading many workers to consider themselves "losers in the decade of economic reform" and began to respond with slowdowns and wildcat strikes.