Popular Protest in the Reform Era: Change, Continuity, Impact

Guobin Yang

July 4, 2013East-West Center

I. Introduction

II. Major protests in PRC history

III. Contemporary forms

IV. Causes of contemporary protest

V. Continuity and change

VI. Impact

I. Introduction

Some misconceptions about popular protests in China

- all about democracy

- all anti-government

- people are unhappy but cannot/dare not protest because of repression

A political culture that legitimated rebellion

When asked about rulership, Mencius said:

“Protect the people.”

“An intelligent ruler will regulate the livelihood of the people, so as to make sure that . . . in good years they shall always be abundantly satisfied, and that in bad years they shall escape the danger of perishing.”

“The people are the most important element . . . Therefore to gain the support of the ordinary people is to become emperor.”

“Those who abide by Heaven endure, while those who defy Heaven perish.” 

- Mencius/Mengzi (372 – 289 BCE)

Revolution is not a crime; rebellion is justified

A popular culture of rebel heroes

Water Margins/Outlaws of the March

Monkey King

II. Major protests before reform

Hundred Flowers, 1956

Cultural Revolution, 1966-76

April Fifth incident, 1976

Protests during first decade of reform

Democracy Wall, 1978-79

Sent-down youth protest, 1978-79

Campus elections, 1980

Student protest, 1986

Student protest, 1989

Varieties of protest since the 1990s

Environmental“Rights defense”Online activismHome-ownersDemolition

Anti-discrimination (HIV/AIDs, Hepatitis-B carriers)Human rightsAnimal rights Consumer activismPopular nationalism

• In the 1980s protests for change / modernization

"We want to sing a song for the future. We want to light the torch of enlightenment with our own lives."

-- Enlightenment, 1978

Fellow students, fellow countrymen, the future and fate of the Chinese nation are intimately linked to each of our hearts. This student movement has but one goal, that is, to facilitate the process of modernization by raising high the banners of democracy and science, by liberating people from the constraints of feudal ideology, and by promoting freedom, human rights, and rule of law.

- “New May Fourth Manifesto,” 1989

• Since the 1990s, protests in response to consequences of change.

III. Contemporary forms

Rising frequency and pluralization of forms & issues since the 1990s

Forms of protest

Collective

Individual

Rural riotsWorker strikesMinority protests

Disruptive/ Violent / Subversive

Non-disruptive

Political dissidence

Suicides

Urban NYMBYismNGO activismOnline activism

Issue multiplication

Traditional types persist:

Labor (but new types of workers)

Rural

Student/intellectual

Three faces of environmental activism in China

Xinchang, Zhejiang, 2005

Ningbo, 2012

NIMBY-style, middle-class environmental protest:

2007: Xiamen (Paraxylene)

2008: Chengdu (PX)

2011: Dalian (PX)

2011: Haimen, Guangdong (power plant)

2012: Ningbo (petrochemical)

2012: Shanghai (trash incinerator)

2012: Shifang, Sichuan (copper plant)

Citizens’ legal private property must not be violated

IV. Why? And why these forms of protest?

1)Economic development and social change:

-- consequences of development and marketization (ecological degradation, forced relocation)

-- social polarization and pluralization (new social groups, new identity concerns)

-- corruption

2)Institutional channels do not work well

Rights to "four bigs“ protected in 1978 constitution but removed from 1982 constitution: to speak out freely, air views fully, hold great debates, and write big-character posters. 

-- formal legal system

--State Bureau for Letters and Calls (vice ministerial level) http://www.gjxfj.gov.cn/

Article 1 These Regulations are formulated for the purposes of enhancing relations between the people's governments at all levels and the people, protecting the lawful rights and interests of letterwriters and visitors, and maintaining a good order in letter-writing and visiting.

Article 2 The term "letters and visits" in these Regulations means that citizens, legal persons or other organizations give information, make comments or suggestions or lodge complaints to the people's governments at all levels and the relevant departments of the people's governments at or above the county level through correspondence, E-mails, faxes, phone calls, visits, and so on, which are dealt with by the relevant administrative departments according to law.

State Council Regulations on Letters and Visits (2005)

Letters and visits to Party and government xinfang bureaus at the county level and higher totaled 8,640,040 for the first nine months of 2002, corresponding with an annual rate of 11.5 million per year.

In comparison, the entire Chinese judiciary handles six million legal cases annually

--Minzer (2006)

3) Political opportunities

• “fragmented authoritarianism”

gaps between central government policies and local implementation

Predatory local state as target of rural protest

High tide of petitioning to Beijing 2003-2006 coincided with Hu-Wen leadership efforts to distinguish itself from earlier Jiang Zemin leadership

--Li, Liu, O’Brien (2006)

28

Political context of environmental activism:Greening of the state

1989: Environmental Protection Law

2003: Environmental Impact Assessment Law

2004: Cleaner Production Promotion Act

2008: Environmental Information Disclosure Provisional Regulation came into effect

2008 State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) upgraded to Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP)

The “stability maintenance” system

- a new bureaucracy on all levels with large budgets

- took shape after 1989

“The people demand stability. Stability overrides everything. This is the consensus after experiencing last year’s political disturbance. We must preserve the country’s stability as we would safeguard our own life. We simply cannot do anything detrimental to stability (People’s Daily1990).”

Source: Feng (2013)

Xie (2013)

Xie (2013)

4). Growth of civic associations and citizen consciousness

• New civic organizational basis

Registered Civic Organizations

1989 200,0001991 110,0002003 142,0002006 360,000

Grassroots Groups  Number 

College Student Groups  20,700 

High School Student Groups  95,000 

Community‐based Recreational Groups  50,000 

Philately  41,000 

Other Hobby Groups  130,000 

Senior Citizens’ Schools  17,000 

The Elderly Associations  70,000 

Home‐owners’ Associations  15,000 

Religious Groups  170,000 

Friendship Groups  50,000 

BBS and Virtual Associations  100,000 

Sub‐total  758,700 

Grassroots Groups without registration

Source: Wang and He (2004)

Official

Formal

Government-organizedNGOs

Quasi-NGOs(Research centers, Business entities)

Registered NGOs

Web groups

Non-web groups

Informal

Non-official

College students associations

Flexible and diverse organizational forms

2005 2008

Total: 2,768 3,539

GONGOs: 1,382 (50%) 1309 (37%)

Grassroots: 202 (7.3%) 508 (14%)

Student groups: 1,116 (40.3%) 1382 (39%)

INGOs in China: 68 (2.5%) 90 (2.5%)

Source: All-China Environmental Federation surveys, 2005, 2008

5). Diverse forms of action, primarily non-confrontational

• Non-confrontational

• NGO-led media campaigns

• Litigation

• Internet activism

6) Protest leadership

Protest leaders emerge in two main ways.Long-standing public figures initiate popular action on their own or in response to requests from other villagers; and ordinary villagers evolve into protest leaders when efforts to seek redress for a personal grievance fail.

Rural officials sometimes attempt to co-opt or buy off protest leaders, but more often turn to repression. Although cracking down may inhibit further contention, at other times it firms up the determination of protest leaders and makes them more prone to adopt confrontational tactics. (Li and O’Brien 2008)

Protest leaders were articulate and public-spiritedpeasants who had received political training from the local party-state.

Protests led by less educated veteran Communist Party cadres tended to be milder and smaller than those led by better-educated peasants more distant from the local party-state. (Zhang 2013)

Other factors

International influences (e.g ENGOs, Ai Weiwei)

New communication technologies

V. Continuity and change

1) Influence of CR on repertoire and mentality

--e.g. worker protests invoking Mao slogans and rhetoric

--the rebel “mentality”/culture

2). Each major movement produced its own veterans who would continue to be politically engaged

• Former activists from 1980s continue with their cause: Liu Xiaobo, Tiananmen Mothers Movement

• c.f. 60s activists in the West

3) What has changed?

• New forms

• New issues

• New actors

• New grievances

• new demands

Style and rhetoric of collective action in 1980s

• Demonstrations

• Rallies

• Hunger strikes

• Petitions

• Wall-posters

• Sit-ins

• Occupation of public spaces

Democracy Wall 1978-79

"We want to sing a song for the future. We want to light the torch of enlightenment with our own lives."

-- Enlightenment, 1978

"We have launched this journal in the hope that it will air the voice of the people, raise the ideological level of the people, promote social modernization and speed up the process of the four modernizations."

-- Democracy and Times, 1978.

1989

Our ancient, thousand-year civilization is waiting, our great people, one billion strong, are watching. What qualms can we possibly have? What is there to fear? Fellow students, fellow countrymen, here at richly symbolic Tiananmen, let us once again search together and struggle together for democracy, for science, for freedom, for human rights, and for rule by law. Let our cries awaken our young Republic!

-- “New May Fourth Manifesto,” May 4, 1989.

A new style: prosaic or playful

2005

We have been informed that the Central Government’s planning and environmental departments have reviewed the hydropower development plans for the Nujiang. We think that the EIA for a project such as this that affects the interests of this and future generations, that has attracted worldwide attention, and that carries potentially huge impacts should be publicly disclosed and decided with sufficient prior informed consent and evaluation, following the requirements of the relevant law and the guiding principles of the State Council.

-- “Call for public disclosure of Nujiang hydropower development’s EIA report in accordance with the law,” 31 August 2005. Signed by 61 NGOs and 99 individuals

The commercial real estate prices in Shenzhen are surging at astonishing speed…. Is this because the developers’ costs are rising? Let us calculate their costs. For low-level apartments, the costs are land price + construction costs at 2,000 yuan / square meter. For high-rise apartments, the costs are land price + construction costs at 2,500 yuan / square meter. Suppose here is a plot. The land price is 3,000 yuan / square meter. For constructing a high-rise apartment building, the developers’ costs are 3,000 yuan / square meter + 2,500 yuan/square meter = 5,500 yuan/square meter. In reality, I discovered in the sales offices of the new buildings in Futian and Luohu that the price exceeds 9,000 yuan per square meter and some exceed 10,000 yuan. If developers sell them at 10,000 per square meter, their profits are obvious. The money we make with our blood and sweat is robbed from us just like that.

-- A blogger’s open letter calling for a movement to “boycott home-buying,” 2006.

Song of Grass-mud Horse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKx1aenJK08

VI. Impact

• Concrete gains (wages, pension, etc)

• Policy changes

• New issues and forms of struggle

• Changes in attitudes toward authority

• State responses to protest

• “limited in size, scale, and scope”

• “the least revolutionary and most rebellious nation on earth”

• Yet, as long as party-state retains capacity to fragment society, likelihood of a serious

revolutionary challenge is slim (Perry, p. 214)