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China's Political Landscape: From Stability to Protest and Activism

Explore China's political evolution, power struggles, anti-corruption efforts, grassroots activism, and challenges faced by NGOs and environmentalists. Delve into the complexities of public protests, limited elections, and the role of consumer associations in initiating public interest litigations.

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China's Political Landscape: From Stability to Protest and Activism

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  1. Starr Chap 4: Politics and Power Above all else is maintain political STABILITY with the party on TOP

  2. Outline of Past Leaders • Mao -- founder • Deng Xiao Peng -- developer • Jian Zemin – maintainer/sharer • Hu Jintao – first transfer of power • Xi Jinping – back to autocratic roots

  3. Political Process – How to • Consensus – striven for • Negotiate – everything, constantly • Guanxi – networking, constantly • Saving Face – win/win

  4. Corruption Context • Gaunxi – provides stage • Incomplete markets • Belief in bettering family/self

  5. Anti-corruption campaigns • Slaughering the chickens to scare the monkeys??? • Even political scores • Starr – without rule of law will fail, Xi may not agree https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2015/12/29/chinese-communist-party-modernizes-its-message-with-rap-aganda/

  6. Grassroots -- Elections • Limited to villages and neighborhoods

  7. Upper Level Elections Another core problem with China’s democracy at the top level is ‘equal candidate voting’. Essentially, this system rules that the top posts in the government must be elected in such a way that the number of candidates is equal to the number of positions. For example, since there is only one position of the Chairman, there can only be one candidate for the NPC to vote for.

  8. Petitions & Protests • All have the right to petition, but… • May be as many as 100,000 protests annually

  9. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/25/world/asia/china-veterans-protests.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/25/world/asia/china-veterans-protests.html

  10. Big Protests • Overthrowing the Gang of Four 1976 • Tainanmin Square 1989 • Falun Gong 1999

  11. Starr’s hopes that are questionable • Lawsuits

  12. Starr’s hopes that are questionable • NGOs • Require a Govt sponsor, regional spatial size, limited membership, no outside funding • A number of internationally famous Chinese environmentalists are virtually unknown in China

  13. Reality Check https://gulfnews.com/uae/environment/chinas-army-of-green-activists-1.2071769

  14. http://www.chinadevelopmentbrief.cn/articles/consumer-public-interest-litigations-struggle-to-get-off-the-ground/http://www.chinadevelopmentbrief.cn/articles/consumer-public-interest-litigations-struggle-to-get-off-the-ground/ …”by September 2016 31 Consumer Associations had been established at the provincial level, 351 in the prefecture-level cities and 2852 at the county level.” “Consumer Associations [have] the right to initiate “consumer public interest litigations”, many breakthroughs have been achieved in this field.” “On the other hand, from the first implementation of the new consumer law in 2014 until today all of the Consumer Associations only instigated a total of less than twenty public litigation cases.”  -- many of which went nowhere

  15. Public Interest Litigations • “Consumer Associations [have] the right to initiate “consumer public interest litigations”, many breakthroughs have been achieved in this field.” • “On the other hand, from the first implementation of the new consumer law in 2014 until today all of the Consumer Associations only instigated a total of less than twenty public litigation cases.”  -- many of which went nowhere

  16. The position of independent ENGOs is becoming trickier, as shown by Beijing Global Village, founded by star activist Liao Xiaoyi and very active in the Qufu region in the coastal province of Shandong; members have taken part in household waste recycling schemes and organic bean growing. Because my visit clashed with an official one by a powerful CPC apparatchik, being seen with foreign press was out of the question. The imminent 19th Party Congress has meant the party is more repressive, bringing great uncertainty for green activists, including figures once favourably regarded by the regime, such as Liao Xiaoyi. “Everyone is being extremely careful,” she said. “But we’ve met and made friends, and that’s great. Come back next year.”

  17. I was unable to meet Chai Jing, the filmmaker whose documentary on air pollution, Under the Dome, was downloaded 155 million times on the day it went online in 2015. She is under surveillance and declined an interview. The situation is also difficult for lawyers. Hundreds have been accused of ‘subverting the power of the state’ and have been repressed since 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5bHb3ljjbc

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