The Citizen and the state in China

1. The Citizen and the state in China

2. Maybe ___________, but not glasnost

6. Political Participation and civil society . . Which are NOT the same thing The nonprofit sector in theory refers to legal social institutions (shehuizuzhi，社会组织) registered with the Civil Affairs bureaucracy. There are three categories of these social institutions:  1. Social Organizations (SOs, shehuituanti, 社会团体), which are similar to membership associations in the U.S.; 2. Civil Non-Enterprise Institutions (CNIs, minbanfeiqiyedanwei, 民办非企业单位), which are similar to service providers such as schools for migrant children or the handicapped; 3. Foundations (jijinhui, 基金会). Figure 1 The Nonprofit, Philanthropic Sector in China (the size of the circles is meant to suggest the relative size of each group)

7. All-China Women's Federation Established in March 1949, it is an organization of women who are a major force in building socialism with Chinese characteristics. It works hard to unite and educate women, implement the basic lines of the CPC and play an active role in the building of socialist material and spiritual civilizations. The basic functions of the federation are to represent and safeguard the rights and interests of women and promote the equality between men and women. Mass organizations: State controlled interest groups vehicles (Lenin called them “transmission belts”) to gain support for policies and to mobilize the masses for implementing policies. The enormous membership and widespread extension of the networks from these mass organizations assure participation in political action by millions The 3 largest are the All-China federation of Trade Unions, the CYL and the All-China Women's Federation

8. The Falun Gong spiritual movement has been banned by the Chinese government as an "evil cult" The group follows a mixture of Taoist and Buddhist beliefs combined with traditional Chinese physical exercises Falun Gong Social Movement yes, civil soc yes. Political Participation NO unless . . .. . protest

9. Cleavages IV. Citizens, Society, and the State Ultimately, politics hinges on the interactions between state and society. Therefore, the course should not be confined to the internal workings or the institutional underpinnings of states. Through country cases, students can learn how certain kinds of cleavages such as ethnicity, religion, or class become politically relevant. Some regimes like China and Iran have formal arrangements for representing social groups such as ethnic or religious minorities. A country’s political patterns are influenced by the characteristics and demands of its population. Institutions can blunt or exacerbate cleavages in society. The countries studied in this course provide ample evidence for pursuing questions about how states manage and respond to deeply held divisions among their citizens.

10. Ethnic issues The Han Chinese make up over 92% of the population of China, which is also home to 55 other official ethnic groups. Most of the minority groups live in sparsely populated border areas. Beijing faces two separatist conflicts in the western region - the Tibetans in Tibet and the Uighur in Xinjiang. Although tensions between other minority groups and the majority Han have mostly been hidden they have always been sensitive. And, after an outbreak of violence in Henan province in 2004, there are fears they could further deteriorate. Cleavages

11. Most of China's recent economic development has taken place in the eastern coastal provinces, leaving the rural interior underdeveloped.

12. Lives of Poverty, Untouched by China’s Boom

13. The death penalty is now aimed at separatists as well as drug criminals, Amnesty says Cleavages: separatist movements Uighurs in Xinjiang province • Uighurs are ethnically different from the Han Chinese and speak a Turkic language. They were once the majority in Xinjiang, but now they make up less than half the population. • The parallels with Buddhist Tibet are striking. China keeps an iron grip on both. • "China regards Xinjiang in the same way that it regards Tibet as having always been part of China, and it will quote historical facts going back thousands of years," said Professor Mike Dillon from Durham University in Britain. • "The reality is that both Xinjiang and Tibet were only brought into the Chinese empire in the form that they are now, in the late 18th Century, but nevertheless, they are regarded as a part of China. • "The Chinese regard any talk of separatism as a kind of national betrayal, and they're not prepared to countenance it." Ethnically Turkic Muslims, mainly in Xinjiang Made bid for independent state in 1940s Sporadic violence in Xinjiang since 1991 Uighurs worried about Chinese immigration and erosion of traditional culture

14. Sarah Mac goes to Xinjiang Province

16. Riots in Xinjinag 2009 The riot was the largest ethnic clash in China since the Tibetan uprising of March 2008. Like the Tibetan unrest, it highlighted the deep-seated frustrations felt by some ethnic minorities in western China over the policies of the Communist Party.

17. The rioting broke out Sunday afternoon in a large market area and lasted for several hours before riot police officers and paramilitary or military troops locked down the Uighur quarter of the city, according to witnesses and photographs of the riot.

18. At least 1,000 rioters took to the streets, stoning the police and setting vehicles on fire. A boy stood amid the burnt wreckage of a bus and shopping stalls in a street in Urumqi.

19. Chinese soldiers marched on the streets of Urumqi in China's western Xinjiang province on Wednesday

20. Jul 2009 Riot police patrolled a street in the regional capital in China's Xinjiang province on Monday. The Chinese state news agency reported that 156 people were killed and more than 800 injured when rioters clashed with the police in Urumqi, in far western China

21. Whatever led to the attack raised questions about the viability of Chinese policy in Xinjiang, even as China sought to promote an image of a "harmonious society" for the Olympics

22. China Bans Mosque Meetings in Strife-Torn Region

23. To be a practicing Muslim in the vast autonomous region of northwestern China called Xinjiang is to live under an intricate series of laws and regulations intended to control the spread and practice of Islam, the predominant religion among the Uighurs, a Turkic people uneasy with Chinese rule. The edicts touch on every facet of a Muslim’s way of life. Official versions of the Koran are the only legal ones. Imams may not teach the Koran in private, and studying Arabic is allowed only at special government schools. Two of Islam’s five pillars — the sacred fasting month of Ramadan and the pilgrimage to Mecca called the hajj — are also carefully controlled. Students and government workers are compelled to eat during Ramadan, and the passports of Uighurs have been confiscated across Xinjiang to force them to join government-run hajj tours rather than travel illegally to Mecca on their own. Government workers are not permitted to practice Islam, which means the slightest sign of devotion, a head scarf on a woman, for example, could lead to a firing. The Chinese government, which is officially atheist, recognizes five religions — Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Taoism and Buddhism — and tightly regulates their administration and practice. Its oversight in Xinjiang, though, is especially vigilant because it worries about separatist activity in the region.

24. TIBET May: 2012 'China detains hundreds in Tibet over self-immolation protests' Hundreds of people have been detained in Lhasa after two men set themselves on fire in the Tibetan regional capital on Sunday in protest against Chinese rule, a US-based broadcaster reported. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/tibet/9301849/China-detains-hundreds-in-Tibet-over-self-immolation-protests.html

26. As Tibet Erupted, China Security Forces Wavered In Lhasa during the recent riots, a tourist who requested anonymity took this photo of Chinese goods being burned March 24, 2008.

27. March 2008 In Lhasa during the recent riots, a tourist who requested anonymity took this photo of Chinese goods being burned ashes. Tibetans in the suburbs said officers were blocking people from entering the city center

28. Violent protests erupted in a market area of Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, as Buddhist monks and other ethnic Tibetans clashed with Chinese security forces.

29. Tibetans threw stones at army vehicles as a car burned on a street in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, after violent protests broke out on Friday.

30. Buddhist monks marched in Xiahe, Gansu Province, on Friday.

31. Chinese riot police officers marched Monday in the city of Kangding, in Sichuan Province. China has blamed a “Dalai clique” for orchestrating protests in Tibet and neighboring provinces

32. August 11, 2011 Chinese-Appointed Religious Leader Sent to Important Tibetan Monastery By ANDREW JACOBS China’s five million Tibetans arrived in a monastery town in the northwestern province of Gansu on Thursday morning accompanied by a formidable police presence and skeptical crowds who were required to greet him with prayer flags and smiles, residents and exile groups said by telephone. They said the lama, Gyaltsen Norbu, 21, the Chinese government’s hand-picked 11th Panchen Lama, had journeyed to the town of Xiahe because it is home to the Labrang Monastery, one of the most cherished centers for Tibetan Buddhism outside the Tibetan Autonomous Region. Senior religious figures at the monastery have said he may spend weeks or even months studying and mediating there, although that partly depends on how he is received by the faithful.

33. Chinese Urge Anti-West Boycott Over Tibet Stance Protesters, angry about the French attitude toward Tibet, demonstrate against the Carrefour supermarkets and French goods in Wuhan, in east-central China.

34. Chinese Nationalism Fuels Tibet Crackdown Meng Huizhong expressed anger at what she saw as lax government response to Tibet unrest

35. China's Christians suffer for their faith "They hung me up across an iron gate, then they yanked open the gate and my whole body lifted until my chest nearly split in two. I hung like that for four hours." That is how Peter XuYongze, the founder of one of the largest religious movements in China, described his treatment during one of five jail sentences on account of his belief in Christianity. MrXu, 61, is not the only Chinese Christian to suffer for his faith. Both Catholics and Protestants have long complained of persecution by the Communist authorities, and human rights groups claim the problem is getting worse. Christianity is not actually banned in China. In fact, according to the constitution, "citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief."Beijing backed up that statement in 1997, saying that "In China, no one is to be punished due to their religious belief". Peter Xu Yongze was in jail for a total of eight years But human rights groups and Christians say that the reality is different. "They say you can believe, but you can't evangelise," Mr Xu said. "But that is a natural act for Christians. The bible commands us to preach the gospel." According to Mr Xu, who has now left China and lives in the US, it is against regulations to worship in groups. He said that one of his arresting officers even told him he could only avoid breaking the law if he prayed under the covers in bed Those Christians who want to avoid the state-controlled religious movements meet in unofficial buildings or even each others' homes - hence their description as "house churches" - risking fines, imprisonment, torture and even, in some cases, death.

36. Worshipers in Tuanqianbu were unbowed by a police attack on Sunday that destroyed their new church. NYT Aug 18 2006

38. Cleavages in China: Women

39. China faces growing sex imbalance More than 24 million Chinese men of marrying age could find themselves without spouses by 2020, says the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. BBC Jan 11, 2010 The gender imbalance among newborns is the most serious demographic problem for the country's population of 1.3 billion, says the academy. It cites sex-specific abortions as a major factor, due to China's traditional bias towards male children. The academy says gender selection abortions are "extremely common". This is especially true in rural areas, and ultra-sound scans, first introduced in the late 1980s, have increased the practice

40. 28 December 2013Last updated at 03:46 ET China formally eases one-child policy The one-child policy has been strictly enforced, but has become unpopular China's top legislature has formally adopted a resolution easing the country's one-child policy, the state news agency Xinhua reports. The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed a resolution allowing couples to have two children if either parent is an only child. A proposal to abolish re-education through labour camps was also approved. The changes in policy were announced following a meeting of top Communist Party officials in November. The reforms, which came at the end of a six-day meeting of the congress, have already been tested in parts of the country.

41. How China deals with cleavages: Co-optation: Different rules regarding rights:(e.g. release from one child policy, the right to retain certain marriage patterns and traditions of conducting one's sexual life; and the right to engage in various forms of religious practices which are otherwise considered "superstitious“) See youtube video on exceptions to One Child Policy Constitution grants autonomous areas right of self-government in certain areas like cultural affairs (e.g. local decisions on education, finances, culture and religion) though in reality very limited k Use “Patriotic Education” Crack down on religion practices: Use registration rules to send home “unregistered clergy” ; ban meetings by unregistered churches, eat during ramadan if you are a govt worker, no passports for hajj “reserves seats” for ethnic minorities in the N P(eople’s) C Force and executions for separatists “celebrate” differences ASSIMILATION: Encourage/facilitate migration of ethnic Han

42. Celebrate Differences

43. Nearly 190,000 dancers, politicians, soldiers and fighter pilots prepared for the highly synchronized extravaganza. Children waited to perform in Tiananmen Square.

44. Delegates wear the traditional garb of their ethnic minority — the Burberry bag at left (estimated cost: $800) notwithstanding — in Beijing on March 3 2012

45. A minority delegate in traditional Mongolian dress on Monday addressed Wu Bangguo, the chairman of China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress.

46. China Has Sentenced 55 Over Tibet Riot in March How does China deal with cleavages? The Chinese government has actively encouraged Han migration to ethnic minority regions in western China, particularly Tibet and Xinjiang, and that in turn has led to rising tensions between locals and the Han settlers who come seeking jobs and business opportunities. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/world/asia/06tibet.html?ref=world

47. More posters/campaigns Natalie Behring for The New York Times At the Lanxi Middle School in Anxi, a billboard reminds boys of a campaign to respect girls. To help stop sex-selection abortions, meanwhile, the government is providing aid to families with one daughter or more.

48. China’s Money and Migrants Pour Into Tibet LHASA, Tibet — They come by new high-altitude trains, four a day, cruising 1,200 miles past snow-capped mountains. And they come by military truck convoy, lumbering across the roof of the world. Han Chinese workers, investors, merchants, teachers and soldiers are pouring into remote Tibet. After the violence that ravaged this region in 2008, China’s aim is to make Tibet wealthier — and more Chinese. Chinese leaders see development, along with an enhanced security presence, as the key to pacifying the Buddhist region. The central government invested $3 billion in the Tibet Autonomous Region last year, a 31 percent increase over 2008. Tibet’s gross domestic product is growing at a 12 percent annual rate, faster than the robust Chinese national average. Simple restaurants located in white prefabricated houses and run by ethnic Han businesspeople who take the train have sprung up even at a remote lake north of Lhasa. About 1.2 million rural Tibetans, nearly 40 percent of the region’s population, have been moved into new residences under a “comfortable housing” program. And officials promise to increase tourism fourfold by 2020, to 20 million visitors a year . . . Read the rest: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/world/asia/25tibet.html?pagewanted=print

49. Media roles. . . Policy, civil libs, pol socialization, civil soc . . . . • Men surfing at an Internet cafe in Shanghai. The Chinese government has placed strict controls on the Internet, closing blogger sites, filtering Web sites and e-mail messages for banned words, and tightening controls on text messages The New China News Agency has long played a dual role in China’s media world. It acts both as the official distributor of state news and information, selling its products much as any Western news agencies would do. But it also regulates outside news agencies, a power that Western news providers say it seeks to use to enhance its own bottom line. • President Hu has intensified a crackdown on all kinds of news media in recent months, arresting and harassing journalists, tightening regulation of Web sites and online forums, hiring tens of thousands of people to screen and block Web content deemed offensive and firing editors of state-run publications that resist official controls. Sept 2006

50. Wary of Egypt Unrest, China Censors Web What were the tactics: block key word searches for Egypt Use official news agency to reshape the story so the news is only about on getting Chinese out of the chaos, or editorials about how chaos shows what happens when you plant democracy when not ready or cast as anti-government rioters