The Citizen Society and the State in China

IV. Citizens, Society, and the State..15%

A. Cleavages and politics (ethic, racial, class, gender, religious, regional) B. Civil society and social capital C. Media roles D. Political participation (forms/modes/trends) including political violence E. Social movements F. Citizenship and representation

Political Participation and civil society . . Which are NOT the same thing The nonprofit sector in theory refers to legal social institutions (shehui zuzhi ， 社 会 组织 ) registered with the Civil Affairs bureaucracy. There are three categories of these social institutions: 1. Social Organizations (SOs, shehui tuanti, 社会 团 体 ), which are similar to membership associations in the U.S.; 2. Civil Non-Enterprise Institutions (CNIs, minban feiqiye danwei, 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)

Mass organizations: State controlled interest groups

vehicles 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

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.

China’s One Child Policy How did the policy work?

• • methods employed to enforce China’s one-child policy vary by province. • Usually, couples are fined an exorbitant amount that puts a second child out of financial reach. • Couples who bear a child without paying the fines are unable to register their children. These children are regarded as non-persons by the state and cannot access most public services, including education, healthcare, and even employment.

In addition to that, the woman or the couple may face job loss, loss of business licenses, loss of driving licenses, expulsion from the Communist Party, refusal of loans, and denial of passports

Sex ratio at birth in mainland China, males per 100 females, 1980 –2010.

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

Meet China's 'Little Emperors': The Pessimistic Generation That Could Derail the Economy

By Michelle FlorCruz @mflorcruz [email protected]

on January 14 2013 12:52 PM EST China's three-decade-old population-control system in urban areas, the so called One Child policy, has created a new population of Chinese that some experts are saying puts the nation's economy at risk.

But who are the people who could jeopardize China's future? According to a new study, they are "Little Emperors": single children, usually men, who grow up to be "significantly less trusting, less trustworthy, more risk-averse" than people born before the policy took effect. The new study from Australia’s Monash University and the Australian National University, based on the research of Nisvan Erkal, is called "Little Emperors: Behavioral Impacts of China's One-Child Policy."

China's "Precious Snowflakes" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTKWGeVQlzU

28 December 2013

Last 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.

Two kids? Thanks but no say some Chinese

By

Katie Hunt

, CNN Updated 3:34 AM ET, Tue January 13, 2015

Hong Kong (CNN)

A year ago , China relaxed its controversial one-child policy, allowing couples to have a second baby if the mother or father was an only child themselves.. . . .. The financial burden of another child is often cited as a main reason for not taking advantage of the policy change

How does China Control Civil Society

“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 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

Control of the media

After the July 2009 Ürümqi riots , China shut down most of the domestic microblogging services including the first weibo service Fanfou. Many popular non China-based microblogging services like Twitter, Facebook, and Plurk have been blocked from viewing since then. It was considered to be an opportunity to Sina's CEO Charles Chao .

[9][10] SINA Corporation launched the tested version of Sina Weibo on 14 August 2009. Basic functions including message, private message, comment and re-post were made possible in September 2009. A Sina Weibo-compatible API platform for developing third party applications was launched on 28 July 2010.

[1] Weibo: China tries but can it control its netizens?

As Chinese Students Go Online, Little Sister Is Watching

Lu Xiaobo, center, and Hu Yingying, right, undergraduates at Shanghai Normal University,

monitor university Internet forums for signs of dissent

., Let the Winds of a Civilized Internet Blow ," (little sister watching you) is part of a broader "socialist morality" campaign, known as the Eight Honors and Disgraces, begun by the country's leadership to reinforce social and political control.

March 17, 2008

China Blocks YouTube After Videos of Tibet Protests Are Posted

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BEIJING (AP) — Internet users in China were blocked from seeing YouTube.com on Sunday after dozens of videos about protests in Tibet appeared on the popular American video Web site.

The blocking added to the Communist government’s efforts to control what the public saw and heard about protests that erupted Friday in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, against Chinese rule.

Access to YouTube.com, usually readily available in China, was blocked after videos appeared on the site Saturday showing foreign news reports about the Lhasa demonstrations, montages of photos and scenes from Tibet-related protests abroad.

There were no protest scenes posted on China-based video Web sites like as 56.com

, youku.com

and tudou.com

.

The Chinese government has not commented on its move to prevent access to YouTube. Internet users trying to call up the Web site were presented with a blank screen.

Chinese Editorials Assail a Government System By ANDREW JACOBS Published: March 1, 2010

BEIJING — In a country where the press is tightly managed by the state, the identical editorials that appeared Monday in more than a dozen publications calling for reform . of China’s onerous household registration system were noteworthy. “ China has suffered for a long time under the hukou system!” the editorials declared, using the Chinese term for the residency permits that tie government benefits to a person’s registered hometown. “We believe in people born to be free and people possessing the right to migrate freely!”

But a few hours later, the editorials had largely vanished from the Internet, presumably erased by a government that is wary of abandoning a 50-year-old system that many critics say has fed the surging gap between China’s urban and rural population

.

Local police help migrant workers with their temporary residency at a job market in Shenyang, Northeast China's Liaoning Province last week.

The system, though much relaxed in recent years, ties people to their parents’ hometown, where their birth has to be registered. Many government services, like schooling and police protection, are tied to people’s hukou, and the rules for shifting a hukou from one place to another are highly restrictive.

Despite the rules,

hundreds of millions of the rural poor have migrated to cities

to build the highways and office towers that have transformed China.

But they do not have the same rights as local residents, and they have difficulty putting their children in schools or getting medical care.

If they lose their jobs, the police often pressure them to return to their hometowns.

The

educated and the rich have found ways to circumvent the restrictions

. An advanced degree can lead to a coveted urban permit. When all else fails, a large sum of cash in the right pocket will do the trick. The problem was highlighted last month in Beijing when education officials announced that 30 “unauthorized” schools serving about 20,000 migrant children would have to give way for redevelopment. Experts estimate that as many as 250,000 children born in the capital in recent years have no legal right to a public education

In spite of a political clampdown, a flourishing civil society is taking hold

Though there still is not political freedom there is more personal freedom

China's Generation Me: shopaholic, pleasure-seeking players mesmerized by their own reflections.

The People’s Republic of Sex Kittens and Metrosexuals

Some relaxed media rule though

Falun Gong

The group follows a mixture of Taoist and Buddhist beliefs combined with traditional Chinese physical exercises The Falun Gong spiritual movement has been banned by the Chinese government as an "evil cult"

Social Movement yes, civil soc yes. Political Participation NO unless . . .. . protest

Protest:

Many argue that freedom in China has not improved since Tiananmen China has detained seven members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual sect following a protest by sect members in Beijing's Tiananmen Square

Massive Rural protests

China's tough handling of recent protests by villagers in Taishi, southern Guangdong province, has thrown into fresh doubt its claims to be introducing genuine democracy "from the

bottom up". BBC

6 Nov 2004: Paramilitary troops put down an uprising of 100,000 farmers in Sichuan province Rural Protest 6 Dec 2005: Police shoot dead protesters in Dongzhou, Guangdong 10 April 2005: 20,000 peasants drive off more than 1,000 riot police in Huaxi, Zhejiang province 14 Jan 2006: Police break up protest in Sanjiao, Guangdong, over land grabs 11 June 2005: Six farmers die in a fight with armed men in Shengyou , Hebei province 29 July 2005: Villagers in Taishi, Guangdong try to oust mayor

Wukan protest leader is made village's Communist party secretary

Lin Zuluan was prominent in fight against land seizures during which citizens ran police and officials out of town January 2012 A protest leader in Wukan, the southern Chinese village that drove out the authorities in a row over land grabs , has been appointed as its new Communist party secretary.

Residents applauded Lin Zuluan's new role as another positive step in their struggle with local officials.

April 15, 2005 China Is Pushing and Scripting Anti-Japanese Protests

Enraged about Japan's tendentious textbooks and territorial disputes in the East China Sea, Sun Wei, a college junior, joined thousands of Chinese in a rare legal protest march on the streets of Beijing last weekend.

Yet the police herded protesters into tight groups, let them take turns throwing rocks, then told them they had "vented their anger" long enough and bused them back to campus.

"It was partly a real protest and partly a political show," Mr. Sun said in an interview this week. "I felt a little like a puppet." China has tapped a deep strain of nationalism among its people, gambling, analysts say, that it can propel itself to a leadership role in Asia while cloaking its move for power in the guise of wounded pride and popular will.

2012:

Anti-Japan protests continue in China

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0bhYA4sE08

May 2008

More than 71,000 people are dead, missing or buried under rubble following the devastating earthquake that hit China's Sichuan province. Click on the map to find out more about some of the worst-affected places

Chinese Riot Over Handling of Girl’s Killing

A police building burning Saturday in Weng’an County in Guizhou Province, China. Other government buildings were also burned by rioters.

Parents’ Grief Turns to Rage at Chinese Officials

Two girls looked at the remains of the Juyuan Middle School. Although there is no official casualty count, parents say only 13 of the school's 900 students came out alive.

Parents marched on Sunday, holding pictures of their lost children,

often their only

one because of China's population-control policy. The protests threaten to undermine the government's attempt to promote its response to the quake as effective. But authorities in

Beijing appear to have recognized the delicacy of the issue, and officials have expressed strong-worded statements vowing to find those guilty of cutting corners on school construction

Results: Cutting corners, protests and promises to crack down on corruption

Protesting parents clashed with police trying to block the march. During the struggle, the broken glass from the pictures of dead children wounded several parents, and the fight left them trembling with emotion. While censors have blocked detailed reporting of the schools controversy by the state-run media, bold commentary did call on the government to step up investigations into faulty school construction.

See slideshow: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/05/28/world/20080528QUAKE_9.html

Petitions:

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa_9mx YAxy4

Hong Kong “One Country; Two Systems”

Macao: Administered by Portugal until 1999, it was the oldest European colony in China, dating back to the 16th century (ah yes, the Iberian Century). The administrative power over Macau was transferred to the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1999, and it is now one of two special administrative regions of the PRC, together with Hong Kong.

Hong Kong was a Crown colony of the United Kingdom from 1842 (hmmm what happened then?) until the transfer of sovereignty to the People's Republic of China in 1997. It operates under China's “one country-two systems” policy. EG . . . .the one china policy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wzpPjVu5tg

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.

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

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

Lives of Poverty, Untouched by China’s Boom

Cleavages: separatist movements Uighurs in Xinjiang province The death penalty is now aimed at separatists as well as drug criminals, Amnesty says 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 • • • 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."

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 .

Sarah Mac goes to Xinjiang Province

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.

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.

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

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

China Bans Mosque Meetings in Strife-Torn Region

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

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdfoCD2qfWw

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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 key to pacifying the Buddhist region , China ’s aim is to make Tibet wealthier — and more Chinese. Chinese leaders see development, along with an enhanced security presence, as the . 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

August 11, 2011

Chinese-Appointed Religious Leader Sent to Important Tibetan Monastery

By ANDR EW 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.

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.

Chinese Nationalism Fuels Tibet Crackdown

Meng Huizhong expressed anger at what she saw as lax government response to Tibet unrest

China's Christians suffer for their faith

Christianity is not actually banned in China. In fact, according to the constitution, "citizens of religious belief."

Peter Xu Yongze was in jail for a total of eight years

the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of

Beijing backed up that statement in 1997, saying that "In China, no one is to be punished due to their religious belief". 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.

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

http://www.chinatoday.com/city/china_autonomous_regions.htm

Autonomous Regions

are provincial level administrative division of China, like province, an autonomous region has its own local government, but has more legislative rights. Autonomous Region is a minority entity which has higher population of a particular minority ethnic group. China has 5 autonomous regions: Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Tibet (Xizang) and Xinjiang

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 “

reserves seats”

for ethnic minorities in the N P(eople’s) C Crack down on religion practices: Use registration rules to send home “unregistered clergy” ; ban meetings by unregistered churches, no passports for hajj Force and executions for separatists “

celebrate”

differences ASSIMILATION: Encourage/facilitate migration of ethnic Han

Celebrate Differences

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

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

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

How does China deal with cleavages?

China Has Sentenced 55 Over Tibet Riot in March

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

An element of democracy? Village Elections . . . Or a way to deal with corruption Direct: for village council and local People’s Congress Multiple candidates and secret ballots and candidates who are not party members . . . ooh ah

Local elections have increased but may be limited in their influence CCP still controls though—popularly elected village councils and chief exist in parallel with local party structure—village council has no power of purse, or of police. About 70% of village chiefs are CCP members Go to: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/06/programmes_china0s_village_bal lot_box/html/1.stm

Timeline: China

Review it all

A chronology of key events:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1288392.stm

Globalization describes the way international economic, social, cultural and technological forces are affecting what goes on within an individual country Hauss Globalization: the intensification of worldwide interconnectedness associated with the increased speed and magnitude of cross-boarder flows of trade, investment and finance, and process of migration, cultural diffusion and communication; Kessleman Globalization: the growing economic interdependence of countries worldwide through increasing volume and variety of cross-border transactions in goods and services, freer international capital flows, and more rapid and widespread diffusion of technology” (IMF, World Economic Outlook, May, 1997).

Globalization is the term used to describe the changes in societies and the world economy that result from dramatically increased international trade. It describes the increase of trade and investing due to the falling of barriers and the interdependence of countries. In specifically economic contexts, the term refers almost exclusively to the effects of trade, particularly trade liberalization or “free trade.” More broadly, the term refers to the overall integration, and resulting increase in interdependence, among global actors (be they political, economic, or otherwise).It shares a number of characteristics with internationalization and is often used interchangeably, although some prefer to use globalization to emphasize the erosion of the nation-state or national boundaries. The Evil Wickepedia

GLF and CR: mass campaigns

: movements initiated and guided by the party leadership to get the masses to take collective action to support or help realize a particular policy or political objective

MOBILIZED participation