Transcript Slide 1

The Citizen and the state in China
Maybe ___________, but not glasnost
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 (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
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.
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
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
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
The death
penalty is now
aimed at
separatists as
well as drug
criminals,
Amnesty says
•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."
Sarah Mac goes to Xinjiang Province
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.
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.
Chinese soldiers marched on the
streets of Urumqi in China's
western Xinjiang province on
Wednesday
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
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.
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
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
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.
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
"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."
Peter Xu Yongze was in jail for a
total of eight years
That is how Peter Xu Yongze, 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.
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."
Mr Xu, 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.
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
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".
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
Cleavages in China: Women
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
Last updated at 03:46 ET
China formally eases one-child policy
28 December 2013
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.
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
“reserves seats” for ethnic minorities in the N P(eople’s) C
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 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
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.
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 snowcapped 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
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
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
Control of the media
Weibo: China tries
but can it control its
netizens
Even With Protests
Averted, China Turns
to Intimidation of
Foreign Journalists
March 6 2011 BEIJING — Western
journalists have lately been tolerated
in China, if grudgingly, but the
spread of revolution in the Middle
East has prompted the authorities
here
to adopt a more familiar
.
tack: suddenly, foreign reporters are being tracked and detained in the same manner — though hardly as
roughly — as political dissidents On Sunday, about a dozen European and Japanese journalists in Shanghai
were herded into an underground bunkerlike room and kept for two hours after they sought to monitor the
response to calls on an anonymous Internet site for Chinese citizens to conduct a “strolling” protest against
the government outside the Peace Cinema, near People’s Square in Shanghai.
In Beijing, several plainclothes officers planted themselves on Saturday night outside the home of an
American correspondent who was severely beaten by security officers the previous week as he sought to
cover a similar Internet-inspired protest there. Seven officers in two separate cars then trailed the reporter to a
basketball game on Sunday, recording his trip on video the entire time, correspondents said.
At least a dozen other journalists and photographers were visited in their homes over the weekend and
repeatedly warned not to cause trouble — or, as one officer put it, try to “topple the party.”
The intimidation of foreign journalists is a marked shift for the Chinese authorities and a sign of the
government’s resolve to head off any antigovernment revolts like those that have swept the Middle East and
North Africa during the past two months.
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. MAY 9,
2006 NYT 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.
September 30, 2009
China Adds a Feature to Phones: Patriotism
By SHARON LaFRANIERE
BEIJING — Just in case residents of this capital are not feeling sufficiently
nationalistic ahead of National Day, the state-controlled mobile service company has
changed its customers’ cellphone ring-back tones to a patriotic song.
“It’s a gift,” said a customer service representative at China Mobile when asked
about the switch it made Monday.
A ring-back tone is what a caller hears once a number is dialed but before the other
party picks up. The standard tone is a repetitive ring.
But some cellphone users customize their ring-back tones — just as they customize
their ring tones — with favorite songs.
Many Beijing customers who use the standard tone discovered Monday that China
Mobile had a surprise for them: Callers heard “Guojia,” or “Country” — a patriotic
tune sung by the actor Jackie Chan and a female vocalist.
The lyrics include the following lines: “A country stands up in the world,” “Only when
we have a strong country can we have a prosperous family,” and “Country is glorious
perseverance.”
A performance of the song is planned for the celebration on Thursday of the 60th
anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
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.
The short-lived proclamations, published by
a mix of 13 big-city newspapers, financial
publications and regional dailies, were a
coordinated act of bravado on an issue that
has bedeviled the Communist Party since
Mao established the hukou system to prevent
famine-stricken peasants from flooding the
wealthier cities.
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
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
Naughty Little Red Book
Some relaxed media rule though
No transparency
Reintroduction of “Public Shaming” Suspected prostitutes and a
few men accused of being pimps were paraded through the
streets of Shenzhen two weeks ago as part of a crackdown. Dec
13, 2006
Listen . . . . How does China deal with cleavages?
http://www.npr.org/2012/02/21/147170229/protestsself-immolation-signs-of-a-desperate-tibet
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
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
6 Nov 2004:
China's tough handling of Paramilitary
recent protests by
troops put
villagers in Taishi,
down an
southern Guangdong
uprising of
province, has thrown into
100,000
fresh doubt its claims to
farmers in
be introducing genuine
Sichuan
democracy "from the
province
bottom up". BBC
10 April
2005:
20,000
peasants
drive off
more than
1,000 riot
police in
Huaxi,
Zhejiang
province
11 June
2005: Six
farmers
die in a
fight with
armed
men in
Shengyou
, Hebei
province
Rural Protest
6 Dec 2005:
Police shoot
dead
protesters in
Dongzhou,
Guangdong
14 Jan 2006:
Police break
up protest in
Sanjiao,
Guangdong,
over land
grabs
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.
NOW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0bhYA
4sE08
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.
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
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:
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
Beijing Accuses Taiwan Leader of 'Grave
Provocation'
March 1, 2006
President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan displayed in Taipei yesterday the official document by which
he scrapped the National Unification Council and the guidelines for unification with mainland
China.
U.S. Says No to Overnight Stay for
Taiwanese Leader May 4, 2006
BEIJING, Thursday, May 4 — Taiwan's president, Chen Shui-bian, delayed an overseas
trip at the last minute on Wednesday after the United States denied him permission to
stop overnight on American soil, a diplomatic setback for the independence-leaning
Taiwanese leader.
The rebuke suggests that the Bush administration remains displeased by Mr. Chen's
move in February to abolish a government agency set up to study reunification with
mainland China. The United States is also eager to avoid antagonizing China after some
embarrassing incidents during a visit by its president, Hu Jintao, late last month.
Bush administration officials need China's cooperation to curtail Iran's nuclear
program, and its willingness to follow the American lead on such issues often depends
on whether it perceives the United States as helping to check Taiwan's independence
drive.
Review it all
Timeline: China
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
Political Participation, Socialization and Civil Society
Historical : under dynasties: authoritarian, legitimacy
based on moral standards (Confucianism),
hierarchical, emphasis on obedience, group more
important than individual, hostile to merchants,
peasant life romanticized symbolism important. . . Not
much different under Mao
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