Read The Year of the Angry Rabbit here.
See a map of China here.
Read more about China here.
Summary
The video
-A video was released making reference to all kinds of political issues and parodying Chinese leaders. All links to the video were blocked immediately.
The Protests
-The author questions if this signals the end of the population’s passiveness towards the government. Will Beijing join Cairo in uprising? Can there be success there after 1989’s Tiananmen Square?
-Twice now there have been online calls for a Jasmine Revolution, strictly rallying people for non-violent non-co-operation. These protests heeded immense overreaction from the Chinese police.
-Protests aren’t breaking out in mass amounts: the economic gap is widening between prosperity and stagnation but the population is old. They aren’t young and angry activists like other countries.
-However social justice and economic stability are very poor
The Government
-many governments under revolt in the Middle East acted blind to all forming of teams of opposition. China’s government has been keeping a paranoid eye and a military-enforced foot down on the few dissidents.
The Technology
-Much like in other uprisings technology (blogs, facebook, micro-blogs) have been severely monitored so nothing contradicts the state-run media and technology can’t help the dissidents communicate
The Long-Run
-Thoughts that the original protests with only a few dissidents briefly making appearances was only a test of the strength of the government
Article Analysis
Complex
Interrelated
Political
-no real elections take place
-government is allowing economic re-structuring that does not accord with traditional communist ideals
-government has control over media, technology, everything
-government takes action to obsessively prevent opposition
Economic
-widening economic gap in China
-rapid inflation
-incomes becoming disproportionate to rising commodity cost
Social
-social injustice
-dissidents immediately and severely suppressed by central authority
-if economy is further divided, quality of life will go down
Controversial
How did this issue start?
Social problems have existed for Chinese citizens for a long time. There is fear among citizens that protest will cause disruption and could destroy economic progress thus far.
How should it be resolved?
Opposition should not be so strongly and overwhelmingly discouraged. I think the key to equality is to allow public opinion.
My Opinion
The Chinese government is restructuring and modernizing their economy to benefit certain industries and groups of people. However this shift in government thinking is leaving certain aspects of the economy unbalanced; they are allowing inflation of food prices on one hand but not accounting for the income required to purchase this food. As far as I’m aware, the communist regime is meant to centralize control of all aspects of life for its citizens. This should include the economy and society. If the government should choose to prioritize one group’s economic success over another’s within its own country, it should also be prepared to change its role in society. This means, if they are going to continue to govern successfully, they need to take the opposition seriously.
Dissidents like those participating in the protests mentioned before, remain dissidents because full-fledged protests and teams of opposition are so strongly and systematically suppressed by authorities. The formation of a contributing opposition needs to be allowed and encouraged! Of course, this won’t be easy as communism and peaceful opposition seem to be on opposite ends of the spectrum of political thought. But the future is change. I can’t say I have any real idea of how the events in China will play out, or if any significant development will take place within the governing body. But if there were a time for change I think it is now, following the momentous events in the Middle East.
Before you go, don’t forget to look at Stuff to Check Out for this week!
Mary Tress
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