This paper analyzes recent protests and uprisings in China and explores their connection to human rights abuses. It discusses how the Chinese government has a long history of corruption and human rights violations. Many of the protests are a result of issues with land expropriation by local governments, including forced relocation, low compensation, and embezzlement of funds. Other causes of unrest include censorship, lack of political freedom, and ethnic/religious tensions in places like Tibet and Xinjiang. The government often responds to protests with violence and arrests. Overall, the paper examines how lack of political rights and human rights abuses have fueled growing dissent across China in recent years.
Land Confiscations and Collective Action in Myanmar’s Dawei Special Economic ...MYO AUNG Myanmar
Global governance/politics, climate justice & agrarian/social justice: linkages and challenges
An international colloquium-4‐5 February 2016
Colloquium Paper No. 59
Land Confiscations and Collective Action in Myanmar’s Dawei
Special Economic Zone Area: Implications for Rural
Democratization
Yukari Sekine
International Institute of Social Studies (ISS)
Kortenaerkade 12, 2518AX
The Hague, The Netherlands
Yukari Sekine is a PhD candidate in Anthropology at the Amsterdam
Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR), University of
Amsterdam. She has an M.A. in Global Studies from Sophia
University, Tokyo, Japan, and a B.A. in Journalism from Pontifícia
Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC‐SP), São Paulo, Brazil. Her
research focuses on land grabbing, collective action and
democratization in Burma/Myanmar.
A fast socio-economic alteration in China had been accompanied with a lessening of several restrictions on basic human rights. However, the communal government of China appears to retain its authoritarian outlook of a single-party nation. Arbitrary curbs are imposed on association, expression, religion and assembly in China and the government even prohibits the formation of independent human rights organizations and labor unions and retains control of the party on every judicial institution in the country.
Land Confiscations and Collective Action in Myanmar’s Dawei Special Economic ...MYO AUNG Myanmar
Global governance/politics, climate justice & agrarian/social justice: linkages and challenges
An international colloquium-4‐5 February 2016
Colloquium Paper No. 59
Land Confiscations and Collective Action in Myanmar’s Dawei
Special Economic Zone Area: Implications for Rural
Democratization
Yukari Sekine
International Institute of Social Studies (ISS)
Kortenaerkade 12, 2518AX
The Hague, The Netherlands
Yukari Sekine is a PhD candidate in Anthropology at the Amsterdam
Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR), University of
Amsterdam. She has an M.A. in Global Studies from Sophia
University, Tokyo, Japan, and a B.A. in Journalism from Pontifícia
Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC‐SP), São Paulo, Brazil. Her
research focuses on land grabbing, collective action and
democratization in Burma/Myanmar.
A fast socio-economic alteration in China had been accompanied with a lessening of several restrictions on basic human rights. However, the communal government of China appears to retain its authoritarian outlook of a single-party nation. Arbitrary curbs are imposed on association, expression, religion and assembly in China and the government even prohibits the formation of independent human rights organizations and labor unions and retains control of the party on every judicial institution in the country.
Act 00071 le trio gagnang de l'infrastructure géomatique ouverte (igo)ACSG - Section Montréal
L'Infrastructure de géomatique ouverte (IGO) est une solution libre en géomatique lancée en août 2015 provenant de l'Administration publique québécoise. Le trio gagnant d'IGO pour assurer sa pérennité : une mise en commun ouverte, une communauté active et des services web partageables.
Act 00033 traitement efficace des projets photogrammétriques par dronesACSG - Section Montréal
L’utilisation croissante des drones pose de nouveaux défis pour le traitement des projets de photogrammétrie. Cette présentation illustre les défis rencontrés et apporte des recommandations pour permettre un traitement efficace des images acquises par drone.
Virtual Civil Society But It Is Real.docDoan Trang
This paper provides an overview of the rise of civil society in Vietnam in the last five years from 2007 to 2012. It focuses on how civil society has been growing since 2011 with the crucial contribution of social media networks even though the political culture around it is communist. In addition to describing the growth of civil society, it seeks to outline the many measures that the ruling communist party has been taking to put blogosphere in Vietnam under tight control, and the ongoing online war between the party and democracy activists.
Despite the daunting control by the ruling communist party, civil society has been burgeoning and broadening its influence in Vietnam, with the Internet as its starting point.
Economic repercussion of political movementsAmarwaha
Drawing on both classic and modern work, we propose to find out the economic repercussions and political implications of protest movements. Due to failure in experiment in social changes and development mass hysteria has developed among masses which are heavily burdened by state but does not profit from countries boom.
BURMA IN TRANSITION-http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/burma-transi...MYO AUNG Myanmar
Since 2010, Burma has been an epicenter of unexpected, unprecedented, and rapid change. Following a quasi-free election in 2010, the Burmese government released hundreds of political prisoners, relaxed media restrictions, legalized labor unions, implemented crucial economic reforms, and made several attempts at national reconciliation with ethnic armed groups.
Most significantly, the government allowed for the development of a more open political environment in which leading opposition leader and former political prisoner Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and her party, the National League for Democracy, won a landslide victory in parliamentary by-elections. Civil society is in overdrive and determined to make the most of the openings. Protests on Burma’s streets are a common occurrence.
However, despite the positive developments, Burma remains mired in conflict. These photographs present a snapshot of life in Burma today, highlighting both the causes for hope and progress and the immense challenges that remain.
Protestors still feel the threat of arrest and violent crackdowns, and though nominal democracy has replaced military autocracy, its processes are far from democratic. Military attacks against the ethnic Kachin and Shan villages continue, and have resulted in an increase in the number of internally displaced persons in the country. Decades of misrule have crippled Burma’s infrastructure and its economy at large. Additionally, the health care and education systems are in disarray and severely underfunded.
For the past two decades, Burma’s democracy movement has advocated for tripartite dialogue between the government, Aung San Suu Kyi, and representatives of ethnic nationalities. While the government is now in dialogue with opposition forces, its tenuous ceasefire processes with ethnic leaders often lack transparency, divide ethnic representatives, and exclude civil society.
Genuine peace and national reconciliation will not be possible without respect for the fundamental principles of equality and non-discrimination. Arakan State witnessed what appeared to be state-sanctioned violence against the minority Rohingya ethnic group, which resulted in mass displacement, arrests, and deaths. Government officials continue to practice systematic discrimination against the mostly Muslim group, denying their most basic rights. In addition, several hundred political prisoners remain behind bars. And Burmese democracy is hamstrung by its undemocratic 2008 Constitution, which mandates that 25 percent of seats in Parliament belong to the military.
Transitions are never easy and Burma’s is more complicated than it may seem. The general desire for a democratic and inclusive state is widely shared, but the country is hardly out of the weeds. Civil society victories, such as the successful protests that suspended the Myitsone Dam in 2011, are undermined by events like the violent crackdown on monks and villagers protesting at the Letpadaung c
The insurrection in Chile is a consequence of its growing social inequalities imposed by the neoliberal economic model. The popular insurrection results, fundamentally, from the divorce between the neoliberal state and the economically dispossessed civil society that is undermined in their social rights.
1CHAPTER 6 CHINAChinaBook ReferenceTerrill, R. J. (EttaBenton28
1
CHAPTER 6: CHINA
China
Book Reference
Terrill, R. J. (2016). World criminal justice systems: A comparative survey. Routledge.
Concepts to Know
· Kuomintang
· Cultural Revolution
· Deng Xiaoping
· National People’s Congress
· Standing Committee
· The “Mass Line”
· Ministry of Public Security
· Residents’ Committees
· Criminal Detention
· Adjudication Committees
· Political-legal Committees
· Supreme People’s Court
· Basic People’s Courts
· Procuratorate
· People’s Assessor
· Confucians
· Legalists
· Compulsory Measures
· Administrative Regulations
· Labor Camps
· Death Penalty
· Bang-jiao
Introduction
CHINA is an ancient country that has one of the oldest civilizations on earth. Its written history is almost 4,000 years old, and throughout much of its existence, its cultural traditions have had a profound impact on the entire East Asian region. China occupies much of the mainland of East Asia and shares land borders with 14 countries (Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Vietnam). With a geographical area of about 3.7 million square miles, China is slightly larger than the United States (see Figure 6.1). Among the countries of the world, only Russia and Canada are larger in area. Unlike the United States, where almost 20 percent of the land is utilized for agriculture, China cultivates around 10 percent of its land on a permanent basis.
Because of rugged and inhospitable geographical conditions, particularly in the western regions, large areas of China are uninhabited. As a result, approximately two-thirds of the population live along the east coast, which represents about one-fifth of the land. China has long held the distinction of having the world’s largest population at more than 1.3 billion. This figure is greater than the combined populations of Europe, Russia, and the United States. More than 91 percent of the people belong to the Han ethnic group. All of the other ethnic minorities represent less than 1 percent of the population, with the exception of the Zhuang minority at 1.3 percent of the total population.
Approximately 31 percent of the labor force is employed in agriculture and forestry, with industrial and service ventures employing 30 and 36 percent, respectively. Iron, steel, and textiles are among the more prominent industries. In 1978, Chinese leaders initiated a program to modernize agriculture, industry, science and technology, and national defense. Their goal was to achieve a fairly advanced industrialized country by the year 2000. This program was prompted, in part, by the fact that the standard of living had been in a considerable state of decline since the 1950s.
Throughout China’s more recent political history under communism, the state essentially owned the industrial enterprises and commercial ventures of the country. Because people were guaranteed life-long employment, concerns about workforce productivity had been negl ...
Act 00071 le trio gagnang de l'infrastructure géomatique ouverte (igo)ACSG - Section Montréal
L'Infrastructure de géomatique ouverte (IGO) est une solution libre en géomatique lancée en août 2015 provenant de l'Administration publique québécoise. Le trio gagnant d'IGO pour assurer sa pérennité : une mise en commun ouverte, une communauté active et des services web partageables.
Act 00033 traitement efficace des projets photogrammétriques par dronesACSG - Section Montréal
L’utilisation croissante des drones pose de nouveaux défis pour le traitement des projets de photogrammétrie. Cette présentation illustre les défis rencontrés et apporte des recommandations pour permettre un traitement efficace des images acquises par drone.
Virtual Civil Society But It Is Real.docDoan Trang
This paper provides an overview of the rise of civil society in Vietnam in the last five years from 2007 to 2012. It focuses on how civil society has been growing since 2011 with the crucial contribution of social media networks even though the political culture around it is communist. In addition to describing the growth of civil society, it seeks to outline the many measures that the ruling communist party has been taking to put blogosphere in Vietnam under tight control, and the ongoing online war between the party and democracy activists.
Despite the daunting control by the ruling communist party, civil society has been burgeoning and broadening its influence in Vietnam, with the Internet as its starting point.
Economic repercussion of political movementsAmarwaha
Drawing on both classic and modern work, we propose to find out the economic repercussions and political implications of protest movements. Due to failure in experiment in social changes and development mass hysteria has developed among masses which are heavily burdened by state but does not profit from countries boom.
BURMA IN TRANSITION-http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/burma-transi...MYO AUNG Myanmar
Since 2010, Burma has been an epicenter of unexpected, unprecedented, and rapid change. Following a quasi-free election in 2010, the Burmese government released hundreds of political prisoners, relaxed media restrictions, legalized labor unions, implemented crucial economic reforms, and made several attempts at national reconciliation with ethnic armed groups.
Most significantly, the government allowed for the development of a more open political environment in which leading opposition leader and former political prisoner Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and her party, the National League for Democracy, won a landslide victory in parliamentary by-elections. Civil society is in overdrive and determined to make the most of the openings. Protests on Burma’s streets are a common occurrence.
However, despite the positive developments, Burma remains mired in conflict. These photographs present a snapshot of life in Burma today, highlighting both the causes for hope and progress and the immense challenges that remain.
Protestors still feel the threat of arrest and violent crackdowns, and though nominal democracy has replaced military autocracy, its processes are far from democratic. Military attacks against the ethnic Kachin and Shan villages continue, and have resulted in an increase in the number of internally displaced persons in the country. Decades of misrule have crippled Burma’s infrastructure and its economy at large. Additionally, the health care and education systems are in disarray and severely underfunded.
For the past two decades, Burma’s democracy movement has advocated for tripartite dialogue between the government, Aung San Suu Kyi, and representatives of ethnic nationalities. While the government is now in dialogue with opposition forces, its tenuous ceasefire processes with ethnic leaders often lack transparency, divide ethnic representatives, and exclude civil society.
Genuine peace and national reconciliation will not be possible without respect for the fundamental principles of equality and non-discrimination. Arakan State witnessed what appeared to be state-sanctioned violence against the minority Rohingya ethnic group, which resulted in mass displacement, arrests, and deaths. Government officials continue to practice systematic discrimination against the mostly Muslim group, denying their most basic rights. In addition, several hundred political prisoners remain behind bars. And Burmese democracy is hamstrung by its undemocratic 2008 Constitution, which mandates that 25 percent of seats in Parliament belong to the military.
Transitions are never easy and Burma’s is more complicated than it may seem. The general desire for a democratic and inclusive state is widely shared, but the country is hardly out of the weeds. Civil society victories, such as the successful protests that suspended the Myitsone Dam in 2011, are undermined by events like the violent crackdown on monks and villagers protesting at the Letpadaung c
The insurrection in Chile is a consequence of its growing social inequalities imposed by the neoliberal economic model. The popular insurrection results, fundamentally, from the divorce between the neoliberal state and the economically dispossessed civil society that is undermined in their social rights.
1CHAPTER 6 CHINAChinaBook ReferenceTerrill, R. J. (EttaBenton28
1
CHAPTER 6: CHINA
China
Book Reference
Terrill, R. J. (2016). World criminal justice systems: A comparative survey. Routledge.
Concepts to Know
· Kuomintang
· Cultural Revolution
· Deng Xiaoping
· National People’s Congress
· Standing Committee
· The “Mass Line”
· Ministry of Public Security
· Residents’ Committees
· Criminal Detention
· Adjudication Committees
· Political-legal Committees
· Supreme People’s Court
· Basic People’s Courts
· Procuratorate
· People’s Assessor
· Confucians
· Legalists
· Compulsory Measures
· Administrative Regulations
· Labor Camps
· Death Penalty
· Bang-jiao
Introduction
CHINA is an ancient country that has one of the oldest civilizations on earth. Its written history is almost 4,000 years old, and throughout much of its existence, its cultural traditions have had a profound impact on the entire East Asian region. China occupies much of the mainland of East Asia and shares land borders with 14 countries (Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Vietnam). With a geographical area of about 3.7 million square miles, China is slightly larger than the United States (see Figure 6.1). Among the countries of the world, only Russia and Canada are larger in area. Unlike the United States, where almost 20 percent of the land is utilized for agriculture, China cultivates around 10 percent of its land on a permanent basis.
Because of rugged and inhospitable geographical conditions, particularly in the western regions, large areas of China are uninhabited. As a result, approximately two-thirds of the population live along the east coast, which represents about one-fifth of the land. China has long held the distinction of having the world’s largest population at more than 1.3 billion. This figure is greater than the combined populations of Europe, Russia, and the United States. More than 91 percent of the people belong to the Han ethnic group. All of the other ethnic minorities represent less than 1 percent of the population, with the exception of the Zhuang minority at 1.3 percent of the total population.
Approximately 31 percent of the labor force is employed in agriculture and forestry, with industrial and service ventures employing 30 and 36 percent, respectively. Iron, steel, and textiles are among the more prominent industries. In 1978, Chinese leaders initiated a program to modernize agriculture, industry, science and technology, and national defense. Their goal was to achieve a fairly advanced industrialized country by the year 2000. This program was prompted, in part, by the fact that the standard of living had been in a considerable state of decline since the 1950s.
Throughout China’s more recent political history under communism, the state essentially owned the industrial enterprises and commercial ventures of the country. Because people were guaranteed life-long employment, concerns about workforce productivity had been negl ...
Summary Hong Kongs protests started in June against proposals t.docxdeanmtaylor1545
Summary
Hong Kong's protests started in June against proposals to allow extradition to mainland China. Critics feared this could undermine the city's judicial independence and endanger dissidents. A former British colony, Hong Kong has some autonomy and more rights than the mainland under a "one country, two systems" deal. City leader Carrie Lam agreed to suspend the bill, but demonstrations continued and developed to include demands for full democracy and an inquiry into police actions. The bill was finally withdrawn in September. Clashes between police and activists have been becoming increasingly violent, with police using tear gas and activists storming parliament.
Tie to class
There are several different international reactions to the Hong Kong protest. In the United States, president Donald Trump condemned the developing violence of the protests in calling the events 'riots'. He also said the US will not involve itself. In response, a bipartisan group of senators issued a statement to Trump, condemning Beijing's efforts to undermine Hong Kong's autonomy. In the letter, they declared Hong Kong's governance is not China's internal affair and that if the U.S fails to respond to Beijing's threats it would only encourage Chinese leaders to act with impunity. Trump administration officials said the day after that the president had no intention to signal a policy change or an endorsement of China's position.
North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong ho said that, North Korea fully supports the stand and measures of China to defend the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of the country and safeguard the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong, and concerns about foreign forces interference in Hong Kong issue.
The European External Action Service said rights "need to be respected" in Hong Kong. Over the past months, the people of Hong Kong have exercised their fundamental right to assemble and express themselves freely and peacefully. These rights need to be respected.
We can see how they react differently by the political bias they have in their country. Especially, North Korea is a country based on socialism. And that is why they entirely support China.
Personal Takeaway
My personally support the Hong Kong protest. Not only because I have Hongkongese friends, but also because I am Korean. This protest is basically occured by the political problem. Back in the days, Korea also have suffered from losing freedom. We also had a big pre-democracy movement in the 1980s. The government totally repressed the protestors even physical attack just like the Hong kong police nowadays. The protestors didn't surrender at all and finally we got the freedom from the government. I hope Hong Kong protestors could gain the things they want without any harm.
.
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Vibhuti Patel Human Rights Movement in india Social Change, Sage, vol. 40, no...VIBHUTI PATEL
Human rights movement in India got its germination during the Emergency
Rule during 1975–1977 and developed during the post Emergency period.
Two major trends were marked by Civil liberties concerns and the rights
based perspectives. In the last 35 years, the human rights movement has been
enriched by collective wisdom emerging from the tribal movement, peasant
struggles, environmental movement, women’s liberation movement, child rights
movement, dalit movement and struggles of the differently abled persons. The
state and the mainstream institutions have had love hate relationships with
different types of human rights movements at different phases of history.Human rights movement in India got its germination during the Emergency
Rule during 1975–1977 and developed during the post Emergency period.
Two major trends were marked by Civil liberties concerns and the rights
based perspectives. In the last 35 years, the human rights movement has been
enriched by collective wisdom emerging from the tribal movement, peasant
struggles, environmental movement, women’s liberation movement, child rights
movement, dalit movement and struggles of the differently abled persons. The
state and the mainstream institutions have had love hate relationships with
different types of human rights movements at different phases of history.
Protests, Uprisings, and Human Rights in Modern Day China
1. Gabriel Passmore
POLS 454
Term Paper
November 14, 2012
Protests, Uprisings, and Human Rights in Modern Day China
In recent years China has experienced a series of uprisings, revolts, and protests in
different provinces throughout the country. Why are these protests occurring and are they
connected to the Chinese Communist Governments abuse of human rights? These events
are significant to the question because China has had a long history of governmental
corruption and years of human rights abuses that has sparked international attention. The
main themes that will be presented in this paper include the types of political issues that
activated these protests. The prospect that the causes behind these protests are related or
connected to the government in some way will be highlighted in the main section of the
paper. The issue over human rights abuses will be discussed as well as the relevance of
the lack of freedom in China that can be a contributing motivator to ignite an upheaval
when peace is absent.
Human rights abuses has plagued China’s republic for decades because China is still
an un-democratic country whose government displays an arsenal of abuses towards its
citizens for the sole reason of staying in power. The Chinese Communist Government
still to this day implores a series of measures that are designed to control and remind the
masses of who’s in charge. The concept of power is an obvious indictor of why the
Chinese Communist Party controls the population in the form of subjects for the
continuation of the regime. Human rights abuses are handed down as a concept of fear.
Fear, that if the Chinese government opens up to full democracy then they will surely fall
2. from power. The Chinese people face a fear in the form of abuses that will scare the
population and keep them in line, never to face down the government and its visible
corruption because of the consequences if an individual steps out of line.
In the awake of these protests and uprisings the Chinese people have cared less about
fear and more about standing up for their rights. As a consequence, the Chinese
government acts ever so swiftly in order to stop these incidents from accelerating into
something catastrophic that the government might not be able to control. In the after math
of the chaos many Chinese citizens have been injured in the form beatings, detained by
the police, or died as a result. On May 13, 1999, tensions between villagers and
government officials had escalated to the point that water hoses had to be used to disperse
the crowd. Seventeen people had been arrested and seven were charged with criminal
activity. Thousands of protesters clashed with the police in China’s southwestern Yunnan
province, blocking major traffic routes and wrecking an ambulance because the
paramedics were taking care of injured police officers and ignoring protesters who were
also injured. The police have shot and killed two people, arrested twenty while seriously
injuring a third person in a protest outside a rubber plant in the Yunnan province.
Hundreds of villagers armed with shovels and sticks clashed with police and construction
workers in the city of Zhaotong in the northeast Yunnan province. Fifty vehicles were
destroyed and twenty people were injured when a villager was punched and kicked by
security guards for taking pictures.
In the past, protests were mostly seen in rural areas and small towns, led by villagers,
farmers, and migrant workers. However, as of 2011 many of these uprisings were
reported in major cities. The protests in Wukan were demonstrated as a farmer set off
3. three bombs that killed two people including himself while injuring ten others. On June
10, 2011 a Chinese citizen claimed that he was going to take revenge on society by
setting off explosives outside of local government offices. As a result, two people were
injured in the attack. Social groups are on the rise in China and they employ a certain
event to express their anger towards the government. One event of this nature was the
July 23, 2011 high-speed train collision that killed forty people and injured one hundred
ninety two in the after math. Social protests have also been on the rise in China as was
the case with the rise of the Arab revolutions were overseas websites supported the effort,
which led to a crackdown on civil society by the government were numerous writers,
bloggers, and human rights lawyers were arrested. One of the highest profile cases of
social protest was the April 3, 2011 arrest of famous Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. However,
Ai was released after the domestic and international media pressured the Chinese
authorities. Today, Ai is kept under house arrest by the Chinese government.
Work place protests are common throughout China, especially in August and
September of 2004 in the Dazhou province where over one hundred workers of the
Tongda Chemical Company “blocked the main gate of the living quarters of the factory
staff and attempted to stop them from going to work”(Zhang). On June 28, 2008 in the
Weng’an province, a local government invoked 30,000 violent protesters that descended
onto the station torching three government buildings and burning cars. The police
responded by using tear gas to break up the crowd. Local police were hit with stones and
sticks in the Shishou province in the attempt to protect a dead body from becoming
cremated. Ethnic religious tensions reached a peak in the Xinjiang province with a
Uighur uprising, which claimed the lives of one hundred and eighty four people. Social
4. justice issues triggered protests in the northeastern city of Tonghua, which resulted in a
manager being beaten to death when he threatened the protesters. The violence in Lhasa
has been ongoing for many years in the awake of human rights abuses from the Chinese
government, were individuals are mercilessly tortured with different kinds of materials.
People are regarded as animals that are suspended in the air while their limbs are
shackled, ice is rubbed on their skin and then they are touched with an electric prod.
There are also protests of how women are treated in Lhasa in which they are forced to
have mandatory sterilizations.
The protests and uprisings that have occurred in China over the recent years have not
happened because of coincidence or random deception, but rather for a reason to express
animosity towards the Chinese government’s authoritarian rule. The Yunnan protests
were a result of enforced land expropriation through coercive measures by the township
government. The government officials would enter the village and force householders
into accepting compensation payments for their land. Then they would move in with their
utility vehicles and bulldozers, destroying crops and often conspiring to take more land
then they were permitted. The land contracts often contained escalating tuition fees and
high taxes such as the education surcharge, which affected the householder’s financial
stability. Many villagers were angry that the compensation they were supposed to be
renewed for was often postponed for reasons unknown. The government officials
contradicted the central policies that were intended to protect the villager’s interests. For
example, the expropriated land would be used to build a school, but instead the land
would be used to benefit the officials by building private residences and business
premises.
5. More riots have ensued in the Yunnan province because of compensation issues. The
residents are being forced to resettle for the construction of a dam. The disputes over
payment continue to remain unresolved and the residents are dissatisfied with the quality
of the resettlement houses because there are located on an earthquake zone. The unrest
that occurred at a rubber plant in the Yunnan province that resulted in two people being
killed by the police was caused over a dispute involving the sale of the crops. The rubber
farmers protested against the local government because they were forcing the farmers to
sell their crops at prices that were forty percent lower than what they obtain in the open
market. These land protests are occurring almost every month in China because of the
local government’s violation of central government regulations on compensation and the
provision of temporary housing for residents. The local government officials usually go
ahead with the land acquisitions without the consent of the villagers on projects that don’t
acquire the amount of land taken, which is then embezzled from the proceeds of the sale.
Two of the incidents in the Wukan province that claimed the life of two people and
injured many were the result of yet another case of low compensation for the
expropriation of land that government took from farmers. Many of the social protests in
the Wukan province that claimed life and injury were caused by the citizen’s anger at the
Chinese government’s tightened political control of media censorship and freedom of
expression. More than two hundred million Chinese citizens are using weibo, which is the
Chinese equivalent of Twitter. They use this social networking system to discuss politics,
ask questions, and talk about issues within society that makes them angry. This has
challenged China’s political and propaganda establishment as citizens now have the
opportunity to indirectly criticize the government and pre plan events that can under mine
6. the system. The protests in the Dazhou province between workers and factory staff was
caused by the workers suspecting that the Dazhou local government breached procedures
and were involved in illegal activities that interfered with the operation of enterprise
structuring. The local government had secretly worked out a restructuring plan for the
workers without their representation and made them sign documents saying they would
agree to it.
Protests in the Weng’an province were caused when a young woman’s body was
found in the river. When relatives of the deceased woman went to the police station to
inquire about an investigation they were beaten for no reason and told it was a suicide.
The local government’s poor ability to handle possible criminal incidents, but quick
response to crush protests has caused for the case to be reopened for investigation. The
police officer who assaulted the family was fired, but the case was still ruled a suicide.
Distrust in governmental politicians, corruption, and social turmoil are some of the
leading causes of a series of incidents that occurred in the Shishou province that received
much attention nationwide through the Internet in 2009. The protests erupted when “a
young waiter died after falling from a third floor widow of a hotel reportedly owned by a
local politician who was involved in drug smuggling”(Wu). The police proclaim that the
waiter’s death was the result of a suicide. The local residents denied the police’s
conclusion and instead believed that “the young man had been killed by the hotel
manager to cover up crime and corruption”(Wu). The local police rushed to try and have
the body cremated so the residents would never know the truth about what really
happened. The Uighur riots that occurred in the Xinjiang province were the result of
building ethnic tensions by the government dominated Han Chinese who are intolerant to
7. minority groups such as the Uighurs. The incident that claimed the life of a manager at
the Tonghua Steel Company was caused by the transition to a market based economy as
the workers became angry and protested because they lost their benefits when the
formerly state owned Steel Company became privatized.
The continued unrest in Lhasa can be contributed to the routine abuse of human rights
by the Chinese government. Lhasa, which is located in Tibet, has always considered itself
independent form the rest of China. Tibetans view themselves as culturally distant form
China through language and religion. Protests are common in Lhasa because of the
Chinese governments driving force to eradicate the Tibetan people from the region,
which includes the use of culture genocide. Culture genocide involves political
imprisonment and the routine use of torture on Tibetan civilians for “the illegitimacy of
China’s sovereignty in the region”(Adams). China is intolerant towards Tibet because of
the ethnic divide between the two groups. The Chinese government is systematically
trying to eliminate all traces of Tibetan culture by suppressing language and religion.
Another form of abuse that causes protests in Lhasa is the treatment of women in the
region. Women are subjected to mandatory sterilizations and forced abortions. This is the
Chinese governments way of reducing the Tibetan population. Tibetans are angry that the
Chinese government would resort to these measures of abuse in hopes of purifying the
Han majority.
When exploring the causes for the recent protests and uprisings in China, the
reoccurring theme is the government’s expropriation of land from the peasant majority.
The peasants are supposed to be compensated by the government for the confiscation of
their land. Land contracts are usually shady deals in which the peasants compensation is
8. postponed and the reimbursement of land is sometimes located in disaster areas. The
local Chinese government is to blame for a great deal of the protests that occur on a
monthly basis. Whether its unapproved land grabs, corruption, or criminal cover-ups, the
local government is involved in some way. Even though the local government officials
receive their authority and regulations from the central government, never is it reveled
that the central authorities hold the local officials accountable for breaking the law.
Two other factors that revolve around the causes for protests and uprisings in modern
day China are social turmoil and human rights abuses. The Chinese government controls
all aspects of the media and the freedom of speech. No one is allowed to voice his or her
opinion or criticize the government in any way. For years the central authorities have told
the average Chinese citizen what to do, what they can and cannot say, and how to think.
It is to no surprise that the Chinese people protest and rise up when their inalienable
rights such as freedom is suppressed in the from of government crackdowns. Human
rights abuses in the form of cultural genocide conclude why the Tibetan people protest to
stabilize their threatened minority from extinction by the Chinese government.
9. Work Cited
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