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April 16, 2005

The Situation in China is Growing Grave « China/Taiwan »

"Anti-Japanese" Protests Threatening to Get Out of Hand.

As one activist put it in the article:

"Nationalism is a double-edged sword," said a leading campaigner for peasant rights and rural health care.

The activist, speaking on condition of anonymity, said government critics already had begun to take advantage of a rare easing of tight political controls. "It can help the government gain support, but it can also help people who see the government as part of the problem," he said.

That's the thing. The massive sit-in protests that resulted in the Tian'anmen Square Massacre began as just people honoring a deceased official.

But when people are restricted from expressing frustration with a govt, they get quite good at proxy/indirect protests.

This may be starting out as the Chinese govt trying to send a message to Japan: "Look, you guys are so bad, even the common Chinese citizen goes out and protests how much they dislike you. This really hurts your reputation. So concede on this economic/diplomatic issue, will you?" But when you get a bunch of people together and encourage them to get a little angry, other issues start cropping up...

This could get messy/nasty for the Chinese govt.

Fortunately, they did learn something from the Tian'anmen Square Massacre: military troops make lousy riot troops. So they created the People's Armed Police and gave 'em bunches of riot gear. It has worked so far; there have been dozens of large-scale protests --even a few riots!-- since 1989, and there still hasn't been even a small-scale massacre to date. Plenty of police brutality, I'm sure, and I'd be willing to bet a good number of people not getting out of present except feet-first. Not ideal, no, but still better than 1-2k shot within a matter of hours.

I'll be praying for China, and request you do, too, if you're the praying kind. They're gonna need it.

Posted by Nathan at 07:10 AM | Comments (1)
Comments

" But when you get a bunch of people together and encourage them to get a little angry, other issues start cropping up..."

Exactly! Look at what's going on in Huankantou right now. The peasants are angry over the pollution issues and how it has affected their health. The government has failed address their grievances and as a result their anger has began to boil over. They stormed the town and began rioting in the streets with such anger that not even the police could stop them.

This is an issue that many citizens of other provinces in China are not aware of as of yet, but rest assured, if the government doesn't deal with it very carefully an issue such as this could be a dangerous catalyst for something much bigger than anti-Japanese protests.


"So they created the People's Armed Police and gave 'em bunches of riot gear. It has worked so far; there have been dozens of large-scale protests --even a few riots!-- since 1989, and there still hasn't been even a small-scale massacre to date."

Well, they haven't been very effective in Huankantou, but I imagine the government is trying to regroup and handle this as tactfully as they can because many eyes from the outside world are watching this issue.

Incidentally, the riot police that you speak of are often sent to western countries to train in crowd control and other urban police tactics. When I taught at the Zhejiang University for Public Security, I helped facilitate somewhat of an exchange program between their university/academy and a couple of local police departments back home.

I think such exchanges are a great idea because I believe it helps to create an understanding between our people and our cultures and it also helps to provide a type of mindset that might make such incidents as the Tiananmen Square Massacre less likely to be repeated.

That's just my opinion though.

Gordon

Posted by: Gordon at April 16, 2005 07:54 PM
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