Although sharing many of the same problems as Arab societies, the Arab Spring never arrived in Beijing. Why?
It has now been two years since the self-immolation of the Tunisian street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, provided the spark that set the Arab world aflame. A wave of protests spread throughout the region in quick succession and led to the overthrow of long ruling autocrats in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Libya, and possibly Syria.
The collapse of regimes like Hosni Mubarak’s in Egypt, which many considered “an exemplar of…durable authoritarianism” was a salient reminder to many that such revolutions are “inherently unpredictable.” Before long some began to speculate that the protest movements might spread to authoritarian states outside the Arab world, including China. Indeed, the Chinese government was among those that feared the unrest would spread to China because, as one observer noted, China faced the same kind of “social and political tensions caused by rising inequality, injustice, and corruption” that plagued much of the Arab world on the eve of the uprisings.
Alas it was not to be as the Chinese government has proven far more durable than many of its counterparts in the Arab world. This inevitably raises the question of what factors differentiated the Chinese government from its Arab counterparts in places like Egypt?
Fortunately,in the more than two years since Mubarak fell, a number of theories have been advanced to explain the Arab Spring.
One set of explanations has centered on social and economic drivers. According to this reasoning, unrest in the region was driven by a highly discontented and mobilized society. Youth unemployment and official corruption enraged citizens throughout much of the Arab world and the diffusion of new communications technologies, particularly social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, enabled these individuals to channel these grievances into effective anti-regime collective action.
One shortcoming of this explanation is that the same sources of discontent and social media websites are available throughout the developing world, but successful revolutions are rare. In China, for example, official statistics suggest youth unemployment is low, but independent research has found that the problem may be large and growing, particularly among the type of young, urban and highly educated groups who have spearheaded many revolutions historically. Meanwhile, cross-national measures of corruption place China squarely between Tunisia and Egypt. Finally, Internet penetration rates also place China shoulder-to-shoulder with Tunisia and Egypt, and social media has increasingly appeared as a critical tool for mobilizing Chinese protestors in frequent “mass incidents,” and spreading news of sensitive topics, such as official corruption and public health threats posed by environmental pollution.
Photo Credit: Flickr (Keith Roper)
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Kris Dannon
To Andrew K P Leung… You left a very concise comment and a very good answer to the article's author… great comment Andy!
To Para 82… Some of your comments on China's earliest technical accomplishments are misleading to say the least. Your statement, "Europe didn't have the technology to melt iron ore until the late 14th century" reveals an ignorance of the achievements of established people groups all over the globe including people inhabiting Scandinavia as well as Germanic Tribes of central europe. Many of these developed metalworking techniques in bronze first and then developed crude smelting processes to make iron implements from iron ore, at roughly the same time, 900 to 500 BC. You are right that Chinese 'alchemists' indeed did beat the rest of the world in developing a saltpeter-sulphur-carbon gunpowder but this was likely less an invention and more a discovery as it did not involve any understanding of chemical reactions, a mark of real inventive science. Indeed, most of the basis of science as we know it was created in europe well before the industrial revolution by brilliant geniuses working with very little other than deductive reasoning and very creative yet often not-so-simple experiments that built the trail of scientific proof. The advancements made in mathematics, chemistry, physics, medicine and astronomy as well as governance, law and justice were nothing short of astonishing and almosy all occurred in europe and the British Isles.
I've traveled in mainland China (actually backpacking alone throughout the country as an American citizen well before its boom) and found the Chinese people really a deeply beautiful and cultured people who suffered greatly under many brutal, totalitarian rulers throughout their long, difficult history. They lost much of their cultural relics forever during Mao's cultural revolution. The social culture is presently being ravaged once again as a result of recent economic freedoms created by a the country's embrace of unfettered capitalism in a new socialist market economy which was not wisely implemented by Deng Xiaoping's initial reforms. The situation is growing worse as a very corrupt framework of old communist regional governmental authorities are being payed-off to deliver favors to special interests. This has become especially tenuous with thousands of ongoing citizen protests pressing for demands of government action and more reforms. The communist party's last polit bureau had previously assigned two of its nine members the task of organizing clandestine party forces to counter these protests.
There is reason to be both hopeful as well as discouraged at the progress and direction the Chinese people are managing to obtain from their government … Only time will tell what China will end up becoming. Anyone who wishes to gain better understanding of the economic and social outlook for China's new economy should not miss reading "China Inc.: How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World " by Ted Fishman. A great read!
John Chan
@Kris Dannom,
Your praise on British achievements is nothing but an articulated British supremacism that dominated the British colonial rulers up to 1997. Claiming credit beyond its entitlement and dismissing others achievements seem Brits’ forte to bolster its advancement. Indeed reading Joseph Needham’s work on Science and Civilization in traditional China makes one feels that Brits’ arrogance and hubris is due to their ignorance of other civilizations.
All nations rise and fall, Britain’s decline as well as its decreasing contribution to human advancement prove it cannot escape such fate; perhaps in a not distant future people will view your extravagant claim “The advancements made in mathematics, chemistry, physics, medicine and astronomy as well as governance, law and justice were nothing short of astonishing and almosy all occurred in europe and the British Isles.” as pitiful as Chinese claim their glory of inventing compass, gun powder, paper and printing nowadays.
Newton’s laws of motion is a discovery as it did not involve any understanding of real causes; dismissing other civilization’s contribution in advancement of humanity as a luck shows the Brits’ bloating hubris is due to their small nation small mind and short existence as a civilized place in the human history, its sparkling is as long as the Mongol’s invincibility, it is only a blip in humanity.
Considering the Britain on behalf of the West is the final form of human society is blinding to its own pitfalls, an obstacle to improvement and the root of decay. Romans, Greeks, Ottomans, etc. all committed the same fatal error believing they were the final form of society; Brits is no exception, the mentality reflected in your comment shows the Brits is walking the same path as the Romans, the Greeks, or the Ottomans.
Probably learning from Chinese on modesty will be more helpful for the harmony of the world instead of bashing each other to no end.
Bankotsu
"The west will never be happy till china falls since it has proved their system (democray) wrong!"
Rise of China is nothing but an eyesore to the west.
sunful-tulip
The west will never be happy till china falls since it has proved their system (democray) wrong! But they forgot that the chiness peoples' attitude and culture isn't same as their own. Talk is cheap; I dont want freedom of speech that dont put food on the table or voting power that breeds irresponsible politicians who care not for the masses. I want government that will create job and be committed to bettering the lot of their people
Ken Royall
Jackie Chan talked them out of it.
Michael Turton
James Mann predicted this years ago in The China Fantasy. Fundamentally, the middle class in China has tied itself to the State to protect itself from the classes below. In many ways the professionals who constitute China's middle class are dependent on a stable state — they are accountants, realtors, construction engineers, businessmen, and others who directly or indirectly are dependent on State economic action. Moreover, China is not stopping those who object and have the money from leaving. Outmigration is high in China. So there is a safety valve as well.
Michael
Paul
Terrible article.
The main difference is that the Arab nations understand that they are under the yoke of America and the west.
They know that America is the reason for their plight – because it is America that installs ruthless dictators (often after arranging coups against democratically elected leaders)
It is these dictators that sell out their countries to US and western corporations – they themselves and their cronies get rich of course.
Part fo the bargain is that the dictators crush any opposition to these arrangements – of course the dictators thugs are CIA trained in torture and population terror techniques which they deploy against anyone who dares to question them.
I am spent plenty of time in the Middle East in recent years and while the western masses are for the most part ignorant of this (because the MSM never exposes this for obvious reasons) but to a person, every single individual I have spoken to knows full well what is really happening.
So there has been veneomous anger in the region for decades – and the breaking points comes when inflation hits and they struggle to feed their families.
Of course all of this is compounded by absolute hatred of Israel because Israel is basically doing to the Palestinians what the European colonialists did to the natives of the Americas – see The Israeli General's Son if you want to get some idea as to what the reality is in Israel/Palestine http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TOaxAckFCuQ
The dynamic in the Middle East North Africa is COMPLETELY different.
Once again, the author of this is total out of his depth.
David
The reason there hasn't been a "Chinese Spring" is very simple. China is ruled by a ruthless Communist regime that is nothing more than a load of gangsters out for their own enrichment and lust for absolute power. As far as they are concerned, the Chinese people are their property and the Communists will sacrifice anything, even their so-called ideology, in order to keep their ill-gotten power and wealth. The most ruthless Arab dictator is a pikee compared to the ChiComs, who have proven by deeds that they will slaughter their human livestock by the tens of millions and flush Chinese civilisation down the memory hole rather than loosen their grip.
John Chan
Americans realize they are living in a ruthless police state, they are watched by unmanned drones from the Homeland Security, FBI, Police, Private Eyes, IRA, Poll Agencies, … ; they tried to speak out via Occupying Movements, but they were silenced by the a load of Al Capone gangsters in government uniforms.
The 1% in the USA enriched themselves by setting up the 99% of the Americans as their debt surfs. The 1% keeps their ill-gotten power and wealth by setting up laws to legitimize their possessions of stolen goods like life-saving of the 99%. In order to keep the 99% the 1% insists the 99% must to have right to own guns for whatever the reasons, so the 99% can shoot at each other occupied instead of protesting their unfair treatment.
Denver
"A wave of protests spread throughout the region in quick succession"
The Diplomat isn't suggesting that these upheavals were in any way authentic, is she?
TheNakedEye
Why no Chinese Spring? It's really pretty simple, really, low unemployment and Tiananmen Square.
John Chan
Why no Chinese Spring, because the westerns are living in a manufactured reality based on Hollywood style Cold War script which is nothing but a reflection of westerners’ racist paranoid.
TBlakely
The only reason China has made what progress it has is because of the west. China merely copied/ripped off western technology and processes. China has serious self-esteem issues due to perceived historical greatness and recent centuries of irrelevance which is the main reason it's doing so much sabre rattling these days.
John Chan
Since the American brought the world economy down in 2008 financial meltdown, the American felt unwanted because it is no long the attention of the world; its failure in Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, etc. is making it a laughing stock on the international stage. Such embarrassment is making American extremely anxiety; so American resorts the continuation of Cold War mania to attract attention, but this time the victim is China. Accusing China stealing technology is one of the fabrications the American used to smear USSR during the Cold War.