“Mass Incidents”: Chinese Discourse on the Problem of Protest Activities and Ways of Its Solution

Abstract

Various examples of the social science research show that, historically, any nation going through some drastic changes in its political and economic system is vulnerable to tendencies of social unrest and political instability. The processes of political modernization after establishment of the PRC and “reforms and openness” going since 1978 up to this day had made the Chinese people experience tremendous and sometimes painful changes in their everyday life. Protest activities and the reaction of Chinese government to them constitute a special interest among scholars. Protests are called “mass incidents” in the PRC, the information about which is secured from leaking out from the local level. This fact creates serious challenge for finding the material, in addition to mostly biased character of publications by Western media. The authors attempted to elaborate an equal collection of Chinese and Western materials (focusing on the Chinese academic discourse), news articles and social web messages to complete case-studies of protest activities in China, its typology, background, reasons, probable ways of its solution according to Chinese scholars, as well as how and on what legal basis the authorities are dealing with demonstrations. The Chinese authorities are inclined to see social and economic protests not as a threat to the existing system, but as signals of problem areas that need to be addressed.