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mengjue · 1 year

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What's Happening in China? The November 2022 Protests

Hello! I know that there's so much going on in the world right now, so not everyone may be aware of what is happening in China right now. I thought that I would try to write a brief explainer, because the current wave of protests is truly unprecedented in the past 30+ years, and there is a lot of fear over what may happen next. For context, I'm doing this as someone who has a PhD in Asian Studies specialising in contemporary Chinese politics, so I don't know everything but I have researched China for many years.

I'll post some decent links at the end along with some China specialists & journalists I follow on Twitter (yeah I know, but it's still the place for the stuff at the moment). Here are the bullet points for those who just want a brief update:

Xi Jinping's government is still enacting a strict Zero Covid policy enforced by state surveillance and strict lockdowns.

On 24 November a fire in an apartment in Urumqi, Xinjiang province, killed 10. Many blamed strict quarantine policies on preventing evacuation.

Protests followed and have since spread nationwide.

Protesters are taking steps not seen since Tiananmen in 1989, including public chants for Xi and the CCP to step down.

Everyone is currently unsure how the government will respond.

More in-depth discussion and links under the cut:

First a caveat: this is my own analysis/explanation as a Chinese politics specialist. I will include links to read further from other experts and journalists. Also, this will be quite long, so sorry about that!

China's (aka Xi Jinping's) Covid Policy:

The first and most important context: Xi has committed to a strict Zero Covid policy in China, and has refused to change course. Now, other countries have had similar approaches and they undoubtedly saved lives - I was fortunate to live in New Zealand until this year, and Prime Minister Ardern's Zero Covid approach in 2020-2021 helped protect many. The difference is in the style/scope of enforcement, the use of vaccines, and the variant at play. China has stepped up its control on public life over the past 10 years, and has used this to enforce strict quarantine measures without full regard to the impact on people's lives - stories of people not getting food were common. Quarantine has also become a feared situation, as China moves people to facilities often little better than prisons and allegedly without much protection from catching Covid within. A personal friend in Zhengzhou went through national, then provincial, then local quarantines when moving back from NZ, and she has since done her best to avoid going back for her own mental and physical health. Xi has also committed China to its two home-grown vaccines, Sinovac and Sinopharm, both of which have low/dubious efficacy and are considered ineffective against new variants. Finally, with delta and then omicron most of the Zero-Covid countries have modified their approach due to the inability to maintain zero cases. China remains the only country still enacting whole-city eradication lockdowns, and they have become more frequent to the point that several are happening at any given time. The result is a population that is incredibly frustrated and losing hope amidst endless lockdowns and perceived ineffectiveness to address the pandemic.

Other Issues at Play:

Beyond the Covid situation, China is also wrestling with the continued slowdown in its economic growth. While its economic rise and annual GDP growth was nigh meteoric from the 80s to the 00s, it has been slowing over the past ten years, and the government is attempting to manage the transition away from an export-oriented economy to a more fully developed one. However, things are still uncertain, and Covid has taken its toll as it has elsewhere the past couple of years. Youth unemployment in particular is reaching new highs at around 20%, and Xi largely ignored this in his speech at the Party Congress in October (where he entered an unprecedented third term). As a result of the perceived uselessness of China's harsh work culture and its failure to result in a better life, many young Chinese have been promoting 躺平 tǎng píng or "lying flat", aka doing the bare minimum just to get by (similar to the English "quiet quitting"). The combination of economic issues and a botched Covid approach is important, as these directly affect the lives of ordinary middle-class Chinese, and historical it has only been when this occurred that mass movements really took off. The most famous, Tiananmen in 1989, followed China's opening up economic reforms and the dismantling of many economic safety nets allowing for growing inequality. While movements in China often grow to include other topics, having a foundation in something negatively impacting the average Han Chinese person's livelihood is important.

The Spark - 24 Nov 2022 Urumqi Apartment Fire:

The current protests were sparked by a recent fire that broke out in a flat in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang province. (This is the same Xinjiang that is home to the Uighur people, against whom China has enacted a campaign of genocide and cultural destruction.) The fire occurred in the evening and resulted in 10 deaths, which many online blamed on the strict lockdown measures imposed by officials, who prevented people from leaving their homes. It even resulted in a rare public apology by city officials. However, with anger being so high nationwide, in addition to many smaller protests that have occurred over the past two years, this incident has ignited a nationwide movement.

The Protests and Their Significance:

The protests that have broken out over the past couple of days representing the largest and most significant challenge to the leadership since the 1989 Tiananmen movement. Similar to that movement, these protests have occurred at universities and cities across the country, with many students taking part openly. This scale is almost unseen in China, particularly for an anti-government protest. Other than Tiananmen in 1989, the most widespread movements that have occurred have been incidents such as the protest of the 1999 Belgrade bombings or the 2005 and then 2012 anti-Japanese protests, all of which were about anger toward a foreign country.

Beyond the scale the protests are hugely significant in their message as well. Protesters are publicly shouting the phrases "习近平下台 Xí Jìnpíng xiàtái!" and "共产党下台 Gòngchǎndǎng xiàtái!", which mean "Xi Jinping, step down/resign!" and "CCP, step down/resign!" respectively. To shout a direct slogan for the government to resign is unheard of in China, particularly as Xi has tightened control of civil society. And people are doing this across the country in the thousands, openly and in front of police. This is a major challenge for a leader and party who have prioritised regime stability as a core interest for the majority of their history.

Looking Ahead:

Right now, as of 15:00 Australian Eastern time on Monday, 28 November 2022, the protests are only in their first couple of days and we are unsure as to how the government will respond. Police have already been seen beating protesters and journalists and dragging them away in vehicles. However, in many cases the protests have largely been monitored by police but still permitted to occur. There seems to be uncertainty as to how they want to respond just yet, and as such no unified approach.

Many potential outcomes exist, and I would warn everyone to be careful in overplaying what can be achieved. Most experts I have read are not really expecting this to result in Xi's resignation or regime change - these things are possible, surely, but it is a major task to achieve and the unity & scale of the protest movement remains to be fully seen. The government may retaliate with a hard crackdown as it has done with Tiananmen and other protests throughout the years. It may also quietly revamp some policies without publicly admitting a change in order to both pacify protesters and save face. The CCP often uses mixed tactics, both coopting and suppressing protest movements over the years depending on the situation. Changing from Zero Covid may prove more challenging though, given how much Xi has staked his political reputation on enforcing it.

What is important for everyone online, especially those of us abroad, is to watch out for the misinformation campaign the government will launch to counter these protests. Already twitter is reportedly seeing hundreds of Chinese bot accounts mass post escort advertisements using various city names in order to drown out protest results in the site's search engine. Chinese officials will also likely invoke the standard narrative of Western influence and CIA tactics as the reason behind the protests, as they did during the Hong Kong protests.

Finally, there will be a new surge of misinformation and bad takes from tankies, or leftists who uncritically support authoritarian regimes so long as they are anti-US. An infamous one, the Qiao Collective, has already worked to shift the narrative away from the protests and onto debating the merits of Zero Covid. This is largely similar to pro-Putin leftists attempting the justify his invasion of Ukraine. Always remember that the same values that you use to criticise Western countries should be used to criticise authoritarian regimes as well - opposing US militarism and racism, for example, is not incompatible with opposing China's acts of genocide and state suppression. If you want further info (and some good sardonic humour) on the absurd takes and misinfo from pro-China tankies, I would recommend checking out Brian Hioe in the links below.

Finally, keep in mind that this is a grass-roots protest made by people in China, who are putting their own lives at risk to demonstrate openly like this. There have already been so many acts of bravery by those who just want a better future for themselves and their country, and it is belittling and disingenuous to wave away everything they are doing as being just a "Western front" or a few "fringe extremists".

Links:

BBC live coverage page with links to analysis and articles

ABC (Australia) analysis

South China Morning Post analysis

Experts & Journalists to Check Out:

Brian Hioe - Journalist & China writer, New Bloom Magazine

Bonnie Glaser - China scholar, German Marshall Fund

Vicky Xu - Journalist & researcher, Australian Strategic Policy Institute

Stephen McDonnell - Journalist, BBC

M Taylor Fravel - China scholar, MIT

New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre - NZ's hub of China scholarship (I was fortunate to attend their conferences during my PhD there, they do great work!)

If you've reached the end I hope this helps with understanding what's going on right now! A lot of us who know friends and whanau in China are worried for their safety, so please spread the word and let's hope that there is something of a positive outcome ahead.

#��珏’s china corner #中国 #上海 #习近平 #习近平下台 #共产党下台 #China #Shanghai #China protests #China protests 2022 #Xi Jinping #Xi Jinping step down #CCP step down #Xi Jinping resign #CCP resign #乌鲁木齐 #Urumqi #Urumqi fire #Urumqi apartment fire

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ranmagender · 10 months

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Not Barbie siding with CCP territorial claims 😭

#barbie #barbie movie #greta gerwig #margot robbie #ken #ryan gosling #china #ccp #movies #vietnam #south china sea

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shut-up-rabert · 1 year

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Gotta love how the gay rights, women’s rights, anti racism, anti classism, labour rights, islamophobia of this entire website go to hell when countries like China are concerned.

Is communism really all that important to you that you can ignore all the horrors these people are doing?

Is it that your propaganda of “communism good capitalism bad” really needs to be the only one heard, so the condition of workers in Shein and other companies is hindering you as you protest why communism gives labours rights?

Is your idea of every communist nation being utter utopia so fragile that the reality of horrors in that country really need to be muted?

I don’t know man, it feels to me that you guys are “putting your worldviews over people’s lives”.

That sound familiar?

#Fehking hypocrites amirite #bhoi being bitchy #china #fuck china #chinese communist party #anti ccp

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sophieinwonderland · 10 months

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you switch between arguing that tulpamancy has nothing to do with tibetan buddhism and arguing that it's actually cultural exchange which are contradictory and also the second is just regular cultural appropriation but also, what exchange? i've repeatedly seen people in the tulpamancy community assert that southeast asian buddhists can't be accurate sources on what tibetan buddhists think(as opposed to non-buddhist northern americans, who are somehow more accurate sources) because tibet is in china. it's in southeast china which directly borders southeast asia and has centuries of cultural exchange with southeast asia because they are neighbors and at many points in history did not have borders between them..... and to that end i have to ask, what cultural exchange? if you can't be bothered to do any deeper research than the first page of the google panel and every time a buddhist tries to argue with you it's time to whitesplain wikipedia to them, forgive me for doubting that you even have surface level knowledge of tibet let alone any actual connections to any region with a prominent buddhist population and history. like the accusations of orientalism are because your engagement with the topic is fundamentally shallow and all you are doing is taking. exchange is when you EXCHANGE. if a buddhist invites you to celebrate vesak with them, that's cultural exchange because you're participating in their religion with them and sharing your time and enthusiasm. if your tibetan friend gifts you a chuba, that's cultural exchange because you're friends sharing culture with each other. that's what distinguishes exchange from appropriation, that the people whose culture you're being inspired by are relevant to you and that you have made an attempt to understand them beyond the ways their culture can be useful to you, which i have seen mountains of evidence is not the case in the tulpamancy community. and while i do think this community should consider talking to and befriending modern practicing buddhists beyond one redditor who claimed to be a tibetan buddhist once, perhaps even with the respect to consider that asians might know more about asia than you do( and not even to force them to litigate whether or not sna tshogs sprul pa can be fire emblem characters i just think yall should diversify your social circle a little), i should also say that on this topic that i actually don't care if you would rather just switch to saying that tulpamancy has nothing to do with tibetan buddhism to avoid learning about tibetans/buddhists/tibetan buddhists. firstly thats just another excuse for your shallow engagement with those cultures because that's still the origin. that's still where the name is from. and it's still cultural appropriation to ignore that- actually it's the first examples of cultural appropriation. the term was invented to describe white people taking aspects of nonwhite cultures and pretending that they invented them and doing their best to separate themselves from any responsibility to treat the people whose culture they're taking with any respect. so if you want to use the term tulpa, and especially if you want to insist that it's not cultural appropriation, your community needs to do the work to not just be shallowly appropriating. instead of only bringing up religious tulpas in the context of christianity, look into the actual nirmāṇakāya. talk to some of the buddhists you're currently focusing on epicly owning the second they don't 100% agree with you. also tenzin gyatso was a slaveowner pre-exile so you should consider not using him as an authoritative source. now, of course, this runs the risk that you might run into people who disagree with your view of tulpamancy or even outright reject it as a thing you should do(as a lot of buddhists on here have), which is again the point, to care about people beyond how they can serve to reinforce the thing you already wanted to do. if the tulpamancy community became known for their strong bond with/respect for practicing buddhists this would be a non-issue

You... don't think the Dalai Lama... should be used as an authoritative source... on Tibetan Buddhism?

Wow! That's certainly a take!

Sorry, I'm going to circle around back to this in a bit.

In any case, the arguments are not contradicting. When we discuss Western tulpas, there are two distinct types of tulpas that come up.

The first is the Alexandra David-Neel tulpa, which I'll call the ADL tulpa for short. The ADL tulpa was first brought to the West by Alexandra David-Neel, a French Buddhist and the first European woman to be given an audience with the Dalai Lama.

This version of the tulpa was recorded by Alexandra David-Neel who relied on the translation services of Lama Kazi Dawa Samdup, who himself had an interest in esotericism and may have influenced an interpretation of the tulpa that incorporated concepts from Western Theosophy.

The ADL tulpa was a creation of a cultural exchange. This was the type of tulpa that permeated Western culture for nearly a century prior to modern tulpamancy which came about in 2009.

The tulpa of tulpamancy borrows its concepts from the ADL tulpa rather than any practices the ADL tulpa was based upon.

It is so distant from the sprulpa and tulku as to be unrelated in anything but a vague etymology. Even the word "tulpa" isn't one typically used by actual Tibetan Buddhist practitioners. Basically, nothing in tulpamancy from the concept to the name is directly from Tibetan Buddhism.

With that explanation, back to the Dalai Lama.

This actually highlights one of the key reasons why I'm hesitant to just believe any story by anyone who lives in or has come from the general area.

Tibet and its history is incredibly politically charged with bias and misinformation on both sides.

It's true that the structure of Tibet resembled that of European Serfdoms, which is naturally unacceptable and indefensible. But I will point out that many scholars would draw a distinction between this system and what we think of when we discuss slavery.

But accusations of the Dalai Lama being a slave owner persist, being pushed heavily by the CCP as a justification for their invasion of Tibet and their dismantling of the Tibetan religion and culture. Conquerors always love to portray themselves as liberators, as we can see happening right now with Russia trying to justify their invasion of Ukraine by claiming to be trying to "denazify" it, and pushing a narrative that the people of Ukraine are supporting Russia's invasion.

I also have to point out that the Dalai Lama took power at 15, and China bullied Tibet into signing the country's sovereignty over to them that same year. He was a kid managing a country thrown into chaos. And he ultimately was forced to flee his home at 23.

I find it unrealistic to expect a kid with no real first-hand leadership experience while surrounded by aristocrats who don't want to lose their power to just be able to instantly change the entire governing system while dealing with an outside force trying to take its rights.

All of this is huge red herring though.

The Dalai Lama's past doesn't invalidate his authority as a source on Tibetan Buddhism, as the most prominent member of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism and as one of the most respected Buddhist figures around the world.

Who else would you prefer us listen to? The puppet Panchen Lama chosen by the secular CCP invaders who have claimed exclusive right to choose the reincarnations of Lamas over the will and the traditions of Tibetans?

But who really knows? Perhaps I'm overstating the importance of the Dalai Lama in modern Tibet. I would love to see survey results from modern Tibetans. Perhaps the CCP propaganda is true and the Dalai Lama is actually hated by modern Tibetans.

But then, I honestly wouldn't trust the validity of such statistics anyway. After all, who would admit to supporting the Dalai Lama in a country where that can get you arrested or just disappeared without explanation? "Yes, I do support the Dalai Lama, now take me away for splitism."

The complete oppression of free thought and expression in Tibet and massive propaganda put out by the CCP has made it impossible to trust information coming out of the region in relation to the Dalai Lama. Especially from non-Tibetans who are going to be drawing a lot of their impressions of Tibet and its history from the CCP's state-run media.

When the propaganda campaign is that strong, proximity creates more opportunity to be informed, yes. But it also creates opportunity to be disinformed. Again, look to how many Russians legitimately believe they're fighting to denazify Ukraine at this moment. Despite being neighbors, would you consider the Russians well-informed on the opinions of Ukrainians or qualified to speak for them?

Can you understand why I'm hesitant to believe non-Tibetan Buddhists speaking for Tibetan Buddhists on this actually have the best interests of Tibet in mind?

And can you understand yet why I find the concept of "we're the same race as Tibetans and live nearby so we get to decide what's offensive to their culture" problematic? After all, silencing and speaking for Tibetans and Tibetan Buddhists is what the CCP has been doing for 70 years.

So moving back to the topic of tulpamancy: The Dalai Lama has said other religions can benefit from Tibetan Buddhist meditations and has encouraged that. If the specific practices tulpamancy was based on, and their terminology, were super closed and sacred and off-limits to outsiders, then that should be decided by other Tibetan Buddhists. (Ideally, actual spiritual leaders and teachers.) It's not up to any random people who just happen to reside in the same region to decide when Tibetan culture is being appropriated or in what ways they're allowed to share their culture.

Especially not ones like you who come at me parroting CCP propaganda and arguing that I should trust non-Tibetan Buddhists in the same region over the Dalai Lama on the matter of Tibetan Buddhism.

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istandwithrussiaandpalestine30 · 11 months

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#xi jinping #china #fuck china #winnie the pooh #chinese #ccp china #politics

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chawsl · 11 months

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#tiananmen square #tiananmen massacre #prc #china #ccp

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thegenderfluidgokenin · 5 months

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It's really appaling that people don't even know what Tibet, a historic country of serenity, great culture, and as a Religious sanctuary, even is.

Do not let the Chinese Government get away with it.

FREE TIBET ☸️

#activism #anti-china #asia #history #buddhism #ccp #fuck the ccp #overthrow china #revolution #signal boost #boost

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iamthepulta · 2 months

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They changed the 'official' abbreviation for Chalcopyrite from Cpy to Ccp and I.... Listen I can't get behind this. We already have Chalcocite as Cc. Pyrite is Py. Stop it. It's Cpy.

#my friend is like we should be the ccp team! i dont see ccp as anything but chalcopyrite!#okay maybe you dont read a lot about China but everyone else is going to look at that and go University Communist Party #???#Just. Cpy. its chalcoPY #i cant believe im having this argument with myself before breakfast #geology #mineralogy

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gunmemes · 15 days

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Taaaaaang

#hogg #china #ccp #mao #tyrany #tyrannical governemnt #tyranny

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cassette-on · 18 days

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you can use it freely

but not for sale

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gamer2002 · 7 months

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The current state of journalism is literally being in bed with China.

#philip bump #china #ccp #washington post #journalism #press #yellow journalism #us politics #politics #chinese communist party

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sophieinwonderland · 1 year

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Where the actual fuck is your source for claiming anti-endos are pro-genocide? That's a HUGE fucking claim to make a biiiiiig stretch. Like you are actively dismissing people who are Tibetan who have said there's an issue with the usage of the term already- and now you're claiming a HUGE demographic is pro-genocide?

Who? I'm genuinely curious. I don't see many anti-tulpas who actually identify as Tibetan Buddhists. A lot are really vague about the type of Buddhism they practice or don't even seem to know where the tulpa even comes from.

Before going any further, it's important to understand the relationship between China and Tibet. I covered this in another post:

The above post was in response to an anti-endo who repeatedly echoed CCP talking points that "Tibet is a part of China," which while true from a certain point of view, is a little disturbing in a conversation about the cultural identity of the Tibetan people. This culminated in them describing the Dalai Lama as an "80-year-old Chinese Man," which is incredibly invalidating to the Tibetan people who have been struggling to maintain their freedom for reasons so obvious that I shouldn't have to spell out.

And the anti-endo community... doesn't care.

I wouldn't say they're pro-genocide. They're just... genocide-neutral when it comes to Tibet. By erasing the unique cultural identity of the Tibetan people, they can pretend that all Asians are a monoculture and anyone of any Asian descent have just as much right to declare Tibetan Buddhism as a closed practice and anything borrowed from it appropriation.

Even if that ancestry may be from the same people who invaded and are oppressing Tibet, it doesn't matter to them, because anti-endos don't care about Tibetan culture, history or autonomy any further than using them as talking point to silence one of the largest communities of created systems

They're okay with repeating CCP propaganda that erases Tibetan identity as long as that propaganda suits their own interests.

Anti-endos, at every opportunity, erase the history of Tibet and Tibetan religious leaders.

They claim that Tibetan Buddhism is a closed religion, something that practically every Tibetan Buddhist will tell you is wrong in a heartbeat, and erases the countless monasteries across the globe that are welcome to everyone.

When that doesn't work, they will claim that Tibetan Buddhist practices cannot be used by people who aren't Tibetan Buddhists, contradicting the Dalai Lama himself encouraging other religions to use Tibetan Buddhist meditations.

They will try to paint the story of how the tulpa arrived in the West as one of white people stealing Tibetan culture, erasing the involvement of translator Lama Kazi Dawa Samdup in bringing Tibetan culture to the West, tulpa included, helping to spread knowledge of their religion around the world in a way that would appeal to Western audiences.

And as we see above, many anti-endos will go so far as to actively support CCP propaganda that brands Tibet as nothing more than just another part of China or the Dalai Lama a "Chinese man," literally supporting the CCP in its aim of erasing Tibet's identity.

Make no mistake, the anti-endos who pretend to be so angry over people identifying as tulpas don't actually care about Tibetan culture. They don't care about the secular CCP trying to take control of the religion. They don't care about teachers being imprisoned for teaching the Tibetan language.

When the current Dalai Lama passes, the CCP will try to choose their own illegitimate reincarnation as they did the Panchen Lama. Anti-endos and you won't hear a peep out of anti-tulpas who will continue to act as if the greatest atrocity to befall Tibetan culture is created systems borrowing a word with a Tibetan etymology.

The whole thing is just performative.

Anti-endos try to speak for Tibetan Buddhists, rewrite Tibetan history, and erase the autonomy of Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leaders to determine who can and cannot use their spiritual practices. Then they turn a blind eye when their own echo CCP rhetoric that has been used to justify the cultural genocide of Tibet.

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