2011 report to congress - U.S.-China Economic and Security Review ...

dkrause on DSKHT7XVN1PROD with $$_JOB124Traditionally, protests were centered in rural areas in responseto repressive government actions, especially over abuses by corruptlocal officials. While rural protests continue today at record numbers,protests now occur more frequently in urban areas, drawinggreater attention. One tactic of suppressing rural riots—blockingforeign media access to remote areas—is not possible within cities.The party has seen a growing number of middle-class and urbanresidents beginning to protest government actions prior to their enactment.These urban protests were notably different from rural incidents,because they involved middle-class Chinese citizens protestingpolicies before they were imposed, substituting a demonstrationfor a petition. 508The common theme among all of these issues is China’s inabilityto respond to the underlying factors creating them. This is whyprotest numbers have continued to increase while China’s economyhas grown. 509 According to Dr. Economy:The roots of protest in China rest in the systemic weaknessof the country’s governance structure. A lack of transparency,official accountability, and the rule of law makeit difficult for public grievances to be effectively addressedand encourage issues such as inflation, forced relocation,environmental pollution, and corruption to transform fromotherwise manageable disputes to large-scale protests.Dr. Tanner agreed, noting that ‘‘[p]arty leaders have repeatedlyhad to reissue orders calling for an end to these abuses, even whilethese abuses remain leading causes of unrest.’’ 510Censorship and Thought ControlThe CCP and the central government also seek to control theInternet. However, protesters and activists continue to play a catand-mousegame with Chinese censors. Chinese microblogs, similarto Twitter, are widely used in China, with over a million postsevery hour. 511 China’s top two microblogs have over 200 millionsubscribers. 512 Besides their immense popularity, microblogs areparticularly useful for organizing events in China under the noseof Chinese censors, for two reasons. First, 140 characters can conveyfar more information in Mandarin than in English. Second, thenumber of homonyms in Mandarin allows users to mask the truemeaning of posts from censors. 513 For example, the Mandarin wordfor harmony sounds like the word for river crab. When Chinesebloggers want to mock the government’s ‘‘harmonious society’’ propagandathemes, they reference a river crab with watches lining itsarms as a symbol of greedy officials. A ‘‘watered weasel ape’’sounds like the word for ‘‘administrator’’ and is used to refer to themuch-maligned Internet censors. A mythical creature, the grassmud horse, sounds like ‘‘. . . your mother,’’ where the reference tomother is taken to mean the Communist Party.China’s government has fought the technology. In 2010, the governmentblocked more than one million websites, includingFacebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Evite. 514 Domestic microblogswere required to self-censor postings. In 2011, foreign microblogproviders, including Twitter, remained unable to gain market ac-VerDate Nov 24 2008 13:46 Nov 10, 2011 Jkt 067464 PO 00000 Frm 00136 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6601 G:\GSDD\USCC\2011\067464.XXX 067464