2 - Mapping the Space for Protest

Summary

Chapter 2 provides a bird’s-eye view of contentious politics in China and demarcates the boundaries between state tolerance and repression. Based on an original nationwide dataset of 1,418 protest events, the chapter explores the main forms of protest and major patterns of state reaction in the country. Binary and multinomial logistic regression analysis reveals a real space for protest within this this one-party state: Nearly two-thirds of protest events were tolerated by the state. Furthermore, most protesters confined themselves to this space: They stayed away from violence, radical political claims (e.g., opposing Communist rule), and linking organizationally with other protests. Contradictory to the common view that repression and transgression should prevail in an authoritarian regime like China, this chapter concludes that regime-engaging protests are the dominant form of contention in this one-party state. The statistical analysis also reveals that the space for protest is not equally open to all social groups and all regions.