Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T05:07:06.200Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Discursive accommodation: popular protest and strategic elite communication in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2016

H. Christoph Steinhardt
H. Christoph Steinhardt*
Affiliation:
Centre for China Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Yasumoto International Academic Park, Shatin, Hong Kong
*
*E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

How do authoritarian states respond to, and seek to defuse, popular protest? This study answers this question by developing the concept of discursive accommodation and tracing the co-evolution of contention and strategic elite communication in China. It reveals that the Chinese Communist Party leadership has responded to waves of intense unrest with increasing, yet not unconditional, sympathy for protesters. It argues that the rationale behind this response pattern has been first, to deflect discontent from the regime and, second, to temper local official and protester behavior. And yet, the unintended consequence of discursive accommodation may well have been the acceleration of mobilization. Investigating elite discourse provides an alternative angle to understand why contention in China has become endemic, but remains conspicuously moderate. It helps to unpack the one-party state’s ability of coexisting with considerable popular pressure and not be washed away by it, and managing protest without institutionalizing it.

Keywords

protestcontentious politicspolitical communicationcomparative authoritarianismChina
Type
Research Article
Information
European Political Science Review , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , November 2017 , pp. 539 - 560
Copyright
© European Consortium for Political Research 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bellin, E. (2012), ‘Reconsidering the robustness of authoritarianism in the Middle East: lessons from the Arab Spring’, Comparative Politics 44(2): 127–149.Google Scholar
Bernstein, T.P. (2004), ‘Unrest in rural China: a 2003 assessment’. Working Paper, Center for the Study of Democracy , Irvine, CA. Retrieved 21 May 2013 from www.escholarship.org/uc/item/1318d3rx.pdf Google Scholar
Bernstein, T.P. and Lü, X. (2003), Taxation Without Representation in Rural China, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Blecher, M.J. (2002), ‘Hegemony and workers’ politics in China’, The China Quarterly 170: 283–303.Google Scholar
Boudreau, V. (2009), Resisting Dictatorship: Repression and Protest in Southeast Asia, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Brancati, D. (2014), ‘Democratic authoritarianism: origins and effects’, Annual Review of Political Science 17(1): 313–326.Google Scholar
Cai, Y. (2008a), ‘Local governments and the suppression of popular resistance in China’, The China Quarterly 193: 24–42.Google Scholar
Cai, Y. (2008b), ‘Power structure and regime resilience: contentious politics in China’, British Journal of Political Science 38(3): 411–432.Google Scholar
Cai, Y. (2010), Collective Resistance in China: Why Popular Protests Succeed or Fail, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Chang, P.Y. and Vitale, A.S. (2013), ‘Repressive coverage in an authoritarian context: threat, weakness and legitimacy in South Korea’s democracy movement’, Mobilization: An International Quarterly 18(1): 19–39.Google Scholar
Chen, L. (2005), ‘Mass incidents put China to the test’. Huanqiu Zazhi [Global Times Magazine], 1 August. Retrieved 21 May 2013 from http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2005-08-01/13587381203.shtml Google Scholar
Chen, X. (2012), Social Protest and Contentious Authoritarianism in China, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Chen, X. (2013), ‘The rising cost of stability’, Journal of Democracy 24(1): 57–64.Google Scholar
Chwe, M.S.-Y. (2001), Rational Ritual: Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Cunningham, D. and Noakes, J. (2008), ‘What if she’s from the FBI?” The effects of covert forms of social control on social movements’, in M. Deflem and J.T. Ulmer (eds), Surveillance and Governance: Crime Control and Beyond (Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance, Volume 10), Bingley: Emerald, pp. 175–197.Google Scholar
Davenport, C. (1995), ‘Multi-dimensional threat perception and state repression: an inquiry into why states apply negative sanctions’, American Journal of Political Science 39(3): 683–713.Google Scholar
Davenport, C. (2005), ‘Repression and mobilization: insights from political science and sociology’, in C. Davenport, H. Johnston and C.M. Mueller (eds), Repression and Mobilization, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, pp. vii–xli.Google Scholar
Davenport, C. (2007a), ‘State repression and political order’, Annual Review of Political Science 10(1): 1–23.Google Scholar
Davenport, C. (2007b), ‘State repression and the tyrannical peace’, Journal of Peace Research 44(4): 485–504.Google Scholar
della Porta, D. (1998), ‘Police knowledge and protest policing: some reflections on the Italian Case’, in D. della Porta and H. Reiter (eds), Policing Protest the Control of Mass Demonstrations in Western Democracies, Social Movements, Protest, and Contention , Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 228–252.Google Scholar
della Porta, D. (1999), ‘Protest, protesters, and protest policing: public discourse in Italy and Germany from the 1960s to the 1980s’, in M. Guigni, D. McAdam and C. Tilly (eds), How Social Movements Matter, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 66–96.Google Scholar
della Porta, D. and Reiter, H.R. (eds) (1998), Policing Protest: The Control of Mass Demonstrations in Western Democracies, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Deng, X. (1994), ‘We must form a promising collective leadership that will carry out reform’, Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping, Volume III (1982–1992), Beijing: Foreign Languages Press. Retrieved 19 December 2012 from https://dengxiaopingworks.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/we-must-form-a-promising-collective-leadership-that-will-carry-out-reform/ Google Scholar
Deng, Y. and O’Brien, K. (2013), ‘Relational repression in China: using social ties to demobilize protesters’, The China Quarterly 215: 533–552.Google Scholar
Elfstrom, M. and Kuruvilla, S. (2014), ‘The changing nature of labor unrest in China’, Industrial and Labor Relations Review 67(2): 453–480.Google Scholar
Escribà-Folch, A. (2013), ‘Repression, political threats, and survival under autocracy’, International Political Science Review 34(5): 543–560.Google Scholar
Ferree, M.M. (2005), ‘Soft repression: ridicule, stigma, and silencing in gender-based movements’, in C. Davenport, H. Johnston and C.M. Mueller (eds), Repression and Mobilization, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 138–155.Google Scholar
Fox, J. (1993), The Politics of Food in Mexico: State Power and Social Mobilization, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Gandhi, J. and Lust-Okar, E. (2009), ‘Elections under authoritarianism’, Annual Review of Political Science 12(1): 403–422.Google Scholar
Gerring, J. (2007), Case Study Research: Principles and Practices, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Goldstone, J.A. and Tilly, C. (2001), ‘Threat (and opportunity): popular action and state response in the dynamics of contentious action’, in R.R. Aminzade, J.A. Goldstone, D. McAdam, E.J. Perry, W.H.J. Sewell, S.G. Tarrow and C. Tilly (eds), Silence and Voice in the Study of Contentious Politics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 179–194.Google Scholar
Goodwin, J. (2001), No Other Way Out: States and Revolutionary Movements, 1945–1991, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Greitens, S.E. (2013), ‘Coercive institutions and state violence under authoritarianism’. PhD thesis. Cambridge: Harvard University.Google Scholar
He, B. and Warren, M.E. (2011), ‘Authoritarian deliberation: the deliberative turn in Chinese political development’, Perspectives on Politics 9(2): 269–289.Google Scholar
Hess, D. and Martin, B. (2006), ‘Repression, backfire, and the theory of transformative events’, Mobilization 11(1): 249–267.Google Scholar
Hess, S. (2013), ‘From the Arab Spring to the Chinese Winter: the institutional sources of authoritarian vulnerability and resilience in Egypt, Tunisia, and China’, International Political Science Review 34(3): 254–272.Google Scholar
Holbig, H. (2013), ‘Ideology after the end of ideology. China and the quest for autocratic legitimation’, Democratization 20(1): 61–81.Google Scholar
Hu, J. (2005), ‘Speech at the seminar for provincial and ministerial leaders on raising the capacity for building a harmonious society’. Renmin Ribao [People’s Daily]. 27 June, p. 1.Google Scholar
Huang, H. (2013), ‘Signal left, turn right: central rhetoric and local reform in China’, Political Research Quarterly 68(2): 292–305.Google Scholar
Hung, H. (2011), Protest with Chinese Characteristics: Demonstrations, Riots, and Petitions in the Mid-Qing Dynasty, New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Jansen, R.S. (2011), ‘Populist mobilization: a new theoretical approach to populism’, Sociological Theory 29(2): 75–96.Google Scholar
Jiang, Z. (1993), ‘Speech at the second plenum of the party’s 14th central committee’. Renmin Wang. [People’s Net] 7 March. Retrieved 22 June 2011 from http://news.xinhuanet.com/ziliao/2005-03/18/content_2713752.htm Google Scholar
Johnston, H. (2010), States and Social Movements, Malden, MA: Polity.Google Scholar
Johnston, H. (2012), ‘State violence and oppositional protest in high-capacity authoritarian regimes’, International Journal of Conflict and Violence 6(1): 55–74.Google Scholar
Kennedy, J.J. (2009), ‘Maintaining popular support for the Chinese Communist Party: the influence of education and the state-controlled media’, Political Studies 57(3): 517–536.Google Scholar
Kerkvliet, B.J.T. (2011), ‘Worker’s protests in contemporary Vietnam’, in A. Chan (ed.), Labour in Vietnam, Singapore: ISEAS Publishing, pp. 160–210.Google Scholar
King, G., Pan, J. and Roberts, M.E. (2013), ‘How censorship in China allows government criticism but silences collective expression’, American Political Science Review 107(2): 326–343.Google Scholar
Koesel, K.J. and Bunce, V.J. (2013), ‘Diffusion-proofing: Russian and Chinese responses to waves of popular mobilizations against authoritarian rulers’, Perspectives on Politics 11(3): 753–768.Google Scholar
Koopmans, R. (2005), ‘Repression and the public sphere: discursive opportunities for repression against the extreme right in Germany in the 1990s’, in C. Davenport, H. Johnston and C.M. Mueller (eds), Repression and Mobilization, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 58–81.Google Scholar
Koopmans, R. and Olzak, S. (2004), ‘Discursive opportunities and the evolution of right-wing violence in Germany’, American Journal of Sociology 110(1): 198–230.Google Scholar
Kozlov, V.A. (2002), Mass Uprisings in the USSR: Protest and Rebellion in the Post-Stalin Years, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Lee, C.K. (2007), Against the Law: Labor Protests in China’s Rustbelt and Sunbelt, Berkeley, CA/Los Angeles, CA/London: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Lee, C.K. and Zhang, Y. (2013), ‘The power of instability: unraveling the microfoundations of bargained authoritarianism in China’, American Journal of Sociology 118(6): 1475–1508.Google Scholar
LeGreco, M. and Tracy, S.J. (2009), ‘Discourse tracing as qualitative practice’, Qualitative Inquiry 15(9): 1516–1543.Google Scholar
Li, B. and Li, Y. (2008), ‘Inside the Dalai cliques’ manipulation of the “Tibetan uprising”’. Renmin Ribao [People’s Daily], 2 April, p. 1.Google Scholar
Li, G. (1995), A Glossary of Political Terms of the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong: Chinese University Press.Google Scholar
Li, L. (2004), ‘Political trust in rural China’, Modern China 30(2): 228–258.Google Scholar
Li, L. (2010), ‘Rights consciousness and rules consciousness in contemporary China’, The China Journal 64(July): 47–68.Google Scholar
Li, L. (2013), ‘The magnitude and resilience of trust in the center: evidence from interviews with petitioners in Beijing and a local survey in rural China’, Modern China 39(1): 3–36.Google Scholar
Li, L., Liu, M. and O’Brien, K.J. (2012), ‘Petitioning Beijing: the high tide of 2003–2006’, The China Quarterly 210(June): 313–334.Google Scholar
Li, Z. (1997), ‘Five hundred thousand peasants protest in four provinces’. Cheng Ming [Contention], August, pp. 19–21.Google Scholar
Linden, A. and Klandermans, B. (2006), ‘Stigmatization and repression of extreme-right activism in the Netherlands’, Mobilization: An International Quarterly 11(2): 213–228.Google Scholar
Liu, Y. (2010), ‘Maoist discourse and the mobilization of emotions in revolutionary China’, Modern China 36(3): 329–362.Google Scholar
Liu, Z., Wang, J. and Chen, W. (1999), ‘Effectively strengthen and resolutely uphold party discipline to safeguard the smooth progress of reform and construction’. Renmin Ribao [People’s Daily], 16 January, p. 1.Google Scholar
Liu, Z., Zhang, S., Wu, H. and Qi, T. (1998), ‘Party and government leaders must bear the political responsibility for upholding stability’. Renmin Ribao [People’s Daily], 24 December, p. 1.Google Scholar
Lohmann, S. (1994), ‘The dynamics of informational cascades: the Monday demonstrations in Leipzig, East Germany, 1989–91’, World Politics 47(1): 42–101.Google Scholar
Lorentzen, P.L. (2013), ‘Regularizing rioting: permitting public protest in an authoritarian regime’, Quarterly Journal of Political Science 8: 127–158.Google Scholar
Lorentzen, P.L. (2015), ‘Designing contentious politics’. Working Paper, University of California, Berkeley, CA. Retrieved 17 December 2015 from http://peterlorentzen.com/research_files/Designing_Contentious_Politics.pdf Google Scholar
Luckmann, T. (1987), ‘Comments on legitimation’, Current Sociology 35(2): 109–117.Google Scholar
Manheim, J.B. (1991), All of the People, All the Time: Strategic Communication and American Politics, Armonk: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
McCarthy, J.D. and McPhail, C. (1998), ‘The institutionalization of protest in the United States’, in D.S. Meyer and S.G. Tarrow (eds), The Social Movement Society: Contentious Politics for a New Century, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 83–110.Google Scholar
Meng, J. (2008), ‘Study and realize the scientific outlook on development, serve as the party’s loyal guard and the masses close friend’. Qiushi [Seeking Truth], 2 November. http://theory.people.com.cn/GB/49150/49152/8268590.htmlGoogle Scholar
Meng, X. (1992), ‘An analysis of violent tax resistance’. Renmin Ribao [People’s Daily], 4 August, p. 5.Google Scholar
Ministry of Public Security (2008), Regulations on Public Security Organs Handling Mass Incidents, Beijing: Ministry of Public Security.Google Scholar
Nathan, A. (1985), Chinese Democracy, New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
O’Brien, K.J. and Li, L. (1999), ‘Selective policy implementation in rural China’, Comparative Politics 31(2): 167–186.Google Scholar
O’Brien, K.J. and Li, L. (2006), Rightful Resistance in Rural China, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Paik, W. (2012), ‘Economic development and mass political participation in contemporary China: determinants of provincial petition (Xinfang) activism 1994–2002’, International Political Science Review 33(1): 99–120.Google Scholar
Pei, M. (2006), China’s Trapped Transition: The Limits of Developmental Autocracy, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Perry, E.J. (2007), ‘Studying Chinese politics: farewell to revolution?’, The China Journal 57: 1–22.Google Scholar
Perry, E.J. (2008), ‘Chinese conceptions of ‘rights’: from Mencius to Mao – and now’, Perspectives on Politics 6(1): 37–50.Google Scholar
Premier of the State Council (1993, 1990–2010), ‘State Council government work report’. Beijing: National People’s Congress. Retrieved 2 March 2013 from http://www.gov.cn/test/2006-02/16/content_200719.htm Google Scholar
Renmin Ribao (1999), ‘Countercurrents of social development and progress: exposing and criticizing the dangerous nature of “Falun Gong”, commentary six’. Renmin Ribao [People’s Daily], 14 August, p. 1.Google Scholar
Renmin Ribao (2008), ‘A clarification of certain problems with using the “CCP disciplinary punishment ordinance” for violations of petitioning work discipline. Renmin Ribao [People’s Daily], 25 July, p. 2.Google Scholar
Renmin Ribao (2009a), ‘On implementing the provisional regulations on leading government and party cadre accountability’. Renmin Ribao [People’s Daily], 13 July, p. 2.Google Scholar
Renmin Ribao (2009b), The CCP’s Politburo Standing Committee held a study meeting on upholding Xinjiang’s social stability. Renmin Ribao [People’s Daily], 10 July, p. 1.Google Scholar
Robertson, G.B. (2010), The Politics of Protest in Hybrid Regimes: Managing Dissent in Post-Communist Russia, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schubert, G. (2008), ‘One-party rule and the question of legitimacy in China: preliminary thoughts on setting up a new research agenda’, Journal of Contemporary China 17(54): 191–204.Google Scholar
Shambaugh, D. (2007), ‘China’s propaganda system: institutions, processes, and efficacy’, The China Journal 57: 25–58.Google Scholar
Shambaugh, D. (2008), China’s Communist Party: Atrophy and Adaptation, Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press.Google Scholar
Shriver, T.E., Adams, A.E. and Cable, S. (2013), ‘Discursive obstruction and elite opposition to environmental activism in the Czech Republic’, Social Forces 91(3): 873–893.Google Scholar
Steinhardt, H.C. (2015), ‘From blind spot to media spotlight: propaganda policy, media activism, and the emergence of protest events in the Chinese public sphere’, Asian Studies Review 39(1): 119–137.Google Scholar
Steinhardt, H.C. (2016), ‘State behavior and the intensification of intellectual criticism in China: the social stability debate’, Modern China 42(3): 300–336.Google Scholar
Steinhardt, H.C. and Wu, F. (2016), ‘In the name of the public: environmental protest and the changing landscape of popular contention in China’, The China Journal 76: 61–82.Google Scholar
Stern, R.E. and O’Brien, K.J. (2012), ‘Politics at the boundary: mixed signals and the Chinese state’, Modern China 38(2): 174–198.Google Scholar
Stockmann, D. (2013), Media Commercialization and Authoritarian Rule in China. Communication, Society, and Politics, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Su, Y. and He, X. (2010), ‘Street as courtroom: state accommodation of labor protest in South China’, Law and Society Review 44(1): 157–184.Google Scholar
Sun, J. and Chen, X. (1999), ‘Zhu Rongji emphasized the need for quality in infrastructure construction when meeting the Hunan delegation’. Renmin Ribao [People’s Daily], 7 March, p. 1.Google Scholar
Tanner, M.S. (2004), ‘China rethinks unrest’, The Washington Quarterly 27(3): 137–156.Google Scholar
Tanner, M.S. and Green, E. (2007), ‘Principals and secret agents: central versus local control over policing and obstacles to “rule of law” in China’, The China Quarterly 191: 644–670.Google Scholar
Tarrow, S.G. (1998), Power in Movement: Social Movements, Collective Action and Politics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Thomas, M. (2001), ‘Public spaces/public disgraces: crowds and the state in contemporary Vietnam’, Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 16(2): 306–330.Google Scholar
Tilly, C. (2006), Regimes and Repertoires, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Tong, J. (2011), Investigative Journalism in China: Journalism, Power, and Society, London: Continuum International Publishing Group.Google Scholar
Tong, Y. and Lei, S. (2010), ‘Large-scale mass incidents and government responses in China’, International Journal of Chinese Studies 1(2): 487–508.Google Scholar
Trejo, G. (2012), Popular Movements in Autocracies: Religion, Repression, and Indigenous Collective Action in Mexico, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
van Leeuwen, T. (2008), Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Analysis, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Way, L.A. and Levitsky, S. (2006), ‘The dynamics of autocratic coercion after the Cold War’, Communist and Post-Communist Studies 39(3): 387–410.Google Scholar
Weber, M. (2006), Economy and Society [Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft], Paderborn: Voltmedia.Google Scholar
Wedeen, L. (1999), Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric, and Symbols in Contemporary Syria, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Weiss, J.C. (2013), ‘Authoritarian signaling, mass audiences and nationalist protest in China’, International Organization 67(1): 1–35.Google Scholar
Wu, G. (1994), ‘Command communication: the politics of editorial formulation in the people’s daily’, The China Quarterly 137: 194–211.Google Scholar
Xinhua She (1991), ‘After observing the exercises Jiang Zemin demands implementing Mao Zedong’s military thought to strengthen military construction’. Renmin Ribao [People’s Daily], 11 September, p. 1.Google Scholar
Yurchak, A. (1997), ‘The cynical reason of late socialism: power, pretense, and the anekdot’, Public Culture 9(2): 161–188.Google Scholar
Zhongguo Xinwen She (2009), ‘Yunnan prohibits arbitrarily labelling people as “not knowing the truth”’. Xinhua Wang [Xinhua Net], 28 August. Retrieved 20 May 2013 from http://news.xinhuanet.com/local/2009-08/28/content_11958973.htm Google Scholar
Zhong, Y. and Hwang, W. (2016), ‘Pollution, institutions and street protests in urban China’, Journal of Contemporary China 25(98): 216–232.Google Scholar
Zhou, K. and Yan, X. (2014), ‘The quest for stability’, Problems of Post-Communism 61(3): 3–17.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Steinhardt supplementary material

Appendices A-F

Download Steinhardt supplementary material(File)
File 30.5 KB