The State and Left-Wing Student Activism in Xi Jinping’s China

• In Event: Youth Activism, Attitudes and Ideology in Russia and China

Abstract

Against the backdrop of rising right-wing populism across much of the West, societal activism across Eurasia has sometimes evinced nostalgia for aspects of the socialist era. In China, a left-wing turn is clearly discernible in student activism, a subject that has not received much scholarly attention since the 1989 Tiananmen Incident. This paper explores the context within which leftist ideology has gained traction among many Chinese university students. It also analyzes the motivations of the Chinese state under Xi Jinping's increasingly authoritarian rule by comparing the regime's responses to two distinct variants of left-wing activism: labor-supporting Marxist groups and left-wing #MeToo activists. Moreover, through participant-observation in closed online forums of these groups, which serve as crucial organizational and communication channels, we are able to offer an insider’s perspective on the evolution of these movements and their strategies for pre-empting regime crackdowns (with varying degrees of success). The paper finds that while ideology matters for both the state and student activists in China, the state's hostility toward leftist student activism stems not from ideological concerns but from the groups' aspirations to become independent societal actors in search of intersectional solidarity with other social groups.

Authors

• Jiacheng Ren, University at Albany, State University of New York

• Cheng Chen, SUNY, Albany