Political orientation of collective action and state responses in China

• In Event: 20861 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 14: The Protest-repression Nexus

Abstract

The literature on state responses to collective action in post-1989 China has typically kept political orientation constant in case selection – often selecting non-political, economically driven protests – and emphasized action repertoires, mobilizational resources, and organizational conditions as explanatory variables. This study instead underlines the relationship between state repression and the political orientation of collective action in high-risk environments where formal organizational infrastructures for activism are absent.

Through an analysis of 12 cases of student activism at Peking University, categorized into value-oriented and interest-oriented contentious themes, this study reveals a structured pattern of state responses. Value-oriented protests tended to incur more coercive state repression, while the party-state made concessions to interest-oriented grievances aimed at material benefits, regardless of how disruptive the actions were. Notably, offline, value-oriented actions faced the harshest suppression. A detailed comparative analysis of the Qiuqingfeng Protest (2000) and the PKU MeToo Movement (2018) further highlights that the state’s response is driven primarily by the political orientation of protesters rather than their tactical choices.

These insights contribute to a deeper understanding of China’s repressive apparatus, emphasizing the political logic that underlies its handling of collective action. Beyond the Chinese context, this study underscores political orientation as a key predictor of repression severity under non-democratic regimes, offering wider implications for the study of regime stability.

Author

• Ruanzhenghao Shi, University of Chicago