State Framing and the Downward Scale-Shift of Protests in Authoritarian China

• In Event: Protest, Repression and Violence

Abstract

Decentralization is considered as one of the most important reasons for authoritarian states to maintain social protests at local level and hence sustain the regime stability. Given the overall centralization of the Chinese state since 2012, how did the state address the challenge to stability? We answer this question by comparing the responses of official Chinese newspapers to anti-waste incineration (WI) protests before and after 2012. In 2012, WI was officially promoted from a local initiative to a national agenda, suggesting an upward scale-shift of the protests. Using mixed methods, we analysed 1,038 WI-related newspaper articles at the central and local (i.e., provincial and municipal) levels against the backdrop of 32 large-scale anti-WI protests from 2000 to 2021. Overall, official Chinese newspapers were responsive to the protests, doubling the number of WI-related articles during protest periods. In terms of response strategies, we identify the rise of a moderation strategy since 2012 to shift the target of public grievances from WI decision-making to its implementation. The period after 2012 also witnessed more consistency in the response strategies of local and central newspapers, along with sharply declining responsiveness among local newspapers. The more centralized media control enhances the effectiveness of moderation by inducing local governments to take the blame or muting them. Moderation allows authoritarian states to channel public participation to serve its policy implementation without undermining regime stability.

Authors

• Jingping LIU, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

• Chi Shun (Gary) Fong