Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Friday, April 11, 2014

Party, not civil, society

Independent civil society organizations are an anathema to the Communist Party rulers of China, even when their goals are ostensibly the same as those of the Party. Do you know why?

Civil Society Activists Face Trial in Beijing

A lawyer considered a key figure in the New Citizens Movement went on trial Tuesday in Beijing, the latest person to face the prospect of prison time for involvement in a group that called for government transparency and equal rights for China’s rural residents.

Ding Jiaxi

Ding Jiaxi, 46, has been charged with “gathering a crowd to disturb public order” in connection with a series of small demonstrations… in the Haidian district [that]… called for government officials to reveal their personal assets in order to help control corruption…

Li Wei, a 42-year-old unemployed man who participated in the protests, also went on trial Tuesday, on the same charge of “gathering a crowd to disturb public order.”

Later this week, Zhao Changqing, 44, a veteran of the 1989 student-led demonstrations around Tiananmen Square, is also scheduled to face trial for the same charge…

Although the anticorruption aims of the New Citizens Movement parallel the aggressive crackdown on official graft that President Xi Jinping has pursued since taking China’s top leadership posts, the authorities have shown little willingness to tolerate independent monitoring of officials’ wealth.

“These trials and this crackdown should be seen in the context of the new leadership consolidating power,” Maya Wang, a Hong Kong-based researcher for Human Rights Watch said.