1. Describe a major social cleavage in China. Discuss two policies the Chinese state has adopted since 1990 in response to that cleavage.
Instead of a Ch. 10 Hauss China Quiz, your quiz will be to answer the short answer concept question above and the two "Flipped" lesson questions below.
Watch the videos about Wukan. (From APGov.org)
Wukan is a city in the South of China (near Hong Kong) that featured a significant protest and unprecedented response by the CCP.
Wukan is a city in the South of China (near Hong Kong) that featured a significant protest and unprecedented response by the CCP.
2. Which of the following is TRUE about the Protests of Wukan?
A. Wukan's protest ended similarly to the protest in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
B. The CCP refused to listen to the Wukan protestors and the leaders of the protest are now "enemies of the state."C. The protest stemmed from corrupt behavior of CCP officials in Wukan.
D. The protest did not last long enough to force the CCP to respond to the protestors' demands.
E. The protest was an anomoly; there are very few protests against the CCP or the Chinese Government.
3.. Explain how the events in Wukan connect the CompGov concept of Democratization.
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Consider any of the following as China social cleavages (Question 1):
Rich Dog, Poor Dog -- China's new class struggle. From Foreign PolicyA Dog's Life in China -- 15 remarkable photographs of country dogs and city dogs, strays and pets, ladies and tramps.
Keep in mind that Xinjiang is one of those places (geographic cleavage) where ethnic Uighurs (ethnic cleavage) who used to dominate the population are practicing Muslims (religious cleavage). Note that all those cleavages coincide, and you know what that means. Add to that the political tradition represented by the Chinese maxim, "Heaven is high and the Emperor is far away."
Fast and loose: The party’s interference in the observance of Ramadan stokes grievances in China’s north-west
Xinjiang, the vast region in whose west lies the old Silk Road city of Kashgar, has a history of tension between the ethnic-Turkic, mostly Muslim, Uighurs who used to make up most of its population, and the authorities, dominated by ethnic-Han Chinese. During Ramadan, which comes to an end on August 19th, that tension has been exacerbated by the government’s intervention in religious practice.
It has been discouraging, and in some places even banning, Communist Party cadres, government officials, students and schoolchildren from fasting and attending mosques during working hours…
Groups representing Uighur exiles say that this year the campaign has been more intense than usual. Xinjiang’s government has denied forcing people to break the fast. Hou Hanmin, a spokeswoman, was quoted by Global Times, a party-owned newspaper, saying that the government did, however, “encourage residents to eat properly for study and work purposes.”
This is resented by many Uighurs as yet another encroachment on their traditions. Kashgar is rapidly becoming a Chinese city like many others… In Xinjiang as a whole, Uighurs and other minorities are now outnumbered by Han Chinese.
21 comments:
Rich Dog, Poor Dog
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/02/12/rich_dog_poor_dog
Famously, pet ownership had been outlawed as a bourgeois affectation during the Cultural Revolution, and though that prohibition is now history, the legacy of the prohibition remains strong outside China's more cosmopolitan quarters, where income, agricultural lifestyles, and culinary tastes have much in common with pre-boom China. Indeed, as incomes rise in China's wealthiest cities, those in rural China remain relatively stagnant, creating the oft-mentioned Chinese income gap. In 2009, for example, per capita income among China's urban residents was 3.34 times that of its rural residents, or $2,515 and $754, respectively. This income gap is also a social gap, expressed in differing access to education, social services, and even political rights, and the resulting cultural gap creates contempt and resentment. In Shanghai and other wealthy cities, few comedic tropes are quite so popular as the bumpkin come to the big city; in rural China, few figures are quite so loathed as the Shanghai sophisticate who looks down upon their long-held traditions…
Class tensions worry Beijing. Although there's no chance that pet ownership and animal cruelty could cause insurrection (though it has been the cause of protest in the past, including a raucous 2006 picket at a Beijing zoo), there's also little chance that leaders are going to allow passage of a largely symbolic, mostly unenforceable act that implicitly pits those who can afford a Shanghai dog license against those who can't and won't. Until that gap is bridgeable, China's stray dogs would best be advised to keep their tails down.
1. One of the main cleavages in China is the gap between the urban and rural populations. The urban population tends to be wealthier and with a higher quality of life, whereas the rural citizens tend to be a bit more disconnected from mainstream China. Two policies that China has adopted in response have been the hukou system, which requires citizens to register their households as rural migrant or urban, which then in turn affects their access to healthcare or education. Additionally, China has devolved some of its policy making to more local representative bodies that are more responsive to rural needs outside of China's major urban hubs.
2. C
3. In just about everything we watched about Wukan, democratization seemed to be seeping out of it. The people of Wukan have been repeatedly protesting the corrupt authority of the CCP leaders in favor of democracy as a replacement, and the citizens went as far as to have an election to shape a new governing committee in Wukan and it consisted of all leaders of the Wukan democratic movement. This shows that these people are welcoming democracy and are actively pursuing a way to rid themselves of their non-democratic leaders.
1. The poor, the rich and government officials all combine to create multiple large cleavages.
The poor are becoming poorer and poorer, they cant even afford housing and being ill or sick has death written all over it due to the lack of healthcare or any government help, even with social security. The rich are becoming richer and richer and as we saw in the video the housing industry is a big factor in that. The government “allows” you to be rich, but doesn’t “allow” the people their freedom. The Officials and CCP members are gaining their power which should be used to serve the public to make benefits for their own. Once they get what they want, they do everything to make sure they don’t caught. Also, the urban vs rural population creates an even wider gap between the rich, poor, powerful, and the corrupt as urban areas allow for higher education and wages.
2. C-Officials were apparently selling peoples land for profits.
3. The protests in Wukan can be seen as the start of a grassroots movement which can be considered to be spreading throughout China. The fact that they elected their own leader can be seen as the start of a democratic revolution. People in China are tired of the years of the CCP. Democratization is also being allowed and encouraged through media as Chinese see the freedom allowed in the U.S. and how even rural areas are being educated on what immoral things their government is doing. Wukan is just one example of I’m sure many where people crave for democracy and freedom/fairness.
1. The urban/rural cleavage in China is extremely significant because of the fact that it is so wide. People in the bigger cities, especially millionaires are living a comfortable life compared with the rural poor outside of the big cities. The Chinese government relinquished its hold on markets and prices, and there was a boom in township and village enterprises amongst the rural regions of China. But, urban incomes are still 3 times more than rural incomes. In 2007, the government put in place agricultural tax exemptions, subsidies for agricultural production, and expansion of social protection and security coverage.
2. C
3. This connects to democratization because the people of Wukan were being treated unjustly by the government that did not understand the people. They protested because they wanted to elect their own board of members, and the protest ended up being successful. In a democratic fashion, the people of Wukan were able to elect their own leaders.
1. One of the major social cleavages in China is the ethnic cleavage between the multiple ethnic groups. Certain ethnic groups used to dominate others and this has caused a problem. A few of the ways that the Chinese government has address this ethnic cleavage include using the military to maintain order and cracking down on ethnic minority protests as well as giving subsidies (education, agricultural, etc) to ethnic or border regions.
2. C
3. The people of Wukan clearly welcome the idea of democratization. They've protested the CCP and as a result, have been allowed to elect their own leaders, which is just the first step towards a more democratic society
1. I would argue that the most significant cleavage in China is the urban/rural discrepency. This gap has widened significantly in recent years, in response to the rapid industrialization and focus on economic uccess that major cities are facing. It has become extremely apparent that to be wealthy or successful you must be prosperous in a large city. Living in a rural area has become synonymous with poverty. Recently, the government has attempted to bring attention to this issue by sending government representatives into these poverty stricken areas and building new infrastructures such as roads and dams. However, because the cities are progressing at such a fast rate, it seems unlikely that the rural areas will be able to catch up with only this limited help. The government has also tried to implement stronger compulsory education laws throughout the entire country.
2. C
3. It seems that the Wukan people are entering an era of democracy that has stemmed from the bottom up. The people are realizing the oppression put on them by the corrupt government and are following the same path they have seen other governments take. It is surprising how long china has gone without extensive democratic push- since democratic policies are so widely idealized throughout the majority of the world. while these people may have wanted democracy before, they are now provided with substantil resons to demand it, and the local elections and unified protests are two strong steps in that direction.
1. The social cleavage in China that i feel will be the biggest obstacle facing China in the coming years will be the growing cleavage between the rich and poor. The rich, typically industrialists living in the major cities have the most power and influence in Chinese policies and these policies affect the entire nation. The poorer areas in China such as the Wukan province, which have a more agrarian society, are typically disconnected from the booming cities such as Shanghai and Hong Kong. These areas are simply not able to have the power that the modernized capitalists do. In an attempt to lessen the tension that is growing among the underprivileged poor the CCP has sent government officials to the far of isolated regions of China. China has also implemented anit-poverty legislation to confront this growing problem
2. C; the government leaders seized a person's land
3. It's really interesting to see the seeds of democracy being planted in China, in a grassroots environment like Wukan. The eventual complete democratization may never completely play out in China, but if it ever is to arise, it will be the places like Wukan where it originates. This was only the 1st pro-democracy movement in which the government had lost all control. And its almost certain that it will not be the last.
1. A major social cleavage in China is the widening rich-poor gap. The rich (as is mentioned on Mr. Wolak’s blog post) have 83 billionaires in the Chinese parliament providing political influence, while the poor have few political powers in comparison.
a.The Chinese government has withheld current polling of rural voters and has only released versions that were at least fifteen years old. However, the results of the polls (from 15 years ago) showed increased interest in political activity among the rural poor
b.The Chinese government, after allowing private enterprise, began to have a decline in the number members joining the CCP (due to more opportunities for workers from the economic change). The CCP now is trying to gain members that have demonstrated business success.
2. C. The protests were caused by the local government selling the farmer’s land without compensation. A is false because unlike in Tiananmen Square the government did not open fire on the protestors (the government only surrounded the village). B is false because the CCP did listen to the requests of the protestors and investigated the officials, change the rules of elections (allowing the people to elect their own leader through a secret ballot), redistribute the land taken. D is false because the CCP did step in and end the problem. E is partly true and partly false because there are many protests against the government, but very few of them were as successful as the protests in Wukan.
3. The events in Wukan are an example of democratization because after the conclusion of the protest more people (the village) had political influence (on a local level). This would be the very beginning of democratization, but it is the start of a possible transition from an authoritarian regime to a democracy.
1. There is a widening rich poor gap in china. There is an increase in slums in Beijing and many more migrant workers. Since the recognition of this problem there have been some new policy changes. First Hong Kong has introduced a voluntary minimum wage for select low wage jobs. Second the CCP have increased relief efforts towards small urban villages giving the food and other commodities
2. C
3. The events in Waukon are the beginning of democratization. Our founding fathers believed that in order to stage a revolution a people needed to have a list of grievances. The people of Waukon have that list of grievances and now they are staging a revolt calling for change. The people themselves are calling for change and therefore this revolt or small revolution may bring a democratic outcome if their demands are met.
1. Urban/Rural Populations: The urban population tends to have higher education, wages, and technology than those in rural areas of China. China has started to change the wage gap by subsidizing crops giving farmers more profits. Also, education has been modified in China and more schools have been built in rural areas.
2. C. Once the villagers realized what was going on with their local village leaders, they started realizing what was happening with their land and they started to protest.
3. The local elections that the CCP let the village have, is a start of democratization because of the freedom that the government was handing a small amount of power to the village people. Soon, other villages and cities will learn of this, and many more uprisings could happen if the CCP doesn’t change something soon.
1. A major cleavage in China stems from the varying proportions of ethnicities that exist in the country, combined with the massive autonomous states that are a part of the diverse nation. China's ethnic population is primarily Han Chinese; anyone around the world who pictures someone from China will think of a Han Chinese man or woman who speaks Mandarin. Minorities currently comprise only 8% of the Chinese population, but the autonomous areas they inhabit make up over 60% of the territory. The minorities that sparsely populate these areas become more and more detached from the Chinese image as their customs as well as the land they reside upon is separated from the political society. The Chinese government puts a great deal of time into ethnic differences that should not be necessary.
2. I believe the best answer is C, because all of the videos noted the corruption that took place in Wukan that led to massive political unrest. I feel, however, that E is also a good answer because the duration and response to the Wukan protests is nearly unprecedented in China. Many other protests exist against the PRC, however the several months that led up to a giving in of the Chinese government is extremely rare in the country.
3. The result of the Wukan protest was an election of new government officials to look over the township, presided over by the town police. This is one of the most democratic elections to ever take place in China. The fact that it took several months of hard protest against party officials to accomplish shows China has a long way to go to achieve any kind of real democratic progress, however the Wukan protest provides a great step forward toward a more democratic China.
1. A major cleavage in China is the Class cleavage, caused by a difference in income. This cleave is a result of China's market-based economy and increasing industrialization. In order to reduce the unemployment rate, and thus reduce the high income disparity levels causing this cleavage, China has increased public spending to form more jobs.
2. C
3. The Wukan protests connect to the concept of Democratization as, it represents the process of the people gaining power over government officials. By having the people override officials, the population is having a say in how it is governed, and isn't oppressed by a higher power. This relates to Democratization as, Democratization is the process of a country/area, becoming more Democratic.
1. China's gap between the rich and the poor is too massive for it to not be a social cleavage. As there is no real defined "middle class", Chinese residents are either really poor, or rich. The number in between is too small to really even recognize. Like Taylor said, the Hukou system alters the availability of education and healthcare depending on the household of the person. This just isn't fair to those in poverty. Xi Jinping also, just recently, decided to pump over 40 million dollars into the rural areas of northern China, in order to try and "boost morale" in a sense, try to dig them out of poverty.
2. C
3. The people of Wukan are practically crying out, even begging for democracy. Through their protests of the CCP, they are proving to the world that the communist party doesn't appeal to them anymore, and that they want a real democratic society, they're fed up with the communist party and how it operates.
Parker Nornes
1: Urban/Rural population: In response to the massive rise of industrialization, the gap between the rural and urban populations have grown immensely. As stated below, urban residents earn about 3X as much as rural residents. There is also a widening social gap, with a large difference in opportunities afforded to those living in wealthier cities. To attack this widening gap, the government has adopted a system requiring households to register as migrant, rural, or urban; which intern affects there benefits.
2: C
3: Growing increasingly upset with local government, the people of Wukan decided to protest and vocalize there unrest. Through protest, they were abe to get the CCP to bow to there requests, and get democratic elections for officials to monitor the land.
1. A social cleavage in China is gender and thus the consequential divide between men and women. Since the one-child policy was implemented, there has been a much higher male to female birth ratio because of purposely terminated pregnancies where the baby would be a girl. This stems from the traditionally widespread notion that men will bring more stability to families and parents as women leave their families when they marry whereas men will be able to provide for their parents as they age. The Chinese government has attempted to heal this cleavage by cracking down on sex-selective abortion by strengthening punishments and more recently allowing families to have two children if one of them is female. The Chinese government is also working to eliminate the cleavage by sponsoring programs like the Care for Girls program encouraging educational growth and supporting more equality in marriage/domestic life/divorce through its Marriage Law of 2001. Although the gender gap will remain for years to come, the social cleavage may improve in the coming years.
2. C - The protests and riots were in response to the officials illegally selling and profiting from the villagers' land without compensating the villagers'.
3. Democratization is related to the protests in Wukan because it is clear that the people are looking for a more democratic, just government as a result of their protests. They are looking for claims to their land, officials that are held to the people's opinion of them, and fair treatment from these officials. As our book defines the quality of being democratic as when sovereignty resides with the people and democratization is the process in which a country becomes more democratic, the protests in Wukan clearly show a move towards and a desire for a nation where the people, not the government hold the ultimate sway.
1. A huge social cleavage afflicting China is the gap between the east and the west. The social cleavage between the two regions is due to a variety of environmental, political, development and cultural factors. The western region generally (despite its huge size) has little fertile land and is very sparsely populated, causing the region to be predominately rural and poor, unlike the bustling, resource and trade-rich coastal cities. Due to its already large population, supply of resources and openness to foreign markets, the Chinese government focused most of its attention (in development of infrastructure or education) on the eastern provinces while neglecting the west. Therefore, the main social divide between the east and the west is between the prosperous and educated east and the poor, underdeveloped and uneducated west. In light of the social cleavage, the government has implemented various policies: 1) increased education opportunities in the west. By intervening more in West China schools (by delegating funds, schools, teachers and programs), the government can hope to provide its people with more opportunities and a higher standard of living similar to the East. 2) Developing West China infrastructure including energy and water conservation facilities and increased media and communications penetration.
2. C—However, the central CCP government in Beijing is hoping to distance itself from local CCP leaders to prevent resentment about corruption from starting to be targeted at the national government.
3. The national government (in order to contain the protests at the local level and prevent resentment towards government in Beijing) finally caved into the Wukan villagers’ extended protests, and allowed an open vote in Wukan for their new local leaders. Not only did this pacify the villagers, but it also gave them more direct control of their lives (through the vote) and allowed them to represent their own interests in government and interact with gov. in a bottom-up (not top-down) fashion. The process is a great example of the slow democratization that is occurring throughout China, as more political power is being devolved to the people through elections.
1.
I would definitely agree with the fact that the urban and rural gap has been a contributing factor in widening the economic gap that exists between the rich and the poor. The statistic above does serve as evidence emulating this gap with the per capita income between rural and urban being 1:3.34.. Based off the videos that have been seen both in class and on the blogpost, I would have to say that one policy that's been used is sending government officials to these poverty-stricken areas and providing resources and building infrastructures for these citizens. And another one has been to raise the amount of educational facilities found within rural areas. By focusing on the younger generation they can hope to create fail-safes that restrict the social-gap between the rich and the poor. Unfortunately, even that takes a significant amount of time.
2. C; When looking at the videos the words of John Locke came to mind. The citizens have the right to protest especially in this case.
3. In this case, we are seeing that democratization is starting within the lower classed citizens. The protests by the Wukan are definitely a demonstration of the power that the People can obtain through democracy. This local event may turn out to be one of the many microcosms will that lead up to China's adoption of more democratic policies.
1. There are many factors that create different cleavages in Chinese society. Perhaps the biggest cleavage is the enormous gap between urban and rural populations. The urban populations enjoy many modern conveniences and live a decent living while people in the rural populations do back breaking work and live in awful conditions. This huge gap has created a huge influx of rural works to try to move to the urban areas. Also another growing cleavage is the one between the rich and poor, although this is tied into rural and urban because rural has mostly poor people and urban has mostly rich people.
2. C
3. The events in Wukaun are obviously the beginnings of democratization. People are tired of corrupt police and authorities and they want to have a democratic election to select them. Citizens have already had a democratic election to select a democratic movement
1. The most significant, in my opinion, social cleavage in China is the absolutely monstrous rich poor gap. Which is rather ironic seeing as it is supposed to be a communist state full of equality and ponies and rainbows and the like. In a somewhat lackluster attempt at fixing the problem, China has boosted spending towards the creation of jobs. Additionally, they have allowed some to blow off steam by giving protests the ‘OK’ as long as they don’t target the CCP. Which is sort of unavoidable. Well played China, well played.
2. C
3. The protests in Wukan stand as the poster child for future democratization in China in the years to come. Through a low income level, grassroots protest of the corrupt government, Wukan denizens were able to successfully earn the right to electing their own city board members. This shows the process of democratization because the town is slowly becoming more democratic through a political movement.
(oook was not aware that this was due yesterday...sorry)
1. While the urban/rural & rich/poor disparity is quite large, so is the one between the east and west in China. The East/West divide in China is actually comprised of many different kinds of social disparities, including ethnic, technological, standard of living, education, rich/poor, and so on.
Eastern China is home to all of the major modernized/globalized cities, with the large majority of the population being ethnically Han Chinese. Western China is largely comprised of rural and/or nomadic peoples, with a lot of ethnic minority groups (like Uyghurs, Tibetans, and Tajiks/Kazakhs from across the border) that are not as well recognized and represented as the Han Chinese. The urban, "Western" lifestyle and high income level of those living in the east is also a huge contrast to the subsistence-level lifestyle of many people in western China. Additionally, the infrastructure and technology of eastern China rivals that of the United States and European cities, whereas the infrastructure in many parts of Western China is either nearly nonexistent or akin to that of poor, developing nations.
The Chinese government has taken various steps to tackle these issues. Many multi-billion dollar projects have been undertaken since 2006 or so with an aim to improve infrastructure and methods of modern transportation in western China, like building long-distance railways. Additionally, efforts have been made to develop and supplement the education in western China, including exemptions in tuition and the general development of schools for lower grades (though the movie was set in rural northern China, "Not One Less" by director Zhang Yimou accurately depicts the situation of many rural elementary schools and the actions that have been taken to help by some urban residents).
2. C
3. The beginning steps of democratization are definitely evident in China, as seen in the Wukan protests - the people became aware of corruption, abuse, and discrepancies in their local government, publicly protested and made their anger clear (even though it was obviously not congruent to the government's opinion), and eventually the government backed down and let the citizens elect their own local government leaders. There's definitely democracy stirring in parts of China.
I. I think the growing gap between the rich and the poor will in the long run be China’s greatest cleavage, not only because it is growing, but also because it essentially is defined by the urban/rural differences. The majority of the people who have benefited from the Chinese government’s more market approach to economics have been the international businessmen who reside in the cities. Because of this, less and less attention is paid to the rural population because no one simply makes enough money to be cared about. One policy the Chinese tried to implement was new tax reforms between the rural and coastal areas, yet this unfortunately only served to subsidize the primarily urban coast, leaving the inner land towns with more taxes and less revenue. Also since the 1990’s, the Chinese government has allowed more budget cuts, which shifts more of the burden of things like health care and such, onto the people. Now this has given more money to the government, primarily a good thing, but it also puts more economic strain on those already struggling.
II. C: The people of Wukan were tired of being lied and cheated by those in power to so they protested against the government
III. China is one of the last remaining communist nations, yet it is becoming increasingly less so with every passing year. First it has a capitalist economy, and now they were seen backing down from protests and letting people vote. Especially with the role modern media plays in the world today, it is only a matter of time before other parts of China try this and will leave the government with no choice but to fight and risk losing legitimacy, or give it. These protests are the start of what could become an overall democratic movement in China.
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