Social Movements in China - Essay Example

SOCIAL MOVEMENT IN CHINA Student’s Name China History Professor Institutional Affiliation Date of Submission Introduction Social change in the historical context refers to a type of group activities that are either informal, groupings of individuals or organizations converging on pursuing particular political or social agenda. In broader terms, such groups movements carry out massive resistance to particular facts, and at the end undo individual social changes in the areas they operate. They are organized by certain leadership in which people seek command and ideas on what course of actions to take in the daily activities1. This paper aims to reveal the contexts of social movements in China tracing the historical contexts, factors, ideologies, leaders, organizations, strategies and tactics applied to the actions. For at least the past decade, China has experienced many cases of mass social protests each and every year. China has a long and storied antiquity of social movements. The government struggle with weight process each and every year and the research bears that none of these experienced protests in China has been overtly political in nature. Looking at the government response, the Chinese leadership has tried to counter and attend to yearly demonstrations, and all are not viewed as harboring large-scale political upheaval in the country. Most social movements in China span from the Taiping and Boxer Rebellions of the mid-to-late 1800s. They are traced in the following Communism Revolution of mid-1900, to Cultural Revolution of the mid-1980s, to the multifaceted mass protest that has been experienced since the dawn of 1990s (Snow, & Moss, 2014). The mass protests have been in one way or the other promoted by the Chines government that has even fostered the upheaval both directly and through overt reinforcements and indirectly through their responses to the quests. Discussed within this essay is the real glimpse of the most widespread social protest movement that emerged and spurred by Hu's death in April 1989. It recorded those events of 1980s historical experiences of China which began by students and ended up involving the whole republic. The movement arose unexpectedly while college students, first in Beijing and soon across the country gathered to mourn the former CCP general secretary. The students considered him as their champion due to his perceived support for their welfare and thus found his significant support of 1986-1987. At his point of death in 1989, the student joined up to protests against the death and most of the movement leaders were also the ongoing protests of 1986-1987 movement2. As stated by Zheng and Yu (2016), the action commenced by the student's spontaneous acts of mourning that escalated into large-scale marches, demonstrations, class boycotts, hunger strikes and sit-ins. The main movement burdens were to get to an end to political corruption in the government. There was wide knowledge of the political gain of the sitting leaders in acquiring wealth while the poor continued being oppressed. The students also demanded the freedom of association's more so on the freedom to organize the student's groups without the CCP controls. As time elapsed the CCP leaders led by Deng, declared martial law and ordered the military unit to remove the square. While the coming soldiers moved from the outskirts of the city, they were met by many people who decided to block them from the access to the city and situation worsens until the army retreated (Briscoe, Chin, & Hambrick, 2014, pg. 1789). The protest continued for some time, and up to two weeks, the protest continued with citizens from all parts of the country joining the demonstration and agonizing for equality. All was included even the state-owned enterprise workers acceded to the movement. By June third and fourth, the regime's dominant elites acted to calm the situation finally. The soldiers for the second attempt out of Beijing moved to the city, but the citizens again blocked them. During this moment the soldiers declared war on anyone who blocked their way and around two thousand people lost their lives. The union top leaders were arrested, and people like Zhao were put to prison where he served until his death in the year 2005. So many of the movement’s leaders became refugees and remained in exile to date3. The Main Features of the Movement The main character of the movement was demonstrations and mass actions that led to a group of people acting to fight a common enemy. The parties and leaders of this movement demonstrated and blocked the roads for the soldiers expressed the overt features in civil strife. The demonstration was real civil unrest that acted with the aim of fighting certain aggressive nature and treatment out of the student body (Trejo, G., 2014). The movement was non-political but entailed demonstrations and civil disobedience as defined in the mass actions in the land. Protests were arbitrary in nature, and they opposed all the illegitimate deaths and killing of lives. Related to the treatment and the mistreatment of the Chines students, some of the revolutions like the Revolution on communism aimed at settling the complaints like migrant workers subjected to forced labor and abuses, victims of labor seizure and victims of environmental degradation in the mainstream of the China Elite exposure. In many cases, the migrant workers have taken to the road to protests against physical and economic abuses committed by the local employers and political authorities (O'Brien, & Deng, 2015, pg. 457). The plight of the employees has been focused on the wages and remunerations that call for public protests each and every year within the country. The origins of such protests are the political field, the worker's revolutions and also the student’s protests on the education grounds. A movement like the CCP control protests began in the school or learning institution but later spread to the country and included the entire country’s population. The protests began by taking to the streets and revolting against the police response thus resulting in inclusive national protests in the country and the whole nation. Citizens from different backgrounds seek for equality and fight the presence of corrupt activities in the country. Ideas and Values or Ideology, The evidence presented in this paper concerning the 1986-1987 movement was a response to claim rights and the fair treatment of all in the society. The leader was killed due to the student’s support on the support of their rights. Students could not accept the treatment on the injustice and mistreatment of their leaders and their rights. The students were a representation of the minority that later came out to fight all the oppressions imposed on them and the whole citizen population. The student’s demonstrations were inspired by the widespread discontent of the high-level corruption within the government institutions. There were rising inflation and growing inequality among the citizens in China. The death of reform-minded party general secretary the students and their teachers laid a wreath for him in Tiananmen Square (Johnston, 2014). The ideologies and values presented to the government were a call for the officials to re-evaluate the legacy of Hu Yaobang, reveal the government worker’s salaries, and to increasing the government spending on education. The paper explains that the students chose the nonviolent means of protest because they could not match the army. They anticipated the excuse from the government repression if they did not follow the law, but their movement did not aim to overthrow the government but aimed at getting solutions to their raised contradictions. The close observation of the movement identified astrophysicist who was trying to fight for democracy from below (O'Brien, & Deng, 2015, pg. 462). The extreme ideology of the whole student body was a democracy for all irrespective of the social class. The grievances also raised were the amnesty for political prisoners, and they also advocated for multiparty system attacking the Communist Party explicitly. The students sought to use the press and the media house to disseminate their messages and demands from within the college environment. A call for liberty was a major point of concern that raised the alarm for the voice in fighting the government aggressive nature and autonomy. The student applied the non-violent measure to bring up their grievances thus was to be allowed. They also agreed to boycott the classes and attend the public demonstration to raise their main agenda4. Movement’s Main Demands The student called for further political reform underlined by the continuing difficulty in implementing the primary goals of the program. Deng proposal was the reform on the federal Bureau which became the basis of 1987 call for change. He called for the strengthening of people for Congress, separating party and government organizations and establishment of an independent judiciary system (Briscoe, Chin, & Hambrick, 2014, pg. 1792). The political reforms anchored on economic development and the realization of socialist’s democracy. The students further resisted and campaigned against Bourgeois Liberalization. The demonstration fostered for the liberation of the society and the oppression of the poor in the society. The students burned party newspapers and encouraged for the national political reform agenda. The government had to act, and through a general secretary, the response could be made to calm the situation. Liberalization enabled the movement to advocate for democratization advocacy. The ideology on the campaign was to be limited to striving to reach all but conserve all the economic reform policies at the local level. The future of the demands was to shape the face of the Chinese representation in the next Congress and ensure that all the requirements are achieved. Typical Supporters and Activists The Tiananmen Square movement was part of the democracy call that looked towards liberty of many in the society. The regular supporters of the groups were teachers; they worked with the support of Zhao Ziyang, General Secretary Hu Yaobang, Deng Xiaoping among others called for the protracted reforms on the implantation of the demands and restoring of the free environment for all. The leaders had to make decisions on insisting on their requirements and desire to solve the raised concerns in the area (Briscoe, Chin, & Hambrick, 2014, pg. 1793). . The ideas of the students demonstrating on the activity were also seen as a motivated act of achieving the desires of particular political demands. The students could not move out of their special comradeship but were motivated by some influential ideologists who pressurized the government behind the curtain and could not come out clear to be advocating for the changes. The whole system engaged a continued public participation that ensured the public desire is achieved and attained in the real party leadership and administration (Qiu et al., 2015).. Democratic centralism movement was designed to implement power sharing in all the economic management so as to achieve democracy. Movement’s Successes Research report how social ties have impacted positively in the movement recruitment and sustain ace for the time it was active. The campaign succeeded in their demands because of the solidarity and identity. The students had collective actions thus the outcome of social networks was changed. The media was captured, and the whole attention achieved the political desire for the attention of the ideas advocated. The protestor reached some demands of the movement with support from some state officials. The social movement group formed the link with the media houses for the study of the environmental movement. The student managed to gain the public support and other employees from government institutions that proved that it achieved the initial aim of including and addressing the plights of the minority. The leaders of the movement developed strong ties with the journalist who ensured that they report the plights and all courses of actions undertaken. This achieved to capture the government attention and called for the response of the central leaders. The movement further dominated the social networks, and China had to pay attention to the way in which the social movement destabilized peace and achieved the government response. The authority reacted to repress the demands of the organization thus called for the government listening to the movement leaders (Lee, So, & Leung, 2015, pg. 359). The desired objective of taking power by various organizations in the country was achieved, and the government realized the costs of releasing the local officials to maintain social order. The movement made the unity and stability of the country which was vital for the governance. The students managed to achieve their desire of nominating their candidature representation on the National People's Congress instead of the government imposing on them their chosen leaders. They met with the staff, and after the deliberation, with the leaders; they opted to turn to class to settle for the programs on their campuses. The grievances raised were sorted depending on how the team met and deliberated even though most of the student’s demands were not met (Deng, 2014). Failures and Prospects The 1986-1987 social movement failed in many ways beginning with the lack of achieving any of the requirements at the end of the talk. The engaged leaders were arrested, and some even died in prison as recorded in history. The movement failed in achieving the intended non-violent action because at the end many people were killed from both the right activist and innocent people. The exchange between the army and the students left many injured as they remained several nursing wounds that would lead to the suffering and torture of lives (Qiu et al., 2015). The resultant force of resignation of Hu Yaobang as the Secretary General and Lizhi was fired from his position. Most of the protests on the part of the migrants have met harsh treatment from the Chines elite with the rebels repressed to reduce the further rioting and occurrence of civil strife in the governance. Many remained and remain as victims of the civil wars thereby living as refugees in other countries with some spending their lifetime in prisons. The negative impact is quite traumatizing as people than face the actual government power with the harsh and painful sanctions to the captured members5. The war perhaps led to an aspect of environmental degradation, victim seizure and mainstreaming of a particular group in the political administration of the Chinese government. Failures of this social movement were that it did not achieve the main aim or goal thus missing the point for its formation (Lee, So, & Leung, 2015, pg. 367). The students would have completed either of their proposed demands, but history has it that out of the six claims not even one was realized at the final decision made to get to class. It is important today to understand how the countries have evolved and ways through which China balanced and recovered from the social movements. This essay presents that the recent past and the history contains many lessons for the future. A revolution opens up doors for reform and looks at the future for the liberal country that grants democracy from the authority. China has to guard against similar economic and social injustices thus considering the wellbeing of all in the society. The experiences of the paradigms dispose of the implementation of the new environment that works at realizing favorable economy to all (Wang, & Minzner, 2015, pg. 341). The economy and financial performance of the country traces to the instability that is motivated and pegged on the original series of phases the country passed. Conclusion Through the examination of the social movement in contemporary China, the paper discloses that the formal organizations are stable and well informed. The theories of social movements in China serve to allow easy extraction of social protests and the achievements in China. The result of the revolution saw the country eliminating the traditional suppressing institutions and understanding the establishment of the modern-day economy depends on the social networks. The social movements impacted much in seeing the birth of various organizations in China today. It is vivid that the future of China is realizing stable economy on the efforts put earlier in reducing the significant economic hurdles of the struggling ages. References Briscoe, F., Chin, M.K. and Hambrick, D.C., 2014. 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