How Large-Scale Land Protests Succeed in China: the Role of Domestic Media
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How Large-Scale Land Protests Succeed in China: the Role of Domestic Media Yongfeng Tang 1 & Isabelle Côté 1 Accepted: 14 September 2020/ # Journal of Chinese Political Science/Association of Chinese Political Studies 2020
Abstract Land protests account for a large proportion of all protests in China, but existing scholarship on the topic does not explain the conditions under which large-scale land protests succeed or fail. Focusing on the role of domestic media in four of the largest land protests in China from 2012 to 2017, we argue that protests are more likely to succeed –i.e., to accomplish some or all publicly stated goals—when the domestic media side with villagers; conversely, if the domestic media adopt the government’s framing of the events or if they do not report on them, protests are less likely to accomplish their goals. This article makes two theoretical contributions to the literature on media and protests: first, we show that domestic media may function as catalysts or watchdogs in protest outcomes in authoritarian states; and second, we differentiate between short-term and long-term protest outcomes, highlighting how initial short-term concessions are often reversed or followed by repression some months or years later, after unrest dies down. Keywords Land protest . China . Media . Frame . Contentious politics
Introduction Thousands of protests erupt in China each year [1–5]; among these, land-related protests, such as those over land expropriation and anti-demolition protests, account for a significant proportion [6]. This is not surprising considering the central role land occupies in Chinese society. However, in the last few decades, the country’s
* Isabelle Côté [email protected] Yongfeng Tang [email protected]
1
Department of Political Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 230 Elizabeth Ave, St. John’s, NL A1C 5S7, Canada
Y. Tang, I. Côté
unprecedented rate of urbanization has severely strained the material/economic and symbolic/cultural value of land, transforming it into a uniquely contentious object in China [6, 7]. Between 2012 and 2017, domestic and international media reported on five largescale land protests –i.e., protests that reached a minimum threshold of 500 participants over time [1, 8]: Shangpu (Guangdong province), Guangji (Yunnan province) Liantang (Guangdong province), Jinning1 (Yunnan province) and Tianmu (Tianjin municipality).2 The outcomes of these protests varied: some achieved some or most of their stated goals such as Guangji, Shangpu and Fuyou; while others, like Tianmu and Liantang did not. Under what conditions do protests succeed, and when do they fail? Drawing from a media analysis of news reports as well as semi-structured interviews with key protest stakeholders, we investigate the relationship between domestic media3 reportage and large-scale land protests outcomes in China. First, we review the scholarly literature on domestic media and protest outcomes, before focusing on the specific role of media in China and summarizing our research design and data c
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