Historically, students have been at the forefront of resistance to Communist Party rule. During the 1989 uprising, they played a leading role in the Tiananmen Square demonstrations, which acted as the social detonator for a nationwide strike movement. But after the movement was defeated, university campuses became tightly monitored and increasingly repressive.
Having written extensively on protests in China, I can attest that protests in China are not at all uncommon – but that doesn’t make what is happening now any less significant.
China has long seen high-speed economic growth tied to property investment. That model is now failing.
Xi’s crackdown on the billionaires and his call for reduced inequality is yet another zig in the zig-zag policy direction of the Chinese bureaucratic elite…
In what was originally a public presentation at a Socialism conference, Lance Selfa looks at origins of Maoism and its international impact.
