Do Street Protests Work in China?
A rare street protest broke out in China’s biggest city and commercial capital on Saturday night, June 10, when residents of Shanghai marched against new housing rules that some residents claimed have caused the value of their property to plummet. Hundreds took to the streets, protestors were dragged off by police and detained, but by the next day, it appeared that the city’s housing authority made a concession to the protesters’ demands, tweaking the controversial policy.
Chinese media were ordered not to cover the protests. What happened here? Has the government in Shanghai become more responsive to public pressure? Given the Chinese Communist Party’s history of repressing public protest and the current leadership’s intolerance of dissent, what does this incident mean?
