From Asia Pacific Media Network: “Typically, these protests are local in nature and generally resolved with a combination of payoffs, arrests, and promises of future improvement. Occasionally, China’s government takes action against local officials whose crimes are considered egregious. As long as protests remain local, however, they can be managed as isolated cases that won’t pose a broader challenge or spark a movement toward systemic change.
Yet the government’s days of putting out protests like brush fires may be ending. Over the past year and a half, China’s environmental non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) have organized protests that reach across provincial boundaries, engage Chinese from all social strata, garner support from China’s media, and directly address the issue of failed governance on a national scale.”
