Stratfor Dispatch: Mainland China's "Occupy Wall Street" Reaction
October 19, 2011 | 2044 GMT
China Director Jennifer Richmond explains why the “Occupy Wall Street” movement failed to gain traction in mainland China.
Editor’s Note: Transcripts are generated using speech-recognition technology. Therefore, STRATFOR cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.
The “Occupy Wall Street” movement has gone global and there have even been attempts to capitalize on this movement in various Chinese cities. The “Occupy China” movement, however, has failed to gain traction on the mainland.
We really didn’t expect to see this movement transfer to mainland China; however, given the Jasmine protests earlier this year, there were many who were waiting to see whether or not this movement could be rejuvenated by the global call to action. The global Occupy movement lacks a nucleus or leadership. Despite a common theme of corporate greed, there is very little direction on how to proceed and, under these circumstances, we have seen no contagion effect in mainland China.
However, the Tiananmen protests in 1989 also started with very little leadership or direction, and many Chinese activists that I’ve spoken with feel that all that is needed is a spark to ignite a fire. After all, there are plenty of protests localized daily in China, revolving around issues such as land grabs, the environment and even corruption.
The Jasmine Movement provided a spark for organized action in China; however, it quickly fizzled under an aggressive government response. The Occupy China movement hasn’t even gotten that far. While it is not unforeseeable for a small movement to gain momentum in China, the problem with both the Jasmine and the Occupy movements are that neither were home-grown.
Although the Jasmine movement was spearheaded by Chinese, it was done so from overseas. The Occupy movement had supporters and organizers within China, but the concept was foreign-generated.
Moreover, the Chinese government and media has actually acknowledged the Occupy movement in the U.S. and in the EU, taking the opportunity to point out the failures of Wall Street and capitalism, while at the same time, censoring any indication of an Occupy China movement. Also, many Chinese do not have access to the social Internet sites that have helped to ignite these movements in Western countries, namely Facebook. And those that do, find this information quickly scrubbed off of similar Chinese sites.
Ultimately, the Chinese, even those that want change, are wary of foreign influences. Anything emanating from outside of the state will be used by the state to highlight foreign interference. That said the domestic wealth gap and its ensuing tensions could generate a homegrown movement that would threaten Beijing much more so than any Occupy Wall Street movement could muster.
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