Freedom of Protest in Youth Movement
Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, most of whom are youth in colleges, gathered in the streets around Taiwan's Parliament last month for nearly 2 weeks to show their opposition to a trade pact signed by Taiwan and the People Republic of China governments, challenging the president's policy of moving the democratic island closer to Mainland China respect to economics. An editorial titled Trade protest shames Taiwan democracy, published by Global Times, strongly criticized the protest as an impetuous or even over-radical action. However, while what the journalist analyzed makes sense in a certain respect, I think his statement on the economy and attitude toward protest, saying that economic interest
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This has become an axiom in higher education, in spite of the fact that a searcher may discover error instead of truth, and be misled, mislead others, thereby. We believe that if enough light is let in, the real relations of things will soon be seen, and they can be seen in no other way. …show more content…
Among them, freedom of speech and protest is one of the most fundamental and essential rights because it guarantees the social justice directly and public’s welfare indirectly. Reformations or other semblable actions that target to change the unfair situation in a community have a long process to go, and the youth, as the main soldier during the fight, has a bigger duty for a more equal and harmony society. Therefore, the protest in Taiwan should be supported by people and freedom of speech should be liberated with legal law in order to provide rich soil for people, especially for the young, to grow the seed containing democratic ideals, thinking for themselves about the problem that may affect their daily life and making movement to improve the modern civilized
Throughout, 1900- 1950 there were a number of changes and continuities in China. From the fall of the dynasties to the rise of the Communist Party, these changes shaped China’s government and society. Although, many political changes were made multiple continuities were held constant such as, consistent rebellions and the lack of democracy.
Throughout the Chinese history, peasants, especially women have always aimed for a recognized position in Chinese society, their roles and positions in both their family and society have not been quite pleased with them. Generally, Chinese women have had almost no legal rights or career opportunities compare to Chinese men until early twentieth century. However, it started to change right after a movement known as “The May Fourth movement in 1919 .” The May Fourth movement was based on Western principles to create a new Chinese culture. Through this revolutionary movement, the peasants and intellectuals had a unified voice to express radical ideologies in Confucianism, traditional civil service hiring exams, patriarchal family structures,
Cheng, Pei-kai, Michael Elliot. Lestz, and Jonathan D. Spence. The Search for Modern China: A Documentary Collection. New York: Norton, 1999. Print.
Cheng, Pei-kai, Michael E. Lestz, and Jonathan D. Spence. The Search for Modern China: A Documentary Collection. New York: Norton, 1999. Print.
Li, K., & Mengyan, F. (2013). A historical survey on modernization of Chinese culture. Asian Social Science, 9(4), 129-132. doi:10.5539/ass.v9n4p129
China would like to think of themselves as living in a microcosm. Foreigners are almost inferiors to China because each culture is so different that any influence foreigners would encourage to Chinese men would only be observed rather than accepted. Persistent Westerners hardly made any influence on China. Two different views upon Western impact on China were compared between J.A. Hobson’s Imperialism and Mike Davis’s Late Victorian Holocaust. Hobson’s coverage on China was a perspective written a century earlier than Davis’s coverage. The comparison of China on different timelines can explain the progress China has made, although between the two coverages, China was still adamant in preserving their culture and traditions.
Douglas Reynolds, China, 1898-1912: The Xinzheng Revolution and Japan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.
Chen (1970) introduces the May Fourth Movement’s remark as the opening of China’s modern revolution era, and goes on agreeing that it had the idea of both anti-imperialist and anti-warlord. Anti-imperialist ideals emerged from Chinese anger upon Japanese imperialism, against the conditions of ‘Twenty-one Demands’, and mass student demonstrations occurred denouncing the pro-Japanese government, or the weak warlord government (Chen, 1970). The author supports the anti-Japanese ideas by providing evidence of nationwide boycotting of Japanese goods, the general strikes, and refusal of the signing of the Peace Treaty of Versailles nation widely (Chen, 1970). Chen further states that “the movement had served as the dividing line between ‘old democracy’ and ‘new democracy’ in China” (1970). This mobilized demonstrations had awakened consciousness and determination because students’ strikes appeared all over ...
Hay, Jeff, ed. The Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989. Detroit: Gale Cenage Learning, 2010. Print.
The protest is meant to symbolize a peaceful resistance to a decision made by the government in authority over the land. If the protesters choose to become violent and harmful, then it is no longer a peaceful resistance, but a riot. Through this comes senseless violence that will accomplish nothing but an influence of hatred that will spread throughout the society and prompt more to join in the conflict. The act of peaceful resistance is the best route to take, but should still be taken with caution because there are many possibilities that people could still be harmed. However, this can positively impact a society because it shows that citizens are willing to be patient with their government as they await their answer after so many demonstrations have been complete. This can also fuel a better relationship between citizens and their government, bringing about a future where hopefully, less and less protests will be
The declaration of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 by the Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong signified a revolution in China that brought an end to the costliest civil war in Chinese history between the Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that had lasted a period of 22 years from 1927 to 1949. The Chinese revolution of 1949 signified the beginning of an era of Communist Chinese rule ushered in by the popular Chinese Communist Party at the expense of the Nationalist Party. According to historian Michael Lestz, the Communist victory was an inevitability that was aided by the actions of the preceding Nationalist government (Lestz, 2010). Lestz states that the weakness and administration ineptitude displayed by the Nationalist Party in economic, military and civil affairs created an environment that was conducive for the Communist Party to prosper. Author John King elaborates that the Nationalist party did more to lose the peasants’ support than the Communist party did to gain the peasants’ favor (King, 2006). Therefore, this paper will focus on the failures of the Nationalist Party in the Civil War and World War II coupled with the consequences. It will compound the various issues that harbored the Nationalist Party such as corruption and the failure of the government to accommodate or abate Communist dissent. The paper will also cover the failed efforts by Nationalist Party to integrate Western policies into China.
The topic of democracy in China is a highly controversial topic. Although China has not democratised, it has done well in the global situation amongst its democratic competitors. Since the path to democracy is different for each country, we cannot expect that China would follow the same path or same model of democracy as the western nations. This essay will look at what democracy is and how it can be placed in a Chinese context as well as looking at the proponents and opponents of democracy in China. It will also look at whether China is democratising by focusing on village elections, globalisation and the emergence of a civil society. These specific topics were chosen because they will help provide good evidence and arguments to the topic of democratisation in China. The main argument in this essay will be that although China is implementing some changes that can be seen as the beginning of a road to democracy, there contribution should not be over estimated. China still has a long way to go before it can be considered that it is democratising. The small changes are good but China still has a long road ahead of itself to achieve democracy.
BEIJING, June 5, 1989 --What started as a peaceful protest weeks ago in Beijing, China ended yesterday in a massacre of an unknown number of Chinese students in Tiananmen Square. The protest, which began in April, was triggered by the death of former Communist Party General Secretary, Hu Yaobang, a liberal reformer. Unsuccessful in his attempts to facilitate political and economic changes, Yaobang had garnered the support of university students who marched and gathered in Tiananmen Square on the day of his funeral. Over the course of the next several weeks, the number of students grew and they were joined by other citizens seeking political, social, and economic reforms.
Historical conceptions of China’s culture and global position shaped the PRC’s perspective. Central to this is Sino-centrism and its edict from heaven for dynastic China to spread civilisation (Xinning 2001: 70). Imperial China’s tribute system represented a “Pax Sinica” and the physical manifestation of Sino-centrism, with its success affirming Chinese cultural superiority (Y. Zhang 2001: 52). Instructive in this is Sino-centrism’s similarity to, and conflict with American Manifest Destiny, itself an articulation that Anglo-Saxon American’s are God’s chosen people, with a superior culture and who are pre-ordained to spread civilisation to inferior peoples (Hollander 2009: 169). The PRC’s nationalism can be seen in part as a rejection of this competing celestial mandate, linking China’s decline to foreign intervention and the acceding to unequal treaties that saw the loss of peripheral territories considered intrinsic to historic China (Kissinger 2011: 112). In this way, the PRC’s formation as a modern nation state is the recrudescence of Sino-...
having a car or even renting an apartment. Not only were these students being treated as