Issue 9: July – September 2024

Highlights

• A 27 percent year-on-year increase in dissent events. CDM logged 937 dissent events in the third quarter of 2024, a 27 percent increase over the same period in 2023. The majority of these protests are led by workers (41 percent), property owners (28 percent), and rural residents (12 percent), with the remainder driven by diverse groups such as parents, students, investors, consumers, members of religious or ethnic minority groups, and activists. The top regions for protest events were Guangdong (18 percent), followed by Shandong, Sichuan, Henan, and Zhejiang. CDM has logged a total of 7,377 cases of dissent since data collection began in June 2022.
• Citizens fighting for autonomy in their communities. This issue analyzes 174 cases of homeowners pushing back against perceived abuses and overreach by property management companies. When homeowners have attempted to democratically form owners’ committees to take back powers that were seized by the management companies, they have been met with obstruction or other repression by the company or local government. These tensions have been exacerbated by the government increasingly treating property managers as the first line of social management.
• Dissenting through xinfang. Citizens often use xinfang, or petitioning, a complaint channel encouraged by the government, to carry out collective action or other contentious forms of dissent. This report explores the trends underlying 182 such cases, at least half of which led to some form of repression.
• Rise in frequency of consumer and investor protests. CDM has documented a rise in protests over recent months by consumers and investors amidst a sluggish economy. Despite the grievances originating with the conduct of private companies, nearly 40 percent of these protests demand government intervention.