Issue 10: July – September 2025

Highlights

• Persistent increase in dissent events. CDM logged 1,392 dissent events in the third quarter of 2025, a 45 percent increase over the same period in 2024, and the sixth straight quarter of year-on-year increases in dissent. The majority of these protests were led by workers (38 percent), property owners (29 percent), and rural residents (15 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 province for protest events was Guangdong (16 percent), followed by Henan, Hunan, Hebei, and Shandong. CDM has logged a total of 12,331 cases of dissent since data collection began in June 2022.
• Schools as an increasingly common venue for protest. Two featured analyses in this issue explore dissent linked to education. The first looks at 182 protests by parents and homeowners in connection with school districts, highlighting sustained conflict over perceived unfairness in the distribution of educational resources. The second examines 168 protests by parents, workers, and teachers related to the growing financial strain experienced by schools as a result of China’s economic downturn and long-term demographic trends. Together, these featured analyses illustrate the everyday impact of broader social and economic trends on access to education.
• School safety concerns spark large demonstrations. After a case of bullying led to massive protests in Sichuan Province this August, CDM looked into a dataset of 128 protests linked to school safety. Analysis indicates that these types of demonstrations are larger and more likely to prompt repression than the average event in the full CDM database.
• Threatening to jump as a rising form of protest. CDM has documented the growing use of threat-to-jump protests, in which people typically stand or sit near the edge of a roof or other high location to protest a perceived injustice. Among 307 such events, the monthly prevalence has quadrupled, and more types of protesters began using the tactic this year. A disproportionate number of the threat-to-jump events have occurred in Guangdong Province, and especially in the city of Shenzhen.