May, 2009

Civil Society and Democratization in China:
Focusing on the Rights Defense Movement and Cyberspace

Helena WONG Pik-wan
Lecturer, General Education Centre, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

　　Lesson We Can Learn from the Democratization of Eastern Europe

　　The dramatic political transformations of the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries in 1989 have triggered a tidal wave of interest in studying the development of civil society and democratization within the academic circle. Scholars generally agree that the existence of a strong, active and participatory civil society will lead to a more responsible state which is able to respond to the need of citizens more swiftly. Hence, the growth of civil society is seen as one of the important motivating factors leading to democratization. Since the end of the 1970s, different forms of dissent groups have emerged in nations of Eastern Europe, for example, Solidarity in Poland, independent political organizations in Hungary, Protestant groups in East Germany, and opposition groups which comprised artists and intellectuals in Czechoslovakia. It shows that civil society had already emerged and people widely participated in various opposition movements prior to the breakdown of the former communist regimes in Eastern Europe (especially in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia).

　　The thirty years of China’s reform has triggered a transformation process of the entire society. One of the major changes is the gradual relaxation of the party’s control on the society which has affected the China’s economic development, the outlook of social life, and the future of democratic development. This article will sketch the development and characteristics of Chinese civil society, focusing on the development of the rights defense (weiquan) movement, and the digital civil society. I hope this will enhance our understanding of Chinese society and politics, and help us to reflect on their implications for China’s democratization.

　　The Concept of Civil Society

　　The term civil society has three translations in mainland China, namely shimin Shehui, minjian shehui and gongmin shehui. In short, civil society is a public sphere which is relatively independent from the state and is based on a variety of social organizations. Two famous European scholars, A. Gramsci and J. Habermas, have divided society into three parts: state/country, economic sector and private sector. Based on this tripartite classification, civil society is the sum of all social organizations or social relations which are outside of state/ government and market/enterprise, and is a public sphere that is outside of the realm of official politics, market economy and private sector or family.

　　Those social organizations which construct a civil society are non-governmental and non-enterprise organizations. They are autonomous and non-profit organizations which pursue common rights, including charitable organizations, community organizations, interests groups, women groups, religious groups, business and professional groups, labor unions, mutual aid groups, and social movement organizations and allied groups which facilitate social reform. The Western concept of civil society denotes social activities which are independent of the state, and citizens should have freedom of association in a mature civil society. Social organizations also have the following four characteristics: non-governmental (not representing the standpoint of the state or government, non-profitable (oriented at providing public services and welfare), independent and autonomous (independent of the state in political, managerial and financial affairs in a certain level), and voluntary (members join those social organizations voluntarily).

Development and Characteristics of Chinese Civil Society

　　Chinese civil society was derived from the development of market economy. Since the reform and open policy were launched in 1978, Chinese society has been trying to escape from the totalitarianism of Cultural Revolution, and the administrative power of the state has been gradually withdrawing from the socio-economic sector. The Communist Party-State have not sought to control everything and the social life has been gradually depoliticized. In addition, the rapid development of commodity economy has gradually given rise to the duality of state and civil society, enlarged the social space and develop the Chinese civil society. Moreover, the development of market economy has provided essential conditions for the existence and development of civil society. Private charitable organizations, non-governmental organizations, community organizations, women organizations, religious groups, environmental protection organizations and online forums have emerged. All are signs of the growth of civil society. According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, up to June 2008, the total number of social organizations exceeded 380,000. The NGO Research Center of the School of Public Policy and Management of Tsinghua University estimated that the number should be 2,000,000-2,700,000, which is larger than the official figure. The formation of the enormous amount of social organizations provides for the base and principal part of a civil society.

　　However, the development of Chinese civil society is still fraught with great difficulty. Owing to difficulty in getting rid of the Party’s control completely, it could only be a process led by the government from top to bottom. Therefore, Chinese civil society is characterized by the duality of the government and the public.

　　The development of Chinese civil society has been regulated strictly all the time. Especially after the June 4th Movement, the Chinese government has tightened the control of social organizations. In October 1989, the State Council promulgated the new Management Regulations on the Registration of Social Organizations, replacing the 1950 regulations. The regulation was amended in 1998, still aiming at regulating social organizations strictly. It requires all social organizations to register with the relevant section of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. However, for successful registration, the social organizations had to find a supervisory party-government unit (commonly known as “zhao po jia”) which act as a sponsor and be responsible for supervising the day-to-day activities of the affiliated social organizations. This mode of registration shows that the Chinese government has adopted a system of dual management for managing social organizations, slackening their pace of development to some extent. This practice also hinders the development of charitable organizations. As a result, the so-called non-governmental organizations in China are not completely ‘non-governmental’ at all. The majority of them were established and led by the government, especially those that have been legally registered and have important impact on society, including different industry organizations, trade organizations, research groups and interests groups. Comparing with Western countries, Chinese social organizations are not very mature, lacking independency and autonomy as well as voluntary and non-governmental nature; they have become sub-units of government departments, and most of them are official or semi-official in nature. No wonder why many foreign scholars have questioned whether civil society have really emerged in China.

Another consequence of the dual management system is that only 20% of social organizations have been registered, and the rest are in an illegal state. The system not only suppresses vitality of society and depletes social resources; it also distorts the constitutional right of association. It is worth noting that, however, the regulation concerned only regulates organizations which have fifty individual members or above, or thirty organizational members or above; the registration requirement therefore does not apply to small groups which only have fifty individual members or less, providing a living space for numerous small grass-root groups.

　　Besides, in order to accelerate the development of charity organizations, the Ministry of Civil Affairs proposed in 2005 that it could become the regulating authority of charity organizations related to social service and social assistance, simplify their registration procedures as far as possible and support them at their early stage. At present, Jiangsu, Shandong and Guangdong are pioneering provinces of this reform. For example, the registration procedures of charity, public welfare and social service organizations in Shenzhen have been simplified, where it has been stipulated that the government no longer provides social services that can be undertaken by social organizations so that there may be more room for development for social organizations. However, non-charitable social organizations are still subject to the control of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and organizational authorities. Therefore Chinese civil society, especially in respect of the freedom of association, is still to a large extent subject to the control of an autocratic government at this stage.

Rights Defense Movement

　　For the analysis of Chinese civil society, we should not only focus on the social organizations, but also study the civic movement and rights defense movement. Although the June 4­th Movement was cracked down in 1989, Chinese people have been increasingly realizing that they have to form different organizations in defending their rights. People would no longer suffer oppression and social injustice in silence, and would take a more assertive stand in defending their rights. Such rights defense movement, which started from outside of the party-state regime, are considered as a prelude to the democratic movement and are signs of a civil society in the making, appearing in various forms in China.

　　The Tiananmen Mothers Campaign, formed by the relatives of victims of the June 4th Movement, have persisted for over twenty years, seeking to identify all the victims and to call for the compensation and apology from the central government. Over the past ten years, there were mass protests (each with five hundred people or more) which showed increasing conflicts between officials and the public. Besides, many social problems have arisen as China is developing rapidly; for example, problems such as land expropriation, relocation of urban housing and pollutions are getting worse with the economic reform. Since violation of rights has not been dealt with properly, they have taken it into their own hands to defend their rights and interests and pursue a just society in different ways. In terms of substance and form, rights defense movements have characteristics of political participation and political resistance. Rights defense movements in mainland China are initiated by the people themselves who strived to protect their fundamental rights and interests, and the  movements cover workers’ rights, land expropriation, urban renewal, consumers’ rights, educational rights, removal of corrupt officials, farmers’ rights, the one-child policy, AIDS, religious freedom, environmental pollutions, medical negligence, food safety, animals’ rights, freedom of speech, freedom of press and all other civil and political rights. The people’s protests and resistance are related to public agenda; for example, they seek to mitigate farmers’ burdens, oppose corrupt officials, protect farmers’ lands and properties, and ask for more transparence and democratic in the administration of villages’ affairs and financial management. People’s resistances are often a result of unjust policy and inappropriate measures exercised by the authorities and the targets of resistance are local government apparatus and related organizations. Therefore, phenomena of “people against officials” have appeared. Most of the rights defense actions took the form of legal resistance. They are based on policies and law, and are political activities that cannot be easily stopped by local governments and officials; legal procedures are utilized by citizens to defend their political rights and economic interests.

　　In 2007, numerous environmental rights defense movement occurred in mainland China. Take Xiamen as an example. The municipal government had originally planned to invest more than ten billions to set up a PX chemical factory in the north of Xiamen. The distance between the factory and the residential area is only about seven kilometers which is far below international standards. The event was shortly noticed by intellectuals at Xiamen University; assisted by the internet and short message system (SMS), they informed Xiamen citizens of the potential hazards of the plan. Finally, the authorities were forced to follow the public opinion and made a concession. Interestingly, the mobilization process in this event went beyond the extent of city of Xiamen. According to a study of a German scholar, there was only one environmental NGO in Xiamen at that time. The organization could not persuade the municipal government to shelve the plan, thus seeking external support by informing NGOs outside Xiamen of the situation. Subsequently, the NGOs in Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou, etc. released the news on internet, urging people to pay attention to the potential hazards of the PX chemical factory. Although the mainstream media in Xiamen did not report any news about this event, the newspapers in Shanghai, Nanjing and Guangzhou covered it. It is common that the media in a certain place cannot report local news, yet, the news could be reported by other cities in China. It is because the media in other provinces or cities were too far away and beyond the control of the city government in Xiamen. One can avoid political pressure from one’s own province or city if the news is reported somewhere else. Thanks to the internet and other media, the PX event was quickly spread to other parts of China. In June 2007, around ten thousand people took to the street in Xiamen, compelling the government to shelve the original plan. This event shows that the internet and information technology in general can help people connecting with each other quickly and so facilitate rights defense actions.

　　Emergence of Cyberspace and Digital Civil Society

　　Citizens can participate in public affairs in different forms. As information technology has developed, the forms and channels of civic participation increase accordingly. The emergence of internet has created an important public sphere and a new platform for political participation, discussion of public affairs and social mobilization. At present, there are more than three hundred million people who use the internet. These internet users, or netizens, are becoming an important part of the civil society and have drawn the attention of party-state. The 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasized on the people’s rights of knowing, participation, expression and supervision. The internet provides a space, which had never existed before, for netizens to exercise these rights. On the one hand, it builds a participatory structure for users to express their opinions online, interact and communicate with each other. On the other hand, the Chinese government has agreed to promote e-government. More and more leading cadres or even Chinese communist leaders exchange ideas with internet users, paying closer attention to public opinions or consult the public through the internet. Government officials and citizens have new way for dialogue which is a new political phenomenon in China. Besides, some new forms of civil participation have emerged recently, such as public debates on television and SMS. In the socio-political realm, emerging channels of civil participation have become increasingly important. Although the party-state still maintain a tight monitoring system to ban sensitive political issues and pornography on the internet, internet users still have a large space to maneuver. It is difficult for the government to completely monopolize the information flow and communication.

　　In addition to the PX event mentioned above, the relief action of the Sichuan earthquake, which was organized last year, also exemplifies speedy networking and mobilizing power of the internet. After the earthquake, millions of volunteers throughout the nation managed to get together and quickly rushed to the disaster area through internet and mobile phones communication. Most of them were organized into small groups (some were Christian groups). In the relief action, the internet not only helped to facilitate communication and mobilization, but also accelerated the dissemination of knowledge and assisted volunteers to organize their actions and operate rapidly. The voluntary relief action shows that the consciousness of civil participation has matured, and that the catalytic role and instrumental effect of the internet and the positive effects exerted by civil society on public affairs could not be ignored.

Conclusion

　　Scholars in Eastern Europe tend to describe the former communist regimes as a source of domination and control to the civil society. They emphasizing on the opposition between the two sides. However, scholars in mainland China emphasize on the non-antagonistic relationship between the state and civil society, and think that they could positively interact with each other. It is hard to maintain the comprehensive development of society by the unilateral governance of the state without the assistance of civil society. The government should not hold a hostile attitude to social organizations; rather, it should seek for a larger space of collaboration and facilitate complementary cooperation with them.

　　At present, the development of Chinese civil society is still in the embryonic stage. Social organizations do not enjoy unrestricted freedom of association; media are still under tight control; and democratic governance and direct elections are still confined to township level and below. There is still a long way to go to establish democracy in China. But fortunately, the Chinese people’s consciousness of democracy and human rights, their willingness to exercise citizenship and engage in civic participation have increased significantly in recent years. Also, the development of the internet and information technology has opened up the public sphere of political participation and discussion. Their potential power in bring about reform should not be underestimated. I hope that the growing civil society can secure the cooperation and support of the party-state, and be able to launch democratic reform together in future. Although this way of implementing democratization may take a longer time, it could keep social stability and avoid violent conflicts.

Article translated from Chinese by LAW Wing Leung