Photo cred: EPA/ALEX HOFFORD

Putting myself into the shoes of a citizen in today’s China, keeping my government accountable would be much more difficult to than it would in the United States. Overall accountability would be possible, as we saw with the Hong Kong protests of late last year, yet the biggest obstacle to get around would be government censorship.  One of the most effective ways to draw the spotlight of the public to a wrongdoing of the government is to use the media.  Media outlets allow controversial events that deserve the people’s attention and awareness to be circulated and made public, often drawing criticism to the government and pressuring change.  This tactic is used frequently in the United States to hold the government accountable, however in China this is a different story entirely.  Media censorship in China is very cleverly managed and implemented, allowing privately owned and run outlets to exist as long as they abide by Communist party regulations.  Politically sensitive topics are carefully ignored and strict guidelines keep newspapers and news channels away from stories that might cause instability.  An appeal to the media to expose some wrongdoing by the government would go nowhere, or potentially land you in jail.

So what other options would the people of China have?

Other methods to hold the government accountable potentially include voting power and protests. Voting power can be ruled out fairly easily as an option because of the hand-picked candidates  whose “love of China” makes it unlikely that reforming government would be on their agenda.  That leaves protest as the most feasible and effective way to hold the People’s Republic of China’s government accountable.  The most significant issue with this is organization. Along with the censorship and control of the media, the Chinese government’s censorship of the internet would make organization and communication of protests difficult.  Chinese censors specifically target internet communication that promotes collective action and public gatherings in order to control and curtail collective action.  The recent Hong Kong protests were possible because it was started by students at the University of Hong Kong.  Students provide an insular, politically volatile population that is easily organized through word of mouth and gossip while not having to worry about jobs or families.  Therefore the highest likelihood of collective action holding the government accountable lies with student bodies, which is interesting because it was mostly students who attacked and sometimes killed their professors during the Cultural Revolution in a Maoist frenzy.  This goes to show that when it comes to political movement, university students are among the most impressionable and easily mobilized to action.