Reading about disguised collective action in china, I began to learn in a bit more detail the individualization of protests in China…a term known as atomization. This is not a traditional idea of group protests per se, but a method of protest that does not draw attention to an organized group with a resulting repression by the state government. In essence, the idea is that people secretly form groups, but instead of publicly declaring their offenses to the world/central government, train each individual member to complain to the state officials in different, individualized manners. This in theory allows the group to get their opinions about various policies across to the Chinese political leadership without the group painting a target on their backs. Frankly speaking, it is not a nationalistic protest that is aiming at dismantling the government, but in pushing their complaints through the current regime.

Another idea that has been discussed in class was the idea of “rightful resistance” , where the goal is to use the current system in a collective action to relay the greater peoples complaints/issues. Basically, a group needs to form, the people come together, and gain the attention of the central government by declaring the central governments sovereignty and asking for them to right the wrongs of lesser government officials (i.e. central government counteract a local governments policy decisions).

In short, protest still does occur in China, just not in the way that western states conduct protests. It needs to be disguised, decentralized, atomized….or a group coming up to the central government while showing deference for the current regime in power. Either method is made in order to limit the potential repressiveness of the central government.