Chih-Jou Jay Chen
The Journal of Peasant Studies
Abstract: This article reports key findings drawing on a database containing more than 12,000 protest news events in China from 2000 to 2018, including over 1500 protests against land expropriation. It finds that while social conflicts over land seizures continue to be the leading cause of protests in rural China, there was an upward trend for the number of related protest between 2000 and 2014 and a downward trend between 2014 and 2018. Under Xi Jinping, police were increasingly inclined to arrest and crack down on land seizure protesters. Failing to adequately deal with land disputes may undermine China’s regime legitimacy.
About the author: Chih-Jou Jay Chen was a HYI Visiting Scholar from 2014-15