Western observers run the risk of failing to notice things that are happening in Chinese society because they are looking for things that conform to Western expectations. By looking for “dissidence” they fail to see “resistance”. Police control of the streets ends public protest, but not the more deeply rooted forms of social resistance. A better understanding of the true causes of social unrest in China and the forms of resistance the Chinese people do adopt would improve Western attempts to analyse and interpret the reactions of the Chinese government and the reasons for its policies.
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