There is a new breed of dissidents in China today as the country ‘tolerates a safer wave of protests’ 20 years after the Tiananmen Square massacre. The ordinary Chinese are much more critical of human rights now and some of them have been keen to defend such rights.
On June 3 and 4, 1989, a military crackdown on protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square left scores of people dead. The complete tally of casualties has not been released even after 20 years as the Chinese government has always been adamant to defend its right to have quelled such protests undertaken by the elite of Chinese society, specifically students and intellectuals who demanded democracy, transparency from a corrupt government, and better economic policies.
Chinese activism today is no longer conducted by intellectuals. Most of them have not graduated from college. They still demand political and economic reforms, but now largely act as the voice of the disenfranchised sectors such as workers, farmers, and microbusiness owners who, otherwise, do not have sufficient legal support. Rich people in China, specifically the elite, have had better legal options to air their grievances and fight for their rights. Protests in China today mostly come from disgruntled workers and grassroots people from the countryside. Generally, it is still justice that protesters have been fighting for
