Commentary
The November public protests across mainland China, in the aftermath of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) last month, have been focused in a way not seen since the communists took control of the mainland in 1949.
That is not to say that the recent protests have necessarily matched the number of incidents or victims of some earlier protests. What is significant is that they are qualitatively different from the earlier outbursts.
The question is whether this is the wave that finally breaks the CCP’s grip on society because the 2022 protests are more focused and with a broadly-agreed national accord than earlier protests. A concurrent wave of protests in Iran raises similar questions as to whether “this time” the ruling clerics there would also be toppled….