인터넷시대의 출현과 중국 군체성 사건의 발전－‘신공민운동’을 사례로 -

Abstract

This paper investigates the new changes and characteristics of popular protests in China through an analysis of the ‘new citizen movement’: the dual emergence of the Internet as a medium and the rise of popular protests led by Chinese middle-class intellectuals. Despite the Communist Party’s powerful authoritarian control, rapid economic growth has been accompanied by a growth in awareness of rights for Chinese citizens. Also, at a quick pace, the Internet and online social networking services have become major ways of spreading public opinion. As such, a cyber public sphere and civil society have emerged which has created new conditions for the growth of social movements. In particular, liberal public intellectuals have used the cyber public sphere to discuss and argue about social issues and thus have led civil society and civil movements in this new form. In these conditions, popular protests in China are no more cut-off regionally and hierarchically. Transcending concrete economic interests, social demands such as the public disclosure of assets of government officials, equal rights to education, the guarantee of human rights, and so forth have expanded to become a nationwide social rights movement. The ‘new citizenship movement’ led by liberal lawyers, journalists, and intellectuals is the new form of popular protest in China, emerged as a result of the Internet era. Even though it is hard for such movements to escape the influence of the Chinese government’s control, in the long-term the “new citizenship movement” is an important development that can lead to the growth of civil society and the possibility of political change.