Even two decades ago, few people expected popular collective action to become common or even “normal” in China. A variety of social groups, including pensioners, laid-off workers, peasants, urban homeowners, demobilized army officers, and people with disabilities, have mounted collective protests to the government. Indeed, when such groups have strong claims to make to the government, they can seldom find a better way than through collective petitioning. From the early 1990s to present, such activities were not just common; many of them were actually a central part of protracted struggles with the government. Through forceful and often persistent collective action, many “disadvantaged” social groups have exerted considerable influence on local policies.

Contentious authoritarianism, wherein a strong authoritarian regime accommodates widespread and routinized collective protests, is a very rare phenomenon. Even in the long history of China, which witnessed numerous rebellions and occasional waves of protests and social movements, it is hard to find a relatively long period when collective protests were so common and routine. To be sure, protests movements have been substantially institutionalized and normalized in some liberal democracies, which are called “social movement societies.” However, authoritarian regimes in general are still quite hostile to popular collective action, and the opening of political opportunity for mass mobilization in such societies tends to be very brief.