The Protest Heard 'Round the World

At this point, most everyone has heard about the mass protests in Egypt that led to the ejection of President Mubarak and inspired similar protests across the African continent. While these protests kept igniting, I continually searched the official Chinese newspaper, The People's Daily, to see just how much the government would allow revealed to their citizens. I admit, I was surprised when I saw some pretty extensive coverage of the Egyptian protests as they reached their zenith. Of course, the articles also painted Mubarak as a horrible person who very much deserved to be ousted. I'm not saying that's false, but it was definitely an effort to craft a distinct separation between Mubarak's Egypt and the CCP's China.

Maybe it worked. I was surprised that I didn't hear much about protests on the news, nor even in the China blogs. But then came the protests across the rest of Africa. I found Tunisia's "Jasmine Revolution," interesting the first time I heard it because it sounded quite a bit like something one would hear from the tumultuous years when China transitioned from a dynasty-driven empire to a party-driven nation. Jasmine, of course, is a popular flower and tea in China, and revolutions... well they were popular for a while too. But this was Tunisia, not China, so I got a bit lax about following every detail of their movement. (However, I do want to stop for a second to acknowledge the many lives that have been lost as people continue to stand up to the tyrannical and oppressive forces in their lives.)

Then, in today's New York Times, the story that I've been waiting for finally broke. A la Egypt, China saw its own national protests coordinated through social networking sites such as (sigh) Twitter. I really do have to congratulate these protesters on finding such an incredible and productive use for Twitter. Anyway, this mass national protest was called, surprise, the Jasmine Revolution. According to the article, one protest was in the middle of Wangfujing, which is like Beijing's Times Square. Also according to the article, according to one Twitter-er (Tweeter?) students at Peking University were warned not to take part in the protests. The Yale students at PKU this semester are so lucky.

I'll be following developments in China as much as possible. It will be very interesting to see if this story progresses at all, or just gets swallowed up by the censored media.