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Ever since 1989, the protests of that year have been used as a yardstick against which new outbursts of unrest in China are measured by the press. This makes sense, but it can also lead to some misunderstandings, especially because an incomplete or distorted sense of what took place in the movement associated with the word Tiananmen comes into play, thanks to the way that struggle has been misremembered (e.g., as one in which only students took part when many who protested and many who suffered were from other social groups). Too often, audiences are left with the mistaken idea that the only important continuities in the recent history of Chinese protest have to do with the repressive measures used by the regime. Using the March 2002 demonstrations by workers in Northeast China as a starting point, this article argues that there are many links between the Tiananmen and post-Tiananmen periods relating to everything from the kinds of Chinese people who have taken to the streets to the sorts of issues that bring them there.

Ever since 1989, the protests of that year have been used as a yardstick against which new outbursts of unrest in China are measured by the press. This makes sense, but it can also lead to some misunderstandings, especially because an incomplete or distorted sense of what took place in the movement associated with the word Tiananmen comes into play, thanks to the way that struggle has been misremembered (e.g., as one in which only students took part when many who protested & many who suffered were from other social groups). Too often, audiences are left with the mistaken idea that the only important continuities in the recent history of Chinese protest have to do with the repressive measures used by the regime. Using the March 2002 demonstrations by workers in Northeast China as a starting point, this article argues that there are many links between the Tiananmen & post-Tiananmen periods relating to everything from the kinds of Chinese people who have taken to the streets to the sorts of issues that bring them there. [Copyright 2003 Sage Publications, Inc.]

Has the Chinese body politic finally been infected by what Beijing officials have sometimes dubbed the 'Polish disease'…? Could China's 2002 turn out to be like Poland's 1981, a turning-point year when cleansing fevers (to invert the medical metaphor) began to take effect?

When attempting to bring pressure on Beijing, the United States should stop using vague universal standards or comparisons with the contemporary United States. Washington's criticisms of the Chinese Communist Party should instead build on Beijing's own claims about history and politics.

Examines government responses to the Falun Gong sect and destruction of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia by NATO bombs; focuses on Chinese Communist Party leadership decision to repress Falun Gong while allowing anti-NATO student demonstrations and the CCP's legitimacy crisis.