Admin innovation

The Wukan protest is only one of the thousands of similar events taking place in China every year. According to Ma, when such disturbances happened previously, they were usually dubbed as "manipulated by foreign forces," "hostile forces" or "stirred up by media." But this time, Zhu used no such terms during the investigation process. "This is an innovation in social administration in China," said Ma.

Wang Yang, Secretary of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee and top administrator of Guangdong, also had similar views.

"It [Wukan protest] seemed to be accidental, but it is actually the natural result of local government neglecting the social contradictions during the long-term social and economic development," said Wang. He describes the current government administration as "strong in one aspect while weak in another," referring to the fact that local government stresses too much on the economic development while neglecting people's concerns during the process.

According to Zhang Tie, a People's Daily news commentator, the local government failed to be aware of the outcome of their actions and respond properly to villagers' reasonable appeals. "In dealing with problems related to people's interests, the government should show enough respect to their demand," said Wu Si, Editor in Chief of Yanhuang Chunqiu magazine, at a seminar held by the Economic Observer.

A similar protest took place in the northeast coastal city of Dalian. In early August 2011, a strong typhoon destroyed the outer wall of a p-xylene project of a company in Dalian, directly threatening local residents' living environment. The incident also led to a demonstration of Dalian citizens. After communicating with the citizens and investigation, the Dalian Government believed that the project threatened people's health and decided to move the project out of the city, thus ending a possible mass disturbance.

"Many mass [social] disturbances [in China] today originate from very simple causes and can be solved easily," said Zhu, adding that the government should first listen to people's requests before the conflicts between citizens and the government can be solved properly.

Talking equally

According to Ren Jiantao, Professor of Politics at School of International Studies of Renmin University of China, governments should discard "rivalry ideology" while dealing with their conflicts with the people. "I see that the Guangdong Government did not regard the villagers as their rivals, but as a party they needed to communicate with equally," said Ma. "This is a new approach for solving problems related to social administration."

But "rivalry ideology" was the previous method adopted to resolve conflict, something shown during the process of Shanwei City dealing with the Wukan protests before the provincial government's intervention. On December 9, 2011, nearly three months after the beginning of the conflict, the Shanwei Government announced at a press conference that the public security departments had arrested those who led the protests and were making efforts to clamp down on "illegal organizations." It also stated that it believed that the Wukan protest was "promoted by foreign forces."

This ideology was later replaced an approach of relating equally when the provincial government interfered. "This is an innovation in China's social administration mode by putting people's interests first," remarked Ma, adding that the "rivalry ideology" can only sharpen conflicting opinions.