The paradoxical links between the Arab Spring and the on-going problem of workers’ rights in China was not lost on scholars and activists working in and on China. Ralph Litzinger, a Duke University anthropologist who studies labour issues in China, explained:
When we get all excited about the Arab uprisings but we don’t really want to know who and what produces the things we’re holding in our hands. We want to get on with the business of revolutions and to be constantly reminded of the way things are made? Heavy metal runoff into rivers and ground water, and harsh labour conditions, etc. That stuff stands in the way of the revolution, illuminating a fundamental contradiction that slows down its momentum. But the reality is that the technologies that we use are part of the global capitalist network, which means that ultimately the issues facing protesters in Cairo or Shenzhen are rooted in the same larger processes.
Litzinger continued. “I joke with friends in China that we’re sitting around doing all this planning with our iPhones, Blackberries, Androids, and the like, sharing information and commenting on articles? We’re using the very technology that we’re denouncing. And they say, ‘What choice do we have?’.”
Certainly, the Chinese government is very aware of the links between the two plight of Arab and Chinese workers and activists. During the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions people couldn’t even type the word “Jasmine” into Chinese search engines or use it in blogs.
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