CHINA-INTERNAL: SOCIAL ORDER
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Since President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign began in December 2012, at least 146 fallen “tigers” (officials holding the rank of minister or provincial governor) have often being detained without warning. A new phrase has even been added to the Chinese lexicon to describe this sudden fall from grace: miaosha, or “instant kill.” There have additionally been a large number of suicides especially in the case of lower-level officials. The media confirmed 28 such cases last year, though the actual number was probably higher. Concerned by this trend, the CCP leadership has now tasked local party organizations to gather data on suicides by government officials since the anti-corruption drive began. Meanwhile, the government has recruited informers in universities to denounce professors espousing liberal values in their lectures and several outspoken liberal academics have lost their jobs. Hundreds of human-rights lawyers have also reportedly been harassed and arrested. On January 29, 2016, lawyer Tang Jingling, an advocate of non-violent civil disobedience, was convicted of "inciting subversion of state power" and sentenced to five years in prison. Tang Jinglin was first detained in May 2014 on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking troubles” in connection with organizing seminars and study groups on civil disobedience and planning events to commemorate victims of the military crackdown on the 1989 democracy Movement on its 25th anniversary. His two co-defendants in his case, Yuan Chaoyang and Wang Qingying, were sentenced to three years and six months and two year and six months in prison, respectively. Tang Jingling has said he will not appeal.
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