ABSTRACT
Focusing on the Jasic protests of 2018–2019 in Shenzhen, this chapter investigates the role of students and young activists, and the nexus of the mobilisation with the evolving landscape of state repression in China. Whereas young activists are not expected to represent any major ideological challenges vis-à-vis the Chinese Communist Party, protests from these groups have drawn widespread attention, and faced total suppression from Chinese authorities. This study emphasises how, under Xi Jinping, China's Party-state is increasingly heightening repression despite the fact that student activism does not – and does not aim to – represent a challenge to the Party rule. By doing so, the Xi leadership is driving repression towards new heights, breaking away from the social contract introduced after the Tiananmen massacre of 1989, whereby Chinese leaders complied with a repression-concession balance in approaching contentious politics.
