Acts of social retaliation have become alarmingly frequent and are collectively referred to as the ‘Zhang Xianzhong phenomenon’ by netizens.
In recent times, violent incidents of “social retaliation” (报复社会) have become alarmingly frequent in China. In November alone, many such incidents were reported—35 people killed and 43 injured in a sports complex in Zhuhai by a speeding car (November 11); 8 killed and 17 injured at Wuxi Technical School in Jiangsu by a stabber (November 16); 8 people injured in a hit and run case in Kaiping City, Jiangmen, Guangdong (November 10); 3 killed in Changsha Barbecue Restaurant (November 7), and 4 killed in a collision in Fangcheng, Nanyang, Henan Province (November 6).
The Zhuhai incident drew intervention from the highest level, as directives were issued by President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang to the local authorities. Xi called on the local leadership “to learn from the incident, enhance the prevention of risks, resolve conflicts in a timely manner, and ensure the safety of the people and social stability.” Other incidents that made headlines internationally were the killing of a Japanese student in Shenzhen on September 18, and injuries sustained by 4 US nationals in a knife attack in Jilin province on 11 June early this year. Though China remains a relatively safer society as far as law and order is concerned, nonetheless, acts of social retaliation have become alarmingly frequent and are collectively referred to as the “Zhang Xianzhong phenomenon” (张献忠现象) by netizens.
Zhang Xianzhong was a leader of the peasant uprising during the late Ming Dynasty. When faced with the inevitability of being exterminated by the remnants of the Ming forces and advancing Qing army, he turned weaker civilians into targets of his slaughter. Even though the History of the Ming Dynasty narrative that Zhang Xianzhong killed “more than 60 million men and women” can be debatable, however, cold blooded murder of more than 140,000 Sichuanese witnessed by the Italian Jesuit missionary Lodovico Buglio and Portuguese missionary Gabriel de Magalhães in Chengdu cannot be an exaggeration. One prominent characteristic of the “Zhang Xianzhong phenomenon” is indiscriminate killing, whereas the targets appear highly selective. Even though the incident may not fully embody the essence of Zhang Xianzhong, but the term “Zhang Xianzhong-ization” (张献忠化) or “Zhang Xianzhong phenomenon” has been used to describe the increasing number of violent incidents in Chinese society.
What are the reasons behind such a phenomenon? Individual acts of “social retaliation” are carried out by marginalized individuals who have been forced to desperate situation because of injustice, their grievances not being addressed, or have been harmed emotionally and economically. A few like the attacks on Americans in Jilin, and on Japanese nationals in Zhenzhen and Suzhou have more historical, geopolitical and nationalistic undertones. At the outset, social exclusion in any society is the biggest culprit for such acts. When individuals are deprived of opportunities, resources and entitlements, their behavioural reaction varies from withdrawal to innovation or from compliance to resistance.
Many Chinese have resorted to withdrawal in the form of “lying flat” (躺平) and are not getting married, not having children, not having a job, not owning property, consuming as little as possible, and not communicating to the outside world. It is an antithesis to “ants in the pants” phenomenon of the socialist construction and reform period that culminated into a hustle culture of “996” or working from 9 am to 9 pm, 6 days a week. It is the reaction to “involution” (内卷) in Chinese society. Upward social mobility is becoming increasingly difficult, as there are more than 12 million university graduates lining up for jobs year after year, with not many jobs in the market. No wonder unemployment rate for the age group of 16-24 was 21.11% in 2023, which in 2024 has dropped to 17.7% in the month of September 2024, according to South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Two, of the 40 million small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that provide 80% of the private sector employment in China, about 4.37 million have “permanently shut their doors” according to a 2022 report of the SCMP. The situation has been exacerbated by the US-China technology war as more than 22,000 Chinese chip companies have shut down between 2019 and 2023. Added to this is the real estate bubble bust that created a national debt crisis and made many Chinese people to default on their mortgages. Many neither got their house nor the money from the realtors. The magnitude of the resentment against the nexus between the local governments and big entrepreneurs could be well imagined.
Three, newly found wealth has also led to the phenomenon of keeping mistresses, which has destroyed many families and people have taken to extreme measures. In the cities, the divorce rates are staggeringly high. According to a report, divorce rate is highest in Beijing—39%. “This means that for every 5 couples, 2 might not make it to the end, a statistic that is quite hard to digest,” says the report. Shanghai ranks second, with 38%, Shenzhen and Guangzhou rank third and fourth, with figures both exceeding 35%. Xiamen, Taipei, Hong Kong, Dalian, Hangzhou, and Harbin are ranked from 5th to 10th. Harbin’s figure stands at 28%. Interestingly, new businesses have mushroomed up that specialises in the destruction of wedding photos. The reason for the Zhuhai incident is said to be a divorce and extramarital affair.
Finally, the channels to express dissent are also part of the problem. In the 1990s and 2000s, the mechanism of “petitioning” (信访) was very active, whereby the retired government officials including the army personnel used to represent local people and air their grievances at various levels from the townships to the central government. In April 2022, through an amendment the “cross-level petitioning”, i.e. circumventing the lower level complaint redressal mechanism was abolished. According to government statistics, in 2023, 812,000 complaints from the public were received and many were said to be addressed at various levels as per the principle of “whole process people’s democracy”.
* B.R. Deepak is Professor, Center of Chinese and Southeast Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.