糖心TV

Pablo Rodriguez-Merino, will be speaking on the topic of his PhD: Conceptualizing Political Violence as Terrorism: The case of Xinjiang (China)

Chi Zhang will be speaking on the topic of: 鈥淢ake Terrorists Like Rats Scurrying across a Street鈥�: How has the CCP constructed its counter-terrorism strategy?'

Abstract: This paper discusses the 鈥渕ass line鈥� approach in China鈥檚 counter-terrorism strategy. Based on Mao Zedong鈥檚 political thoughts and the increasing awareness of 鈥渉uman security鈥� in contemporary Chinese political discourse, the 鈥渕ass line鈥� approach provides a basis for understanding the level of engagement of the public in the counter-terrorism practice in China. This paper argues that a cooperative relationship between the state and society on counter-terrorism was made possible by reshaping the pre-existing 鈥淯s and Them鈥� dichotomy within the Chinese society. In doing so, the government reproduced the counter-terrorism discourse in which the external 鈥渉ostile forces鈥� are constructed as the masterminds behind terror attacks and the reasons for the persistence of terrorism in China. This paper adopts frame analysis to investigate the ways in which the official counter-terrorism discourse is reproduced in the process of interaction among the state media, the public and the external 鈥渉ostile forces鈥�, based on the analysis of two case studies. The case studies demonstrate how the highly centralised and state-centric counter-terrorism strategy is tempered by human-oriented security principle. By anchoring their counter-terrorism discourse in the pre-existing 鈥淯s and Them鈥� dichotomy, the political elites have effectively cast the Communist Party as the legitimate defender of the Socialist ideals and their political opponents as the 鈥渉ostile forces鈥�.