Joining us live as Perry Link. Professor U. C. Riverside, Distinguished Professor in China expert. Thank you so much, professor for joining us um. This is an extraordinary series of events now over the past few days, given She's expanding command of the country, isn't it Yes? I wouldn't have predicted it. It is extraordinary. So now, what what does it mean going further? I mean, does it you know she does it? Does it put further clamps clamps down?
Or does it possibly exponentially show command moving to Taiwan policy? What what are the ripples from this? Uh? Chinese society is repressed and the kind of frustrations and complaints that ordinary people feel are kept under wraps when something like this happens. The effect is to let everyone who hears about it vicariously express complaints that have been underneath for a long time. That's why it's dangerous to Mr She
and that's why it spreads so quickly across China. And what I can't say what Mr She will do, except to say for sure that he will crack down. In nine when the last time that the central government was confronted by something like this, they exercised a deliberately conspicuous massacre whose aim was not just to kill some people, but to show the whole country that we can That is the kind of bottom line measure that people in China no is available and is used to intimidate and
could still there will be secure Professor. How secure is he in his power structure? I mean he seems to have firm, firm grip. Is he secure there? He's very secure on the surface, but inside, no, In that system, you always look to your superior to see whether you're going to be promoted or rewarded, except at the very top, where there is no superior, and therefore the rivals at the top who could vie for the superior position are eyeing one another. This is not just contemporarily, this is
for decades. The communist system in China has been this way, and it's that way firstgining. So he needs to be aware that if he does a mistake quote unquote that's the technical term for it in the communist jargon, that he could be attacked for it. And if handling COVID turns out to be a mistake, then it might be that his regime falls not but the regime as a whole falls, but that his rule of it falls so inside he always feels that kind of insecurity and when
these street demonstrations pop up, it only exacerbates them. Yeah, now now they and of course these are large as. Does it reflect reflect on how he moves forward on on COVID zero. It seemed that he was loosening a bit. So this is this is I understand the knee, the protesters wanting to protest what happened with the fire, But does this risk being counterproductive? Does what risk being counterproductive?
The the he may he clamp down further, may he go you know, COVID zero and and really not not relax what he looked like he was going to do. So what I meant when I said he's sure to clamp down is not that he will make the policy any stricter. Because it's already had zero. He can't really tighten that. But he can send the plain close police
out to find who is that these demonstrations. Invite them for a chat, they call it inviting to t advise them that they shouldn't do this or they might be in trouble, Threaten them if they don't listen, And uh, do you really want to keep your job. Do you really want your children to be able to go to the local school. This kind of thing, that kind of on the ground granular repression, is sure to happen. I'm sure that that's happening right now. Whether or not it
will change the policy, I'm not sure. The policy is already at zero right, got it? Okay, Professor, thank you, we are out of time. I really appreciate it your time though. Professor Perry Link, Distinguished Professor at University of California,