Kevin J. O’Brien

Kevin J. O’Brien is professor of political science, Alann P. Bedford Professor of Asian Studies, and director of the Institute of East Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. His books include Rightful Resistance in Rural China (with Lianjiang Li, 2006).

July 2017, Volume 28, Issue 3

China’s Disaffected Insiders

The CCP regime has lost support among three groups it should normally be able to count on: street-level police, retired military officers, and state employees who are drafted into stifling dissent on the part of their own relatives. 

July 2009, Volume 20, Issue 3

China Since Tiananmen: Rural Protest

Although China’s farmers did not play a large role in the 1989 protests, they have been quite contentious since. Rural unrest has been triggered in part by reforms and in part by savvy “peasant leaders” who quickly seize opportunities that appear. Recently, many protest leaders have concluded that tame forms of contention are ineffective and…