The Potential for Instability in the PRC: How the Doomsday Theory Misses the Mark

The US, in addition to most major powers and its international allies are increasingly intertwined with China as it continues its rapid economic growth and dominance of East Asia. Should the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) undergo significant political reforms, it would be a potentially destabilizing event for the global community and could cause the weakening or collapse of economic, political, social and security systems worldwide. Although there is a great deal of literature regarding levels of unrest among the Chinese population and hardships and burdens placed on them by their government, there is also a wide body of literature arguing that none of these prevailing factors could lead to any sort of mass unrest or threat to the stability of the CCP in its current form. Examining two critical case studies of interaction between Chinese politics and civil society occurring in China today, and analyzing whether those factors could lead to serious unrest in the region may shed some light on just how likely it is that the Chinese population will remain content with the current status quo or whether Chinese citizens will push for significant political reform in the near future.