China`s Reaction to the Color Revolutions: Adaptive Authoritarianism in Full Swing

Abstract

This article provides an interpretivist-structuralist account to analyze the Chinese party-state`s perception of and policy adaptations to the Color Revolutions of 2005-2007. China`s leaders and established intellectuals perceived the Color Revolutions as a series of contagious and illegitimate political changes in Eurasia, instigated by three major factors: raging domestic grievances, electoral politics exploited by the opposition, and Western powers` intervention for geo-strategic interests. This perception and interpretation of the Color Revolutions gave rise to a collective sense of external threat and prompted the Chinese regime to strengthen its coercive capacity. The result was the communist party`s increased control over liberal and critical media, political activism, civil rights advocacy, and Sino-Western civil exchanges. The Chinese state`s policy adaptations to the Color Revolutions attested to its long-term model of authoritarian developmentalism.