AHS Comparative Government

In 2009, hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the streets to protest the announcement of what they believed were fraudulent presidential election results. Those results returned Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to office for another four years. During those protests, Iran's Leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the rest of Iran's politically active clerical establishment, closed ranks behind Ahmadinejad, using their considerable credibility to vouch for the election results and supporting the violent crackdown that ultimately ended the protests. By supporting Ahmadinejad against the demonstrators, however, they alienated a sizable portion of the population, transforming protests against a particular set of election results into protests against an entire political system.

Since the election, however, Khamenei and Ahmadinejad have become increasingly estranged, in what analysts see as a struggle for power between two groups of hard-line conservatives:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/world/middleeast/23iran.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=iran%20khamenei&st=cse

The political maneuvering in Tehran took a fascinating turn Thursday, with the arrest of an important supporter of President Ahmadinejad:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/24/world/middleeast/24iran.html?scp=2&sq=iran%20khamenei&st=cse

In January 2010, Google discovered that the gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists had been systematically hacked in a "sophisticated and targeted attack ... originating from China." Google did not directly accuse the Chinese government of hacking into gmail, but most analysts believe that the Chinese government was behind the cyber attack.

In response, Google announced that it would no longer censor the results of searches conducted on its Chinese site. Google is now blocked in China (though it continues to operate an uncensored site from Hong Kong, which is not subject to the censorship imposed on the rest of China).

Last week, Google announced that it had "detected and disrupted" an ongoing campaign, originating in China, to hack the gmail accounts of US and South Korean military and diplomatic personnel:

http://www.economist.com/node/18775603

Non-Han Chinese minority groups comprise 12% of China's population. In China's Tibet Autonomous Region (Chinese autonomous regions are no more autonomous than other Chinese provinces), approximately 92% of the population is Tibetan. The Chinese government has encouraged Han Chinese settlement in Tibet, exacerbating ethnic tensions there. In March 2008, Tibetan rioters in Lhasa, Tibet's capital, attacked Han and Muslim residents, killing at least 19 people and injuring hundreds.

In China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, 45.2% of the population is Uyghur, while 40.6% of the population is Han Chinese. The Uyghurs speak a Turkic language; most practice Sufi Islam. Several Uyghur separatist groups have operated in Xinjiang in recent years; some have carried out acts of violence against Chinese officials and Chinese troops stationed in the region. In July 2009, mobs of Uyghurs attacked Han Chinese residents of Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital; several days later, gangs of Han Chinese attacked Uyghur Urumqi residents. According to the Chinese government, 197 people were killed in the Urumqi riots; Uyghur exile groups contend that the actual death toll was far higher.

In China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, 79.2% of the population is Han Chinese and 17.1% of the population is Mongolian. Last week, Mongolian students led protests throughout Inner Mongolia; the protests were quickly suppressed by the police. In Tibet in 2008, and in Xinjiang in 2009, police suppression of peaceful protests led to the pogroms that erupted in Lhasa and Urumqi. Fortunately, ethnic violence did not break out last week in Inner Mongolia:

http://www.economist.com/node/18775303