The New York Times: Coronavirus Changed China’s Big Political Event. Here’s What to Expect.

Read Article by Javier Hernandez, May 21, 2020

“The massive loss of jobs is bad for all governments, but for the Chinese government it is a question of regime survival,” said Diana Fu, an associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto.

Professor Fu said that to avoid unrest as the slowdown continued, the government would need to move forward with plans to expand the social safety net.

“If college graduates, the urban middle class, and China’s 300 million migrant workers cannot find jobs quickly enough, who will they blame?” she said.

AFP: Haunted By Virus, China Gears Up For Annual Congress

Read article by Jing Xuan Teng, May 19, 2020

"This year's Two Sessions will likely be an occasion for Xi Jinping to declare complete victory in the 'people's war' over the virus," Diana Fu, a professor of political science at the University of Toronto, told AFP.

"Delivering on basic subsistence rights is central to the Party's political legitimacy," Fu told AFP.

Christian Science Monitor: Containing Coronavirus: Where democracy Struggles – and Thrives

Read article by Ann Scott Tyson and Sarah Miller Llana, Mar. 2, 2020

The cover up caused “an almost unprecedented online rebellion ... [with] average Chinese people being very angry at the government,” says Diana Fu, associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto, who researches civil society in China. The authoritarian government had broken “the basic social contract” to provide people with safety and security, she says.

The New York Times: Workers’ Activism Rises as China’s Economy Slows. Xi Aims to Rein Them In.

Read article by Javier Hernandez, Feb. 6, 2019

“If teachers refuse to work, truck drivers stop delivering goods, construction workers stop building infrastructure, it will be hard to chase dreams,” said Diana Fu, an assistant professor of Asian politics at the University of Toronto.”

The authorities have responded so forcefully to the young communists in part because their demands are ideological, not material, said Professor Fu, who has studied unrest in China.

“To the government, calling out the party for not being Marxist is like children openly denouncing their birth parents,” she said. “It is seen as outright defiance and rejection of the state-led socialism.”