Widespread social protests in today's China have attracted much attention from aca-demia, and a large body of literature has been produced to explain the causes, processes and outcomes of these protests. Xi Chen's book provides new perspectives on issues with respect to contentious politics in contemporary China. Specifically, the book sheds new light on political opportunity structure, protest tactics, and the state's institution-based handling of social conflict. The main puzzle this book addresses is the reason "why there has been a dramatic rise in, and routinization of, social protests in China since the early 1990s" (p. 5). Although there has been research on the increase in social protests in China, this book analyses the issue by highlighting that the rise and routinization of social protests is mainly due to the direct facilitation of such activities by the Party-state. It finds that inherent contradictions and ambiguities in the state's ideologies and institutions create opportunities and incentives for the aggrieved to take action.
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