Protest and dissent in China in the context of "1959 Tibetan uprising"

In the People's Republic of China, politics functions within a communist state framework based on the system of people's congress under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), with the National People's Congress (NPC) functioning as the highest organ of state power and only branch of government per the principle of unified power. The CCP leads state activities by holding two-thirds of the seats in the NPC, and these party members are, in accordance with democratic centralism, responsible for implementing the policies adopted by the CCP Central Committee and the National Congress. The NPC has unlimited state power bar the limitations it sets on itself through the constitution. By controlling the NPC, the CCP has complete state power. China's two special administrative regions (SARs), Hong Kong and Macau, are nominally autonomous from this system.

The Chinese political system is considered authoritarian. There are no freely elected national leaders, political opposition is suppressed, all organized religious activity is controlled by the CCP, dissent is not permitted, and civil rights are curtailed. Direct elections occur only at the local level, not the national level, with all candidate nominations controlled by the CCP.

Large-scale protests and incidents of civil disobedience in the People's Republic of China are described by its government as "mass incidents" (Chinese: 群体性事件).

Mass incidents are defined broadly as "planned or impromptu gathering[s] that form because of internal contradictions", and may include public speeches or demonstrations, physical clashes, public airings of grievances, and other group behaviors that are seen as disrupting social stability. Through contemporary analysis of such events four key aspects of mass incidents have been identified "diversified participants, highly organized actions, easily escalated conflicts and thornier disputes to settle". Mass incidents have occurred in China because of the treatment of workers within state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and special economic zones (SEZs), the widening of income disparities, and issues associated with development projects, namely forced land acquisition and environmental degradation.