SOMETHING BIG IS happening in China, and it started soon after the onset of the "Arab Spring" demonstrations and regime changes first in Tunisia and then in Egypt: the most serious and widespread wave of repression since the Tiananmen Square crackdowns 22 years ago. Of course, "worst since Tiananmen Square" does not mean "as bad as Tiananmen Square." As the government has taken pains to ensure, there have been no coordinated nationwide protests so far, and troops from the People's Liberation Army, in their instantly recognizable green uniforms, have not played the major role that they did then in containing dissent. Instead, enforcement around the country has been left mainly to regular police, typically in their dark-blue uniforms; the much-feared "urban management" patrols known as chengguan, also in dark blue; large reserve armies of plainclothesmen; and many other less visible parts of the state's internal-security apparatus, which now has a larger budget than China's regular military does.
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