As the Chongqing taxi strike comes to a close, two new sets of strikes erupted this week: in Gansu [2], strikes have reportedly already ended, but in Sanya, strikes continue. The Sanya protests are in their third day, as taxi drivers continue to protest high fees, unlicensed cabs, and the detention of 28 fellow taxi drivers, the South China Morning Post reports [3]. Currently, the government is investigating claims of violence during the Sanya strikes.

These two waves of strikes seem to be inspired by the Chongqing strikes that occurred last week. CLB had previously reported [4] on the Chongqing strike, and the China Media Project has just published an insightful survey [5] of the tactics used by the government in its mainland media coverage of the Chongqing taxi strikes. The China Media Project shows how the government has largely achieved the goal of “actively setting the agenda” in media coverage by using the state run Xinhua news agency, and forcing all media outlets to use their reports. Although this hampers reporting by the more independent commercial newspapers, they are still able to present some facts and analysis not given in the Xinhua reports through the use of editorials and commentary.