From the Associated Press

BEIJING — It started with a small protest over a twofold increase in bus fares in a central Chinese village and escalated into a bloody clash between 20,000 farmers and police armed with batons.

The melee in Zhushan this week would likely have gone unreported under the Communist Party’s tight grip on information.

Except Zhang Zilin was there.

Zhang is part of a burgeoning breed of activists. Eager for social justice and linked by the Internet, they are challenging the party’s once tight grip on political life and showing how its information monopoly has been shaken by a rapidly changing society.

“We are now in the period of a social transition from an autocratic system to a democratic system,” said Ai Xiaoming, a literature professor, who has at times advised activists.

Instances of ordinary citizens being galvanized into action are on the rise — with the aid of activists.

“We don’t do our job for any purpose other than to help people protect themselves,” said Li Jian, a civil rights campaigner./AP