78 Million Movement (A Mighty Endeavour)

The 78 Million Movement was a large political movement during the mid-2040s. The movement protested the unnatural deaths or disappearances of 90 million Chinese citizens from 2026-2047 due to a large host of causes, including flooding, riots, massacres, economic downturn, and various other events. It is known by its slogan, Remember Shanghai - Remember the 78 Million.

The movement emerged in 2044 out of an increased media attention towards mounting casualty counts in China regarding the then-recent displacement of Chinese citizens caused by the breakage and flooding of areas by the abandoned South-North Water Transfer Project, although its roots are in similar movements during the 2030s and from other movements from even before the 21st Century. It is largely accepted that the beginning of the movement started with the Tokyo March for Chinese Lives (Tokyo MCL) in November 2043, in which 1.12 million of 4.3 million displaced Chinese citizens in Japan demonstrated against the Chinese government. Following this, the Movement's official organisation, the 78 Million Organisation, was then sent $24 million USD from various sources - public donations and private donors - to continue the marches.

In March 2044, the Taipei march gathered 673,000 attendees, but in May 2044, following the events of the Shenzhen Shootings, the regional East Asia March - with Tokyo, Osaka, Taipei, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh City, Manila and Seoul being march destinations - attracted 3.82 million attendees, many of whom were either anti-communist demonstrators or displaced former Chinese citizens. At the same time, the Chinese government refused to acknowledge the marches, demanding that host cities put them down.

The movement reached its height in November 2044, with the largest march - the International March, in Taipei, Kyoto, Manila, Ho Chi Minh City, San Francisco, New Delhi, and Sydney - attracting a total of 5.43 million attendees. At this point, the Chinese government continued to deny the magnitude of the marches, before extrajudicially executing Chinese dissident Jiang Zhi-Er in Shanghai as a symbol of force. This caused the marches to continue until January 2045, when the Chinese government cracked to pressure both external and internal and finally announced that it would begin efforts at reform. Despite this, no such reform occurred, with the National People's Congress in deadlock and political assassinations occurring spurred by differing members of the Communist Party preventing any effective reform. While marches continued until 2047, they slowly faded in size and number until the Organisation slowly faded into obscurity.

The 78 Million Movement has been praised by multiple commentators as 'the largest international exercise of democracy in history'. Its impact is widely debated, with many historians pointing to the fact that the Organisation was only able to pressure the United Nations not to re-admit the People's Republic of China, which induced the Chinese government's eventual descent into what is now known as 'National Chinese Socialism'.