I was just reading an article about the social unrest that has plagued China in 2008, and it says, in the title that the problem lies with the government competing with the people’s interests, that is, the government has, if only through inaction, sided more with capital than labor, the companies more than regular people.
The latest incident to happen is the Long’an 11.17 incident in Gansu province. The article talks about the other mass incidents–the taxi cab strikes in Sanya, Hainan as well as in Chongqing, and then the Wen’an incident in Guizhou, where the proximate cause of the riots was the death of a teenage girl and what was perceived as a failure of the government to fully investigate the cause of her death and mete out justice, were that to be necessary, but which I have read and heard was merely just the tip of the iceberg. Yes, like many other places in China, there were plenty of grievances that added fuel to the fire. The article quotes the Lianhe Zaobao as to the reasons why this is happening:
这些群体性事件一经媒体披露，迅速在网上引起广泛讨论。“地方政府与民夺利”被中国网民认为是“罪魁祸首”。“部分地方政府片面维护企业与自身利益，漠视农民的权利要求与利益诉求，将损害群众利益当做增加企业与政府利益的前提。”中国一位资深评论员魏文彪说。《联合早报》评论说，一些地方政府片面强调经济发展，忽略了应有的服务职能。比如在公共事业范围内，修路要过路费，建校要集资费，拆迁要劳务费，对治下百姓敲膏吸髓，刮地三尺，所作所为有的甚至比黑帮有过之而无不及。
The government has been to involved in economic growth and creating capitalist wealth and forgotten its other mission, which is to serve the people and protect the little guy’s interest. They have done the former at the expense of the latter, squeezing the peasants and migrants and fueling the kind of resentment that results in mass dissatisfaction and unrest.
The last paragraph is also interesting
2008年究竟发生了多少群体性事件，官方尚未公布最新的数据。不过三年前的一组数据已经说明问题的严重性。根据2005年的《社会蓝皮书》披露，从1993年到2003年间，中国群体性事件数量已由1万起增加到6万起，参与人数也由约73万增加到约307万。“群体性事件发生的根本性原因在于个人无法找到协商机制和利益维护机制”，中国人民大学毛寿龙教授这样说道。
Here they talk about the rise of mass unrest in China…according to a 2005 blue book, the number of incidents rose from 10,000 to about 60,000 (assuming this means per year? or does that seem too high an estimate even by Chinese standards?) and and the number of people involved in such incidents rose from 730,000 to about 3.07 million. The explanation given in that blue book for the steep rise in such incidents is the lack of a systemic mechanism for dealing with social and political conflict.
The original article linked to quotes an expert as saying that despite 2008 being a banner year for protesters, that the government’s attitude towards such incidents has shown signs of improvements—there is, overall, more lenience, tolerance, and transparency. I think on the whole, that such a description is true. But prognosis for the future—well i don’t know, but if the global downturn is going to last a few more years, and if the stimulus packages don’t work that well to revivify demands for Chinese exports, then perhaps the party will have to either start working on that mechanism or see how much money they can dole out and see how much time and patience that buys them.
