Social Stability - 111. page

Voice of America (VOA) reported that over 30 taxi drivers from Heilongjiang Province attempted to commit group suicide in Wangfujing, a popular shopping district in Beijing. The reports said these taxi drivers came from Ruan Feng River in Heilongjiang Province. They were in Beijing to appeal on issues of license renewal and contract extension. VOA said that other than the official news report, the other online posts and reports about the incident had been removed. According to VOA, a large group of petitioners from a number of areas were stationed year-round in Beijing. Last August, seven farmers from Jiangsu Province drank pesticide and attempted to commit suicide outside the China Youth Daily building. The lives of all seven of them were eventually saved.

Source: Voice of America, April 5, 2015
http://www.voachinese.com/content/suicide-beijing-20150405/2707285.html

Radio Free Asia carried an article commenting on the latest news about divorce, restoration of marriage, and buying a house, an interesting phenomenon that has been taking place in China in recent years. The article said that the Chinese media published news articles on March 20 that stated that the rate of restored marriages in China has grown in recent years. The majority were couples who had filed for divorce in 2013 because of the benefit of gain in their property taxes. According to the article, in 2014, the marriage restoration rate in Shanghai went up by 18 percent compared to 2013 and reached a record high. The article said that back in 2013, the central government introduced a set of rules in order to curb the overheated housing market. One of those was a 20 percent tax imposed on the gain from the sale of a property. The exception to the rule was where the couple owned two housing properties. If they filed for divorce, they would gain (separate) ownership of one of the properties and the 20 percent property tax on the gain would be exempt. Following the introduction of this rule, a number of major official media reported that, in large cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, people had to wait in line to file for divorce. In an interview with Radio Free Asia, a real estate lawyer in China denied that the marriage restoration rate had anything to do with the housing policy, while another person who is a U.S. resident told Radio Free Asia that this type of phenomenon may appear to be inconceivable to the people who have lived in the US for a long period of time but it is in fact a social phenomenon which resulted from the fast economic development that took place in China.

Source: Radio Free Asia, March 20, 2015
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/shehui/cyl-03202015120222.html

At the same time that economic development is occurring in China, over 60 million children are left behind in poor regions as their parents try to make ends meet by emigrating from rural areas to cities. The left-behind children account for 37 percent of all the children in the countryside.  The parents of left-behind children tend to work long hours and do not visit their children regularly. About half of them (30 million) do not see their parents annually. According to a survey, in 2014, both parents of 51.7 percent of these children are out of town for work. About 46.5 percent have been left in their hometown without their parents for over two years and over 32 percent for over five years. In most cases, the children are left behind in rural areas under the care of relatives, mostly grandparents, who have little education, family friends, or ability to take care of themselves. Very often these children suffer from serious developmental problems. 

Recently a Hong Kong actress, Zhao Yazhi (赵雅芝), posted a picture of herself and Tiananmen Square on the microblog along with the comment, "I feel a deep sense of pride in being Chinese every time I pass Tiananmen." Chinese netizens flooded the Internet with their responses. These days, public sentiment throughout China is expressed in comments that are anti-officials, anti-government, and especially anti-Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

People blamed her for flattering the Chinese regime to advance her personal career. Some examples of the comments follow: "If you want to make money in China, you should use the right approach. Use flattering words [to the CCP]. Don’t you care about your face?" "[You should] change your citizenship to Chinese first!" "Emigrate to China; otherwise don’t fake it!" "I really don’t know what pride the Chinese have!" "Then you should stay in Beijing to fully enjoy the smog."

Later Chinese state-controlled media fought back. Xinhua republished a China Youth Daily article titled "Zhao Yazhi, My Love for You Is Truly Not Wrong." The article claimed that people got annoyed with Zhao’s posting because Tiananmen symbolizes the CCP’s leadership. It blamed netizens for their lack of national identity and national pride. "Before we loved [Zhao Yazhi], because of her beauty; today we love her even more. It is not just because she is beautiful, but also because she is patriotic."