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Microblog Postings Down 70 Percent Since Suppression Was Launched

VOA reported that, according to the results of a survey that The Daily Telegraph published, the number of postings on microblogs dropped 70 percent from 2011 to 2013. VOA stated that the Information Technology Institute of East China Normal University conducted the research at the request of The Daily Telegraph. They analyzed the usage information of 1.6 million microblog users from 2011 to 2013. The information revealed that, before March 2012, these users posted 83 million blogs each day. However, after the real name registration system was adopted in that same month, the number of postings dropped by at least 50 percent. The number dropped further again after a few well known bloggers were arrested.

Source: Voice of America, January 31, 2014

http://www.voachinese.com/content/china-crack-down-cut-weibo-traffic-20140131/1842253.html 

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

More Poor Counties Today than 27 Years Ago

In spite of China’s rapid economic development, the number of officially designated poor counties in China has increased from 331 in 1986 to 592. Counties that are designated as poor each receive subsidies from the central government of between 30 and 50 million yuan every year. 

Since 1994, the total number of poor counties in China has remained at 592. Most of the 592 counties are located in the provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Shaanxi. Yunnan has the largest number of poverty-stricken counties with a total of 7, followed by Guizhou and Shaanxi, which each have a total of 50 poor counties. 
According to Legal Evening News, the central government provides special poverty relief funds of about 30 to 50 million yuan annually to each of these counties, with some additional payments and some preferential policy measures. This may have contributed to a lot of counties not wanting to grow out of poverty. 
Source: Legal Evening News reprinted by Nandu, January 29, 2014
http://news.nandu.com/html/201401/29/743105.html
Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Forecast: Eight Major Events to Occur in 2014

On January 29, New Epoch, a weekly in Chinese, published its forecast for the Chinese year of Horse. The Chinese year of Horse starts on January 31, 2014. 

The New Epoch predicts that the follow eight major events will occur in the year of the Horse: 
1. Leung Chun-ying will no longer be the head of the Hong Kong Government; Shen Yun Performing Arts will perform in Hong Kong during the 2014 Christmas holidays. 
2. There will be public announcements that a “big tiger” has been imprisoned; Jiang Zemin will become the new target. 
3. The North Korean regime will collapse. 
4. The shortage of funds will hit again and the real estate bubble will burst. 
5. A bank in China will go bankrupt. 
6. China will exchange fire with another country. 
7. The “sunshine” bill that would require financial disclosure from government officials will abort; the public will dig out and publish the assets of senior officials. 
8. There will be massive lay-offs at Central state-owned enterprises 

Source: Epoch Times, January 29, 2014 
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/14/1/29/n4071351.htm
Briefings | | |   Social Stability

China News: Beijing Resident Takes Daily Photo as Pollution Record

China News recently reported that, since January 27, 2013, a Beijing resident by the name of Zou Yi has been taking a photo every day to record the pollution level. Zou has been taking the pictures with the exact same background (the Beijing TV Station Building) at the same time (7:30AM) every day for the entire past year. He posts his pictures on his microblog and has attracted a large number of followers. Some people from other cities have started to do the same thing. Zou said he wanted to use this new approach as a wake-up call for environmental protection. According to Zou’s pictures, during around half of the days last year, the capital city suffered from poor air quality and visibility. This result is in line with the city’s official data published by the Beijing Bureau of Environmental Protection: there were 176 days in the past year that were considered good, which represent 48.2 percent of the days.
Source: China News, January 27, 2014
http://www.chinanews.com/sh/2014/01-27/5785288.shtml
Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Social Security Benefits Becoming the Worst Gap between Urban and Rural

People’s Daily published an article on the gap between the urban and rural areas in China. The article said that the gap in income has always been considered the major gap between the urban and rural areas. In 2012, however, that gap was reduced to 3.10:1, the lowest in ten years. This was mainly due to the central administration having a policy that supported agriculture and to the urbanization that has brought surplus labor from rural to urban areas.

However, the article predicted that the gap in social security benefits will become the worst hidden gap. Taking pension funds as an example, according to the 2014 Blue Book of China’s Society, on that issue, the difference was as large as 24 times. For farmers, the social security benefits issue was never as sensitive as the income disparity issue because they used to own their land. According to the article, as urbanization has continued, farmers have been losing their land and have been moving to urban areas where the fair share of social benefits they have been able to gain has not matched that of the urban residents. The statistics from the Ministry of Statistics suggest that, in 2012, the urbanization rate was 52.57 percent while only 35 percent of the migrant workers have gained urban residential status or Hukou which would enable them to sign up for the same residential welfare benefits that urban residents are entitled to receive.

The article explained that, if 250 million farmers were to be included in the social security system, there would be a shortfall of 30.69 trillion yuan (US$5.07 trillion) in pension funds alone which neither the business enterprises nor the local government bodies would be able to cover. It concluded that, in order to close the social security gap, it will require the attention, active intervention, and responsive measures from the government.

Source: People’s Daily, January 26, 2014
http://finance.people.com.cn/money/n/2014/0126/c218900-24227557.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Beijing 120 Emergency Center Can Only Respond to 90 Percent of Calls Due to Shortage of Doctors

Xinhua carried an article that was originally published in Beijing Youth Daily about the shortage of doctors at the Beijing 120 emergency center. The article stated that the emergency center can’t meet the minimum staff capacity requirement and can only respond to 90 percent of the emergency calls it receives. Some of the reasons for the shortage of doctors include the high risk factor, physical beatings from the patients, an excessive workload, and a low pay rate. The Beijing health bureau is currently working on a plan to create an emergency rescue worker position to staff the center. Those workers will need to be certified but a medical doctor’s degree will not be required. The detailed plan is expected to come out in 2014.

Source: Xinhua, January 12, 2014
http://news.xinhuanet.com/legal/2014-01/12/c_125990334.htm

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Increasing Number of Cases of H7N9 in China

On January 9, Xinhua reported that two new cases of H7N9 had been reported in Jiangsu Province and Guangdong Province. 

A woman in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province was diagnosed on January 7 and is being treated in a local hospital. Fushan in Guangdong Province also reported a new case. A 51 year old woman named Cui was hospitalized January 3 and is now in critical condition. She bought a live chicken from a local market on December 31, 2013 and killed the chicken at home.  As of January 8, Guangdong had reported 10 cases. Of those 10 cases, one is known to have died and two recovered. 
Sources: Xinhua, January 9, 2014 
http://news.xinhuanet.com/health/2014-01/09/c_118887631.htm
Briefings | | |   Social Stability

BBC Chinese: China Abolished the Labor Camp System

BBC Chinese recently reported that China’s People’s Congress passed a resolution that put an end to the Reeducation through Labor Camp System. The system had been in effect for over fifty years. It allowed the police to “jail” any “suspicious” people in the Camp system for as long as four years without going through a court. Many people were held in these camps for longer than four years. These “suspects” lost their freedom entirely and were forced to do heavy labor work as well as to receive “reeducation.” For a long time, human rights groups all over the world have been targeting this Camp System with their criticism. Though it has finally ended, people still question whether the system has taken on another, different form of “life” such as “Rule of Law Awareness Study Classes.” 
Source: BBC Chinese, December 28, 2013
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/china/2013/12/131228_china_politics_rights_justice.shtml
Briefings | | |   Social Stability