Social Stability - 121. page

On September 29, one more Tibetan died after he self-immolated in Sichuan Province. According to RFA, he was protesting China’s policy of suppressing Tibetans. The victim was a 41 year old male Tibetan. He set himself on fire in front of his house and died on the scene. It was reported that he is the 122nd Tibetan who died as a result of self-immolation.

Source: RFA, September 28, 2013
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/shaoshuminzu/dz-09282013160548.html

As urbanization is speeding up, more and more people are moving from towns and villages to counties [the equivalent of suburbs]. The number of school-age students in the rural villages has been declining, forcing more and more schools in the rural areas to close. The remaining school age children in the villages therefore face extreme challenges to go to school.

Xinhua published a photo news report about the school children in Tongle Village, Weixi County, in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Yunan Province. They have to spend four hours each day climbing mountains and crossing rivers in order to go to school. The report said that they usually wear out at least two pair of shoes each month.

The report quoted a study published by the 21st Century Institute of Education which stated that, from 2000 to 2010, an average of 63 elementary schools, 30 teaching facilities, and three middle schools closed their doors every day. In that ten year time frame, the villages saw 229,400 of the elementary schools, or 52.1 percent, close down, while the number of teaching facilities declined by 111,000 or 60 percent.

Source: Xinhua, September 22, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/edu/2013-09/22/c_125419917.htm

On August 19, Beijing Youth League and the Psychology Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences published the results of a survey on how Microblogs affect Chinese college students. The results showed that out of 10,686 students who took the survey, only 52.6 percent were satisfied with their life. In terms of the positive influence Microblogs had on the college students, close to 40 percent of the students found Microblogs helped them with their studies, 39.28 percent said it helped them to improve their job skills and 46.37 percent said it helped push them to explore opportunities to start their own business. Moreover, 68.12 percent of those surveyed think Microblogs enable them to participate actively in social welfare events, while 74.79 percent thought Microblogs bring positive energy to society.

The statistics from Sina Microblog showed that, by the end of June 30, one million account owners were college students. Of those 23.98 percent were around 20 years old or juniors in college. Guangdong Province ranked highest in the number of users, followed by Jiangsu, Hubei, Shandong Province, and Beijing.

Source: China Youth Daily, August 22, 2013
http://zqb.cyol.com/html/2013-08/22/nw.D110000zgqnb_20130822_2-12.htm

Since 2012, Professor Ma Deyong of Nan Kai University in Tianjin has been conducting a poll on the Internet. The results showed that 6.2 percent of Chinese netizens are leftists, 38.7 percent are rightists and 55.1 percent occupy the middle ground. The poll also showed that the Internet has become a major force in leading public opinion and is a platform where people can express their own thoughts. 

On August 8, 2013, the World Journal published an article titled, “One Third of Chinese Millionaires Have Overseas Assets.” The article was based on The GroupM Knowledge – Hurun Wealth Report 2013. The report showed that only one quarter of China’s millionaires are very confident about the country’s economy in the coming two years, a decline of 3 percent from the previous year and one-half that from the year before. One-third of wealthy Chinese have overseas assets. This accounts for an average of 19 percent of their total assets. Nearly 30 percent of the Chinese millionaires who do not have overseas assets plan to make overseas investments in the next 3 years.

Since last year, over 80 percent of millionaires have planned to have their child educated outside of China. The major choices for foreign education are the US, the UK, and Canada. The main destinations for study abroad are also popular locations for them to purchase overseas residential properties. According to the "2013 Report on Private Wealth in China" jointly issued in May of 2013 by China Merchants Bank and Bain & Company – Management Consulting Firm, since 2010, about 60 percent of those respondents who have investable assets of more than 10 million yuan (US$1.63 million) have been considering or have already completed investment immigration. 

Source: World Journal, August 8, 2013
http://www.worldjournal.com/view/full_news/23395704/article-%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B%E5%AF%8C%E8%B1%AA1-3%E6%93%81%E6%B5%B7%E5%A4%96%E8%B3%87%E7%94%A2?instance=m1b

A Xinhua reporter conducted an investigation in Beijing, Hebei, Sanxi, Jiangsu, and other areas into government leaders’ expenses. He found that the expenses that some government leaders have posted were shockingly high.  The expense items are too many and diverse to enumerate, but the expense amounts are getting bigger and bigger. As an example, the report described how a retired provincial leader spent more than 3 million yuan [about US$500,000] in one stay in the hospital.