Social Stability - 128. page

A driver died during a traffic incident sparking an incident of social unrest that pitted several thousand people against the authorities in Luzhou, Sichuan. According to Huanqiu, which reprinted the version that the local government publicized, the traffic police directed the driver to move his vehicle, which was illegally parked, but the driver refused. The driver did not feel well and, after taking some medicine, died on site. The Luzhou government “reminded the residents that they should not believe or spread any rumors.”

Xinhua later reported that, during the incident, about a thousand people gathered. Some of them were emotional and attacked police vehicles. They overturned seven vehicles and set five of them on fire. Two were entirely burned as a result. “After patient persuasion, the driver’s relatives voluntarily brought the body to the city funeral home. … During the incident, Public Security took custody of 20 people and no one was injured or died.” The local government hoped the residents would not believe or spread rumors.

[Editor’s note: According to online miniblog posts, the 57-year-old man argued with the police who then pushed and kicked him, leading to his death. This incident occurred within three weeks of the Eighteenth Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.]   

Sources:
Huanqiu, October 18, 2012
http://china.huanqiu.com/local/2012-10/3197614.html
Xinhua, October 18, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/legal/2012-10/18/c_123838416.htm

The annual Chinese civil service exam will start taking applications on October 15. The number of open positions for this year passed the twenty thousand mark, reaching 20,839, up 16 percent from last year. Of those, 70 percent of the quota will be assigned to college seniors who will graduate in the coming year. It is expected that there will be 6.8 million college graduates in 2013.

The civil service exam started in 1989. The number of applicants grew 10 times from 120,500 in 2003 to 1.4 million in 2010. In 2012, the competition Is strong for the top positions. Four thousand applications were received for the top competitive position. At the same time there are over ten positions that have no applicants.

Source: Xinhua, October 13, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/edu/2012-10/13/c_113361121.htm

China’s Golden Week started on National Day on October 1, commemorating the anniversary of the founding of the PRC on October 1, 1949. Tourists overwhelmingly flooded most of the tourist sites in China. The convergence of visitors at many popular sites resulted in large numbers of tourists being trapped on the road without any access to hotels, food, or rest rooms.

The BBC Chinese website carried a list of comments from the Sina microblog site, which described the scenes involving the explosion of tourists at many tourist sites: A sea of people, slow traffic on highways, piles of trash left behind, and long lines waiting at entrance sites, bathrooms, and restaurants. People who took the trip complained that they felt tired, irritated, and regretful.

Source: BBC, October 4, 2012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/chinese_news/2012/10/121004_china_weibo_crowded_holiday.shtml

China’s National Population and Family Planning Commission recently released statistics showing that there are over 13 million abortions in China every year, the highest in the world. Over 50 percent of the abortions are performed on women under 25 years old. College students are now considered a high risk group. The statistics also showed that only about 12 percent of China’s young people believe that they have adequate information about contraception. The State’s China National Radio commented that such behavior mirrors both society and the parents and may very well be the result of seeds that adults have sown.

Source: China National Radio, October 4, 2012
http://china.cnr.cn/xwwgf/201210/t20121004_511053320.shtml

Guangming Daily carried an article that Qilu Evening News had originally published.

Qilu Evening News, the provincial evening newspaper in Shandong Province, carried an article in which the reporter interviewed an Internet policeman about his work and his life. Fan Lei, an Internet policeman, has worked for the Internet surveillance team in the Jinan Municipal Public Security Bureau for four years. Fan explained in the interview that he spends over ten hours a day in front of the computer monitor. His main responsibilities are to develop online virtual police stations on websites and to answer inquires received through that channel. In the past two years, Fan and his team have set up over 1,300 online virtual police stations on local social and news websites, received 1,879 online tips and inquiries, and provided service to over 2,400 people. His team has grown from 20 people in 2002 to 100 in 2012.

Source: Guangming Daily, September 29, 2012
http://life.gmw.cn/2012-09/29/content_5243881.htm

The BBC’s Chinese edition published a report on China’s aging population and the related social challenges China will face as a result.

According to the report, at the end of 2011, China had 180 million people who were 60 years of age or older; they accounted for 13.7 percent of the total population. By 2015, the number will reach 200 million. The United Nations estimated that, by 2050, China will have 440 million people who are 60 years of age or older.

One of the social issues related to the aging population is caring for the elderly. Not only have people’s lifestyles changed, but families have fewer children. It has been estimated that the current senior living homes in China can only accommodate one percent of the elderly population versus the international standard, which is five to seven percent. Another issue is the shortage of laborers. According to the data disclosed by the Ministry of Statistics, in 2012, the number of Chinese laborers between the ages of 15 and 64 declined for the first time since 2002. Currently, there are five to six laborers to support each retired person. However, by 2030, there will only be two laborers to support each retired person. The aging population not only affects the population structure but will also affect the ability to innovate, which will weaken China’s competitiveness in the international market.

Facing the rapid growth in the aging population, many experts have asked the Chinese government to drop the one child policy but the government has not yet given up this policy. Some have suggested raising the retirement age from 60, the current legal retirement age, to 65, but many people object to the proposal. Meanwhile, the Chinese government also recognizes that it will face major challenges in providing 100 percent of the pension coverage to all retirees in the cities and in the countryside.

Source: BBC, September 20, 2012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/chinese_news/2012/09/120920_china_ageing.shtml