Social Stability - 140. page

BBC Chinese reported that on the morning of November 16, 2011, a daycare school bus in Zheng Ning County of Gangsu Province collided with a cargo truck killing 20 children on the bus. The school bus, which had been converted from a 9 passenger vehicle, had 64 students on board at the time of the accident. The report stated that the daycare center had a total of 737 children, but only 4 school buses to use for pickup and drop off.

People were outraged by the tragedy and questioned, “Why do we have so many buses for public transportation but can’t afford a reliable school bus for our children? Our government should take financial responsibility for this.” The accident took place just before the Shenzhou Spacecraft No. 8 returned back to earth. Some people asked, “Why can we guarantee that Shenzhou Spacecraft No. 8 will lift off safely, but we cannot guarantee our children’s safety when they go to school?”.

Source: BBC Chinese, November 17, 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/chinese_news/2011/11/111117_china_school_bus.shtml

On November 7, 2011, China News Net reported that a group of professors from Changjiang University in the City of Wuhan visited local officials and got down on their knees begging the government to shut-down a nearby steel company that was a major source of pollution to the University’s environment. It was reported that, since 2009, the pollution has caused numerous diseases among the nearby population. Fighting against the company for 4 years achieved no results. A reporter took photographs of the professors on their knees. The pictures spread rapidly on the Internet and became a major focal point for public attention. The company then told the reporter that it had since ceased operations. The local government promised to conduct an investigation and handle the situation properly once the investigation was complete.

Source: China News Net, November 7, 2011
http://www.chinanews.com/gn/2011/11-07/3443500.shtml

On November 3, 211, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that a Tibetan nun died after setting herself on fire in GanZi, Sichuan Province. It was the 11th Tibetan self-immolation this year. According to Voice of Tibet, which is based in Norway, the victim was Palden Choetso, 35 years old. She died on a road in Dawu County of Sichuan Province, the same location as a monk who recently self-immolated. Before setting herself on fire, she yelled out “Free Tibet” and “Allow the Dalai Lama to return to Tibet.”

Kunga Tashi, the spokesperson for the Office of Tibet in New York told RFA that the policy of extreme pressure that China has imposed on Tibet is the direct cause of the recent tragedy. “This is an indication that China’s Tibetan policy is a failure. These young monks have tried appeals, rallies, and parades but none of those have worked. They have no other ways to express themselves and try to be heard than to sacrifice their lives to let international society know of the dark side that is casting its shadow over Tibet.” Kunga believes that international attention may help improve the existing human rights condition in Tibet.

Yang Jianli, a China scholar from Harvard, who has been monitoring the ethnic issues in China said, “The Tibetan policy that the Chinese authorities have used in the past has become an issue of national oppression. … No religions would force people to commit suicide on such a large scale. … Take the Kirti Gompa monastery as an example. Two thousand monks live inside, but 30,000 armed forces and police are outside the temple. There are brainwashing sessions held every day to condemn the Dalai Lama. Chinese authorities do not care about international pressure and continue the control Tibetans’ voices and destroy their religious culture.” Yang believes that the issue of Tibet is not an isolated one; it is representative of the human rights violations that are going on in China. “If China’s overall human rights situation does not improve, (it shows) that we can’t rely on the Chinese government to give up its long term totalitarian control.”

Lobsang Sangay, the prime minister of the Tibetan government in exile is discouraging Tibetans from self-immolating, fearing that retaliation and more arrests of Tibetans will follow the incident. He is calling on the Chinese government to allow the international media to conduct an investigation of the self-immolation case and is encouraging international society to apply more pressure on the Chinese government.

Source: Radio Free Asia, November, 3, 2011
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/zang-11032011155246.html

On October 30, 2011, China Gate published a news report originally from Guangzhou Daily titled “About Half of China’s Multimillionaires Seek to Emigrate Overseas. What Do They Fear?”

More than half of China’s families who are worth over 10 million Yuan (US $1,579,957.17) have either emigrated abroad already, are in the process of applying, or are considering leaving China for a better life and for a better education for their children.

According to the “2011 China Private Wealth Management White Paper” recently released by the Hoogewerf Research Institute and China Bank’s Private Banking Group, one-third of wealthy Chinese already have assets overseas and almost 30% of the wealthy Chinese who currently do not have any assets overseas are planning to invest abroad within the next 3 years, mainly for their children’s education and for the purpose of emigration.  Among China’s multimillionaires, 14 percent have already emigrated or applied for emigration and 46 percent are considering emigrating overseas.

Source: China Gate, October 30, 2011
http://www.wenxuecity.com/news/2011/10/30/1516473.html

Voice of America (VOA) reported on October 29 that the China’s National People’s Congress recently passed a law defining “terrorism” and “terrorist organization.” During its draft stage, legal professionals, as well as the general public, widely questioned this law. They expressed concern that the government would, potentially, use this law to suppress human rights and political opposition. It was believed that this law expanded the scope of [what the government considered as] terrorism and introduced the possibility that the Criminal Law would be abused. Famous Chinese human rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong, commenting in a VOA interview, suggested that the basic idea behind this new law is to help “maintain stability.” Mr. Jiang believed that the government introduced this law after suffering “extreme anxiety” over the issue of social stability. Singapore anti-terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna told Associated Press that China designed the new law to make it easier to obtain intelligence from the West.

Source: Voice of America, October 29, 2011
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/news/20111029-New-Definition-of-Terrorism-132848558.html

People’s Daily Oversea’s Edition reported that the mental disorder that is of greatest concern to the Chinese people is anxiety attacks.

On October 10, 2011, World Mental Health Day, people who stopped by the mental health booth that had been set up west of the Birds’ Nest in Beijing asked the most questions about anxiety. In Shanghai, a survey conducted among 1,000 families concluded that anxiety has become their greatest concern. Jia Xiaobo, a psychologist from the Xinfan Psychological Counseling Center disclosed that 70% of all of his patients suffered from anxiety, stress, and depression. In the meantime, anxiety is attacking those peasant workers who have found themselves fighting for survival in the cities, facing an uncertain future, living far from home, and incapable of taking care of their children. Government officials are also among the group who suffer, as evidenced by the number of reported suicide cases.
 
As to the cause of the disorder, some experts suggested that China’s rapid growth, which has caused serious social changes over the past 30 years, was the problem; some claimed that, with regard to the middle and lower income classes, the cause was an inadequate livelihood and social injustice; others suggested that a lack of spiritual belief and the worship of money were the main contributors. The results of one survey, for example, showed that over 50 percent of respondents believed that only money can buy happiness.

Source: Xinhua, October 21, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2011-10/21/c_111111757.htm

A Xinhua reporter was shocked by the safety problems he found when he was investigating a Northeast railway construction project. A construction worker told him that, once the railway construction is completed, people will not dare to take the train.

The reporter discovered that the contract for the “Jinyu to Song river line” construction project, an important project in which nearly US$400 million had been invested, had been transferred many times and finally subcontracted to a fake company and a few contractors who had no knowledge of how to build a bridge. A farmer named Lu Tianbo, who once worked as a chef, managed a hotel, and did construction work to built a road but never had experience building a bridge won the construction contract. He then led several dozen farmers in building a big bridge.

Source: Xinhua, October 20, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2011-10/20/c_111110190.htm

On October 18, the People’s University of China’s Research and Data Center, the Capital University of Economics and Business’s School of Statistics, and the Central University of Finance and Economics’ School of Statistics in Beijing published the results of a survey called “Social Trust, a Poll on Consumers in Mainland China.” The survey examined the public’s trust in society. The results highlighted the crisis of trust in China, with inter-personal mistrust being the most prominent. On specific issues, 26% of the respondents were optimistic about the prospects of the government (properly) handling the food safety issue; 12.3% believed that big name restaurants would not use oil from gutters, and only 8.1% regarded inter-personal trust in China as high.

On the question of "whether one should help when an elderly person who falls," 64.8% of participants responded affirmatively. About 87.4% indicated that the reason why people do not assist is that they do not want to invite trouble (Ed: In the past, someone who helped an elderly woman was sued and forced to pay her medical bills). According to the poll, the results show the extent to which people do not trust one another.

Source: Beijing News, October 19, 2011
http://news.bjnews.com.cn/2011/1019/135644.shtml