Social Stability - 141. page

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

Xinhua news agency reported Monday that more than a dozen passers-by ignored a two-year-old girl as she lay critically injured on a street in southern China after a van, and later a truck, ran over her.

A surveillance camera showed a series of people walking past and ignoring the child, named Yue Yue, after she was hit first by a van and then run over by a truck in the street outside her family’s shop in the southern Chinese city of Foshan. Xinhua said a rubbish collector, who finally came to the child’s aid, moved her to the curb and shouted for help. Several shopkeepers ignored the cries for help before he finally tracked down the child’s mother who took her to the hospital.

The video from the surveillance camera has sparked wide-spread outrage on China’s social media sites. One netizen on Sina Weibo, a Chinese micro-blog similar to Twitter, wrote: "This society is seriously ill. Even cats and dogs shouldn’t be treated so heartlessly."

Source: AFP, October 17, 2011
http://tinyurl.com/3t4lejl

The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and China’s State Council issued a notice on August 21, 2011, announcing a name change. The name of “the Central Committee for the Comprehensive Management of the Social Order” will be changed to “the Central Committee for Comprehensive Social Management.” The new Central Committee for Comprehensive Social Management will take more responsibility in terms of maintaining the social order and have 11 additional departments under it with more offices.

The Central Committee for Comprehensive Social Management is a coordinating body, responsible for coordinating and guiding all local offices and departments to implement the CCP Central Committee and State Council’s arrangements and policies on strengthening and innovating social management.

Source: Xinhua, October 08, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2011-10/08/c_122130018.htm

On September 19, 2011, Global Times, a daily tabloid under the auspices of the Chinese Communist Party’s newspaper, People’s Daily, reported that Ma Wencong, a high school student, knocked down a victim with his luxury car, a Mercedes Benz, in the City of Wenzhou. According to the report, Ma was driving his girlfriend to a spa and intentionally violated traffic rules. He claimed to be the Mayor’s son. Thousands of city residents surrounded the site and prevented a police car from leaving, insisting that the police complete the paperwork on site. The crowd would not disperse for more than 5 hours. In the past couple of years, many similar accidents have occurred across China, all involving luxury cars and relatives of government officials.

Source: Global Times, September 19, 2011
http://china.huanqiu.com/roll/2011-09/2017098.html

The Institute for Urban and Environmental Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) recently released a report stating that China’s current urban-rural income gap ratio is 3.23:1, which means that China has one of the largest urban-rural income gaps in the world.

The urban-rural disparity in the Midwest provinces is even greater. There, the urban-rural income gap ratio is up to 4:1 or more, which is even higher than the national average.

Source: Huanqiu, September 20, 2011
http://china.huanqiu.com/roll/2011-09/2017113.html