Social Stability - 146. page

"Overall, the basic pattern of oversupply of the labor force has not changed. The pressure is still great, and will persist in the coming period." said a senior official at the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security at the National Employment Working Symposium held in Beijing on February 22, 2011. In the next five years, the total population of China will reach 1.37 billion with an army at the working age to peak at nearly one billion in 2014. The annual number of unemployed is expected to be 13 million. It is expected that the number of college graduates alone will approach 7 million every year.

Source: People’s Daily, February 23, 2011
http://edu.people.com.cn/GB/13981879.html

In January, Shanghai Jiao Tong University released its annual report on social unrest in China. The report, titled “Annual Report on China’s Crisis Management,” stated that in 2010 there was a major incident of social unrest every five days that had a widespread and lasting effect. This represents a 20% increase over 2009. The report stated that in 2009 there were 60 major incidents of major social unrest while in 2010 there were 72. Social unrest had spread throughout 29 provinces and cities (over 90%), with most occurring in Henan, Beijing, and Guangdong. About 43% of the incidents could not be resolved by the local governments and required intervention from upper levels of government to restore order. The report found that the crises hit the media much faster in 2010 than in 2009. About 33% were reported the same day and 67% were reported by Internet media, particularly through blogs.

Source: Shanghai Jiao Tong University, January 29, 2011
http://news.sjtu.edu.cn/info/news/content/101406.htm

On February 16, 2011, Xinhua reported that, in recent years, due to the great efforts that organizations in the public security system have made nationwide in developing the “Golden Shield” project (also known as the Great Firewall of China), the basic infrastructure for the public security information network has been almost entirely completed. Currently, the network covers 32 provincial bureaus, 478 city bureaus, 3,361 county branches, and more than 70,000 grass roots stations. The coverage is over 99 percent.

Source: Xinhua, February 16, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2011-02/16/c_121089330.htm

State-run Guangming Daily published an article discussing the characteristics of newly emerging social conflicts. Social conflicts have spread to more groups, such as between cadres and the masses, between different social groups,  and between workers and employers; conflicts involve complaints about abuses and lawsuits, triads, and hostile forces that have incited these conflicts. Social conflicts tend to be large scale, increasingly confrontational, highly unpredictable, and explosive. Further, the nature of conflicts has changed from simple civil disputes to a mixture of civil disputes, economic disputes, administrative disputes, and disputes involving laws and regulations.

Source: Guangming Daily, February 9, 2011
http://politics.gmw.cn/2011-02/09/content_1593523.htm

In order to implement the State Council’s requirements for increasing control over social stability, the Chinese Ministry of Health recently released a Guideline on assessing the risks of health related social emergencies. The Guideline includes seven features: (1) acknowledging the importance of health related risk assessment; (2) the basic requirements of the assessments; (3) the scope of the Guideline, especially for events triggering large scale social emergencies; (4) key assessment areas such as “controllability;” (5) the organizational and responsibility structures of the assessment system; (6) the fundamental procedures for the assessment process; (7) measuring the quality of the assessment. The Ministry requires all the branches under its administration to move rapidly to implement the Guideline. According to the Guideline, those responsible for triggering large scale group petitions or other group events will be punished.

Source: Ministry of Health, January 5, 2011
http://www.moh.gov.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/mohbgt/s3589/201101/50484.htm

Beijing News reported that, on February 3, 2011, the first day of the Chinese New Year, around 66,000 Beijing residents visited Yonghegong Lamasery, the largest Tibetan Buddhist lamasery temple in inner China. Most of the visitors came to pray for blessings and to make wishes. In order to light the “first stick of incense,” some people started waiting in line outside the lamasery at 10 p.m. the night before, despite very cold weather in Beijing. There were 4.8% more visitors this year than last.

Source: Beijing News, February 4, 2011
http://news.bjnews.com.cn/2011/0204/107514.shtml

Huaqiao University recently organized a winter camp for its foreign students to visit CCP historical revolutionary sites — Yan’n in Shaanxi Province and Xibaipo in Hebei Province. Both served as the capital city of the CCP during its war against the Kuomintang that eventually led to the CCP seizing power in China. ”During this trip, foreign students were indoctrinated with China’s revolutionary history and learned about the hardships endured when the CCP leaders created a brand new China.” “China’s revolution was not by accident; it was the result of many soldiers giving up their lives.”

In English, Huaqiao means “Overseas Chinese.” Huaqiao University is directly under the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council. Its students are from overseas Chinese families.

Source: China News Service, January 30, 2011
http://www.chinanews.com/hwjy/2011/01-30/2822310.shtml

Guangming Daily recently reported that China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security announced a three-year national training plan involving 3000 county-level directors of the Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security. This will implement the requirements set forth by the Central Committee of the Communist Party, which called for massive training plans across all government branches. It is believed that the county-level directors play an important role in solving social problems and maintaining social stability. The content of the training focuses on government policies, international and domestic political studies, social crisis management, fighting corruption, etc.

Source: Guangming Daily, January 28, 2011
http://epaper.gmw.cn/gmrb/html/2011-01/28/nw.D110000gmrb_20110128_6-10.htm?div=-1