Social Stability - 151. page

The police department of Wuhan City, the largest city in central China, has recently required a second generation national ID for anyone who wants to use the Internet bars in the city to get onto the Internet. This is a new movement by the Internet Monitoring and Administration Division of the police department, after waves of complete pre-checks, heavy penalties and a netizen report reward programs. This new wave is to ban all anonymous Internet access at the Internet bars. The police spent four days to visit all Internet bars in the city to enforce the regulation. The penalty for bars that refuse to cooperate is an order to be shut down.

Source: People’s Daily, June 16, 2010
http://politics.people.com.cn/GB/11887095.html

Xinhua reprinted an article from www.qlwb.com.cn on June 4, 2010 on the emigration of China’s new rich class and intellectual elites to the United States, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and some small countries in Central America. 

“In 2009, a total of 25,000 Chinese emigrated to Canada and 65,000 Chinese emigrated to the U.S.; in 2008, about 16,000 Chinese emigrated to Australia.”

“What attract the Chinese immigrants to go abroad are the quality education, clean environment, safe food, standardized laws and the symbol of a status.”

Source: Xinhua, June 04, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/society/2010-06/04/c_12182275.htm

On May 12, 2010, the website http://finance.sina.com/ published an article by Feng Haining that contrasted the low wages of Chinese laborers with China’s high GDP. In Feng’s opinion, no matter how high the GDP is, the real worth of the GDP is not high if it is not reflected in the the people’s living standard.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) pointed out that in 2007, China’s per capita output increased 63.4% between 2000 and 2005, but high labor productivity is not reflected in wage growth. Ordinary workers have no voice in the distribution of revenue. What makes the public especially unhappy is that public policy always favors those with capital. From 1978 to 2005, capital return increased by 20 percent of the total GDP, while labor remuneration declined substantially.

Source: finance.sina.com, May 12, 2010
http://finance.sina.com/bg/chinamkt/sinacn/20100512/122953787.html

A Foxconn spokesman confirmed that all lower-level laborers’ wages have been raised 30% starting from June 1, according to China Review News on June 7, 2010. It is understood that Foxconn’s pay raise decision is related to the recent employee suicides. The pay raise means that the labor costs will increase 2.281 billion yuan (334.130 million U.S. dollars) each year. For an OEM business model company whose profits are very limited, this cost increase is substantial. Upon publication of the news, Foxconn’s share price immediately plunged on the Hong Kong stock market.

“Labor-intensive enterprises have smaller profit margins. In order to grab the largest profits, the employers purposely lower employees’ wages, which has seriously hindered the harmonious development of society. More and more incidents demonstrate that the “China Model,” which sacrifices the well-being of ordinary people for economic development, has come to an end.”

Source: China Review News, June 07, 2010
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1013/4/5/6/101345679.html?coluid=53&kindid=0&docid=101345679&mdate=0607074411

Judgeships are becoming a high-risk profession due to the increase in social conflicts and the judicial abuse of power for personal gain. Lately there have been reports of incidents in the lower courts where the parties to lawsuits physically assaulted judges. “A large number of disputes flood the courts without filtering. The courts can hardly handle all the cases and it is very difficult to improve the quality. Errors are inevitable. The public has a high expectation of the courts. So it is so easy for conflicts to get out of hand.” Cases of abuse of power and of lack of impartiality in adjudication also contribute to increased risk for judges becoming the targets of social discontent.

Source: Chongqing Evening News, June 16, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2010-06/16/c_12225019.htm

On June 9, 2010, www.wenxuecity.com/ reprinted an article from the World Journal (http://www.worldjournal.com/) pointing out that the current trend of strikes in China from the Pearl River Delta to the Yangtze River Delta makes the government worried about the safety of the World Expo in Shanghai.

On June 8, 2010, workers from “Foshan Fengfu Autoparts Co.,Ltd” in Guangdong Province refused to work and requested higher wages. The strike participants revealed that a regular auto parts worker only makes around 1300 yuan per month (around 190 U.S. dollars).

On June 7, 2010, workers of KOK Shu-Yuan Machinery Enterprise (Kunshan) Co., Ltd. in Jiangsu Province had a conflict with the police due to a strike for higher wages. On the same day, another factory’s workers in Jiangxi smashed the factory equipment and blocked the roads protesting the company guard’s violence.

Source: World Journal, June 9, 2010
http://news.wenxuecity.com/messages/201006/news-gb2312-1101775.html

On May 26, 2010, 21ccom.net reprinted Zhou Xiaoyun’s blog article on the suicides at Foxconn:

“Why do Foxconn employees keep jumping off of buildings? The reason is the business form at Foxconn, i.e., an original equipment manufacturer that manufactures products or components that are purchased by another company. Foxconn only gets profits of 3%. In order to maintain the profit of 3%, the company shifts the pressure onto every employee, whose private life is completely taken away.”

“In fact, China’s rapid development, the “China Model,” is an economic model with limited human rights, low wages, low land prices, exploitation of the peasants and migrant workers, high pollution, high carbon emissions and high energy consumption. Foxconn is a typical example of the “China Model,” the development of which cannot be sustained and will eventually lead to bankruptcy.”

Source: www.21ccom.net, May 26, 2010
http://new.21ccom.net/articles/sxpl/pl/article_2010052610190.html

Xia Yeliang, a professor from Beijing University concluded that the return of “planning” and non-market allocation of resources by the State have been the cause of China’s widening income disparity. Based on his research, the income of the top 10% of the population was 23 times that of the bottom 10% in 2007 compared to 7.3 times back in 1988. As of the end of 2008 monthly pensions of government retirees was 2.1 times that of those in the non-government sector. State controlled industries such as power plants, telecommunications, petroleum, finance, insurance, utilities, and tobacco account for 55% of the total national salaries, but for a meager 8% of the national workforce.

Source: Economic News National Weekly, reprinted by ifeng.com, June 8, 2010 http://finance.ifeng.com/opinion/zjgc/20100608/2289139.shtml