Social Stability - 152. page

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

On May 25, 2010, www.21ccom.net published an article titled “Chinese Suicide vs. Chinese Model “ by Lu Nanluojia, one of the chief editors of 21ccom.net. Lu Nanluojia pointed out that the repeated Foxconn Group’s employee suicides reflect the cruelty and the social costs of “Made in China.” Among large countries, China has become a country with high suicide rates.

"While some scholars boost the superiority of the ‘Chinese Model,’ have they ever thought that suicides also exist as the other ‘Chinese Model?’ Have they realized the negative effects of the ‘Chinese Model’ on social morality and the human heart?”

“The suicide problems in China may symbolize a broken and defeated society. The solution is to reform so as to improve the degree of integration into the social structure, in addition to precautions at the individual psychological level.”

Source: www.21ccom.net, May 25, 2010
http://new.21ccom.net/articles/ztyj/hot/spec_2010052510146.html

On May 30, 2010, www.ChinaReviewNews.com reported that more than 100 million Chinese people have various forms of mental illnesses, according data provided by China’s Health Center for Disease Prevention and Control; 16 million of them have serious mental diseases (Global Times, May 29).

“From the reports in recent years, we know that some petitioners and some families who refused to move out of their houses when facing the forced evictions, were jailed. Many people are worried that some organizations may use such a big proportion of data on mentally ill patients as an excuse to ‘arrest more people’ more freely.”

Source: www.ChinaReviewNews.com, May 25, 2010
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1013/3/8/7/101338749.html?coluid=5&kindid=24&docid=101338749&mdate=0530160358

On June 3, 2010, www.21ccom.net reprinted an article from http://www.taosl.net/ called, “Many Cases of Injustice Caused by ‘The Superiority of the Party above the Law’" by Du Guang.

According to the article, torture and forced confessions provided the basis for the wrongful imprisonment of Zhao Zuohai [1], but they are not the major reason of the miscarriage of justice. Guangzhou Daily reported on May 16 that the prosecutor found a lot of suspicious points and was reluctant to prosecute Zhao in 1999. In 2002, the Shangqiu City CPC Central Committee Political and Law Commission decided to "prosecute Zhao within 20 days." The prosecutor did not dare to defy the Party Committee’s decision and had to submit the case to the court, which also found problems and thus only sentenced Zhao to “death with reprieve”.

[1.] Editor Note: Zhao Zuohai was tortured and imprisoned for 11 years for a murder he did not commit. Earlier this year the alleged "victim" turned up alive.

Source: www.21ccom.net, June 3, 2010
http://new.21ccom.net/articles/sxpl/pl/article_2010060310729.html

2009 saw a 100% increase of EB-5 category applications for immigration to the United States, with the intent to be an investor. In 2008 the number was 500. According to the Economic Observer, there are two reasons for China’s rich to immigrate overseas: children’s education and finding a of safe haven. The latter pertains to the lack of social stability. The domestic investment environment is far from the rule of law. More importantly, “the rich people are on pins and needles because the ever widening income disparity has led to public challenges of their ‘original sins’ [getting wealthy through illegal or unfair practices] and to ‘hatred of the rich.’” “You never know. Maybe one day people will rob the rich to give to the poor. It is too unsafe,” said a rich Mr. Li.

Source: Huanqiu, May 30, 2010
http://china.huanqiu.com/roll/2010-05/833734.html

The ever deepening social instability, as shown in recent killings of school children and other incidents, has caught the Party’s attention. The Committee for Comprehensive Management of Public Security (CCMPS), an agency under the Central Committee of the Party in charge of societal control, is having a national conference for directors of provincial offices of the Committee. CCMPS is headed by Zhou Yongkang, the Party’s security czar and also head of the Political and Legal Committee.