Social Stability - 154. page

Zhou Dongfei, a senior columnist published in the State’s International Herald Leader that the current Chinese society not only lacks credibility, but also that the very mechanism to maintain trust is losing credibility. In China people don’t trust milk powder because of the frequent reports of melamine problems; they do not trust vaccines due to adulterations in the production process; they would rather deliver water to those in draught areas and clothes to those in disasters than donate cash. “However, after a large number of incidents of dishonesty occurred and were not corrected as society expected, the mechanism to maintain trust has lost credibility. In the current Chinese society, people have lost trust because fundamentally the mechanism safeguarding that trust has broken down and suffers from a loss of public trust. If this situation continues to deteriorate, the result can only be the loss of public confidence.”

Source: International Herald Leader, May 4, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2010-05/04/content_13466170.htm

On April 1, 2010, People’s Daily reported that China’s ratio of male to female births in 2009 was 119.45, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China. The recently released 2010 "Social Blue Book" by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences predicted that by 2020, the number of men at a marriageable age will be 24 million more than women of a marriageable age. There will be more “Inter-generational marriages” and “older woman and younger men marriages.”   

Source: People’s Daily, April, 2010
http://fashion.people.com.cn/GB/11276214.html

Yu Jianrong, a professor at the State’s Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, predicts that it will take another 30 years for China to move from the current pyramid pattern of income distribution to one that is olive-shaped. The pyramid pattern of income distribution is used to describe the great disparity of income, intense social conflicts, and the lack of a middle class as a buffer, while an olive-shaped pattern denotes the existence of a large middle class with relatively small groups of rich and poor. Hence it is more conducive to social stability. Yu holds that a middle class has not yet formed in China whatsoever. “For example, the popular ‘hatred of the rich’, ‘hatred of government’ and other social discontent and resentment are both the evidence and ‘combustion’ that has induced large-scale incidents of conflict by social groups to vent their anger.” “People at the bottom are growing in numbers, albeit economic development and improvement of living standard for the bottom society.” “Objectively, the white-collar workers are a little bit more capable of making money, but speaking of their social situation or political status, they are the same [as migrant workers],” says Yu.

Source: International Herald Leader, April 19, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2010-04/19/content_13383024.htm

Xinhua reported that a timetable predicting China’s real estate collapse in 2011 has been published on the Internet. The timetable compares the Japanese real estate market trend between 1985 and 1991 to that of China between 2005 and 2008 and found China, with its serious real estate bubble, excessive dependency on exports, and pressure on RMB appreciation, is similar to Japan right before the Japanese economic bubble burst in the 1980s. The timetable author concluded that the Chinese economy is facing significant risks and its real estate market will collapse in 2011.

Source: Xinhua, April 6, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2010-04/06/content_13307384.htm

On March 29, 2010, the last day of a training session for nationwide Public Security Bureau chiefs, Yang Huanning, the Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Executive Deputy Minister of Public Security, spoke on social stability and corruption:

(We ought to) have a clear understanding of the influence and challenges to social stability at China’s current economic and social development stage, effectively enhance the sense of responsibility and sense of mission of safeguarding national security and social stability, conduct an in-depth study on how to effectively and properly dispose of social unrest, how to further strengthen foundational and preventive work, and how to further improve the public security authority’s law enforcement ability and quality….(We ought to) study and solve the current problems in fund management from the policies and system aspects, manage and make good use of state and local fiscal funds, firmly prevent extravagance and waste, and resolutely prevent the occurrence of different forms of corruption.

A China Youth Daily article questioned the rule of law in the light of a series of recent arrests of online bloggers for their outspoken postings against the government. Earlier, on February 26, Mr. Chen from Yunxi County, Hubei Province was arrested for his “trouble-making” remarks on the Internet. In response to the public outcry on the Internet against the arrest, local police stated that they were "in strict accordance with the law" and the decision to arrest was reported to and approved by superiors “to uphold the law." After eight days of detention on charges of “insulting and defaming others,” Chen was released due to “pressure from the Internet,” said the Yunxi Public Security Bureau.

China Youth Daily questioned, “Now that the pressure from the Internet forced them to release the guy, then what exactly was the pressure that forced them to arrest the guy?”

Source: People’s Daily, reprint China Youth Daily, March 12, 2010
http://media.people.com.cn/GB/40698/11131970.html

China will face tougher and more complex social unrest in 2010, says Outlook, a weekly magazine under Xinhua. In the past several years, social unrest has centered on issues of rural land use, the demolition of urban housing, state-owned enterprise reform, military discharges and retirement, and lawsuits. But 2009 saw intensive social unrest over welfare benefits, medical malpractice, unemployment, environmental pollution, workplace accidents, civil disputes, and investment fraud. Incidents tend to involve large crowds from multiple segments of the public and from extended geographic areas. Protests have accelerated to surrounding Party and government buildings and blocking traffic. Further, “instigators of most of the mass group events use the Internet and mobile phone text messages to contact and organize. This approach has the characteristics of a wide range of provocation, strong appeal, no warning signs, easy and quick gathering of people who have no direct interest, and so on.”

Source: Outlook Weekly, March 7, 2010
http://news.sohu.com/20100307/n270642035.shtml

The recently published 2010 Rule of Law Blue Book, a Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) annual report on the nation’s judicial progress, revealed the typical “White-Black-Red” trinity structure in Mafia organizations in China. “White” refers to legitimate business leaders, “Black” denotes the Mafia "Big Brother," and “Red” are the people with political ties offering a protective shield. Ten percent of the underground criminal enterprises are headed by public servants.