Social Stability - 163. page

When Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and a vocal critic of China’s human rights record, started her China visit on May 24, 2009, she received a warm welcome from Chinese petitioners who are fed up with the government’s corruption. The petitioners, staged protests against the Chinese government almost daily. When Pelosi arrived, they showed their appreciation for her promotion of human rights in China. The largest demonstration occurred on May 25, when several thousand petitioners gathered at Beijing’s South Train Station for the Speaker’s arrival. They shouted slogans to protest government corruption, its denial of human rights and democracy, and its ignoring justice in its courts. One banner said “Welcome Pelosi. Pay Attention to China’s Human Rights! SOS.” The police and hired underground gangsters clashed with the protesters. The demonstration lasted for two hours during which the police took some protesters away.

The demonstration can been seen on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usADrSCMQKE&feature=channel

Source:
[1] Voice of America, May 25, 2009
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/w2009-05-25-voa47.cfm
[2] Radio Free Asia, May 25, 2009
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/pelosi-05252009094129.html
[3] Epoch Times, May 25, 2009
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/9/5/25/n2537583.htm

Xinhua News republished an article on Feb. 13, 2008, about the reform of the Household Registration System. During the past 50 years, the system restricted the farmers from freedom of residence and migration and thus established a big gap between cities and rural areas. The upcoming reform focuses on how to grant national treatment to China’s own farmers. This unfair system facilitated the rapid industrialization of the cities at the cost of a large amount of individuals living in rural areas. Due to the huge size of the population impacted, the grand reform is becoming one of the hardest tasks in front of the government.

Source: Xinhua Net, Feb. 13, 2008.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2008-02/13/content_7598072.htm

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences News published an article on May 14 regarding how to control news reports on emergency affairs. The article defined the scope of “emergency affairs” as natural disasters, accidents, public health incidents and public safety incidents.

The article suggested that the government should establish organizational units to “lead” the reporting effort. All media should establish dedicated channels to the government and the Party’s leading units to gauge the reporting effort in order to “correctly” guide the public opinion. The article’s suggested mechanism also requires recurring coordination meetings to ensure “correct” directions are followed and all resources can be managed centrally and effectively.

Source: Chinese Academy of Social Sciences News, May 14, 2009.
http://www.cass.net.cn/file/20090514233606.html

The Organization Department of the CCP Central Committee announced that in the next five years, it will select 20,000 college graduates each year and send them to the countryside to take village leadership positions, 80 percent of them must be party members and have a four-year college degree.

Source: Xinhua, May 22, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-05/22/content_11415899.htm

To resolve the pressure of unemployment for college graduates, the Communist Leaders are following the pattern established by Mao Zedong during the cultural revolutionary period, of sending youth to rural areas.

On May 3, Premier Wen Jiabao went to Tsinghua University, Beijing, to meet the 2009 class graduates who will work at the rural areas of China. Although it is the best university in China, Tsinghua graduates are also facing an unemployment challenge and have been encouraged to take entry-level positions or go to rural areas. This year, more than 10% of Tsinghua graduates will work in the West or Northeast areas of China (which are considered to be poor areas with bad living conditions in China). [1]

On May 4, member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Li Changchun delivered a speech at the 90th anniversary Commemoration of the “May 4” Movement (a youth patriotism event celebrated by the CPC) at the Great Hall of the People, Beijing. He implicitly indicated that the youth should go to poor and rural areas by saying, “(Youth) should learn from books, from practice, and from people; combine ‘book reading’ and ‘traveling around’ together; voluntarily go to the place where the country and the people need you the most, to places which perform the forefront work for “Reform and Open” and “Modernization construction,” and to the places with complex situations and a lot of growth opportunity; understand the reality of the country, and the opinions of the grass-roots level people, …” [2]

Source:
[1] Xinhua, May 3, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2009-05/03/content_11305182_1.htm
[2] Xinhua, May 4, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2009-05/04/content_11311353.htm

"Since 1999, Chinese authorties have maintained over 2, 000 research projects in religious psychology in order to suppress religious groups," said Dr. Sun Yanjun, a visiting professor of the Psychology of Religion at the University of Hawaii. Dr. Sun made the remarks at a press event held on May 4, 2009, at the National Press Club in Washington DC. According to Dr. Sun, in addition to the National Social Science Foundation and other State foundations, the Public Security Ministry, the State Security Ministry, the Communist Party Propaganda Department, and the State Administration for Religious Affairs have all funded these research projects. Almost all of the cognizant research institutions have participated in these projects. “Under a dictatorship, science becomes the accomplice of tyrannical rule. This is the scientific professionals’ deepest shame,” says Sun.

Source: Epoch Times, May 5, 2009
http://epochtimes.com/gb/9/5/5/n2516116.htm

Study Times reported on April 27, 2009, that allowing farmers to keep some land would help prevent farmers from migrating to major cities, a situation that could result in social unrest. According to Study Times, the International fianancial crisis is harming Chinese agriculture in four areas. It is pushing down agricultural product prices; there are fewer jobs for migrant workers; agricultural exports are decllining; and the tough times make it difficult to develop small town businesses and processing shops for agricultural products. The article concludes, “Allowing farmers to retain some land rights and to migrate between urban and rural areas would help prevent a concentration of farmers without land in major cities, which would result in serious social problems.”

Source: Study Times, April 27, 2009
http://www.studytimes.com.cn/WebPage/ny1.aspx?act=0&id=2597&bid=1

A recent public survey indicates what people perceive to be the professions most lacking integrity in China. In order, starting from the worst are: physicians (74.2%), police (57.8%), teachers (51.5), lawyers (48.4%), and civil servants (47.8%), followed by journalists (37.6%), accountants (30.7%), scholars (20.3%), and social workers, listed at the bottom at 10.9%.

73% of the people believe the main reason for the slipping moral standards is the strong pursuit of personal gain, self-interest and neglect of the importance of professional conduct.  52.4% of those surveyed think such a phenomenon is caused by lack of legal regulation and an environment in which the public voice has no influence. 52.3% believe that the entire society’s moral decline is what has caused such unprofessional conduct. 41.9% of the people believe it is because the public has little idea what professional integrity means.

Among all of those surveyed, 82.4% think the worst situation of all is when physicians lose their moral code.

Source: China Youth Online, April 28, 2009
http://zqb.cyol.com/content/2009-04/28/content_2642546.htm