Social Stability - 91. page

Apple Daily published an article reporting that a documentary movie that CCTV aired claimed that China has built the world’s largest surveillance camera network called “Skynet.” It has over 170 million cameras installed around the country. As part of the effort to ensure stability, the Skynet project plans to install an additional 400 million cameras over the next three years. A BBC article described the camera’s capabilities. Those used in the “Skynet” project can recognize people’s age, sex, and the clothes they are wearing when they walk down the street. The project also has records of people’s facial image and their vehicle’s license plate. In a test experiment using the facial image of a BBC reporter, the installed cameras spotted the reporter at a train station within seven minutes after he attempted to “escape.”

Source: Apple Daily, December 11, 2017
https://tw.appledaily.com/new/realtime/20171211/1257551/

VOA published an interview with some guest speakers, who discussed Beijing’s sudden eviction of tens of thousands of its “low-end population” when the weather was very cold. The “Low-end population” refers to people who do work that requires low skills and who do not hold residence status in Beijing. Below is a selection from the guest speaker’s comments.

1) It is hard to accept the term “low-end population” because it grades people into different categories. Of course, in sociology, people are divided into different social classes: the bottom, middle, and upper classes. The Chinese Communist Party claims that the proletariat is the master of China but in reality the five percent who are the elite class in China are the real master. The party follows Social Darwinism, which seeks the end result but not the means. The elite can hurt others for their gain. As a matter of fact, their authority has completely deviated from the rule by law they have been promoting. The Party Secretary of Beijing knows how propaganda works and understands the impact the media has. Therefore it is not that he chose to issue the eviction order but he had no other option. He had to force the action and couldn’t wait. It could be that the party thinks that China’s economy will collapse in the next six to 12 months. If large numbers of people are unemployed and unable to survive, it is obvious that these people could pose a huge threat to their authority. These (low-end) people still have work right now. Even though they were evicted they wouldn’t rebel. If they were unemployed, however, it is very unlikely that they wouldn’t leave even if the authorities used guns to chase them out. This is the reason that the authorities do not want to disclose right now.

2) The real reason is that the highest leader became so powerful that he has lost his judgment. He has been successfully suppressing different voices in the past few years, including social group, rights lawyers or rights activists. He feels that he has invincible power now and that he can do anything. Therefore he used a radical approach in urban management and didn’t realize that he is facing fierce resistance from the international society and his own citizens.

Source: VOA Chinese, December 1, 2017
https://www.voachinese.com/a/voaweishi-20171201-pc-china-migrant-worker/4145303.html

VOA published an article following the reports of alleged child abuse at RYB Education, Inc. After the parent’s claims of abuse, the stock price of RYB Education, Inc. plunged 38 percent to US$16.46 on the New York Stock Exchange on Black Friday. This is below its IPO price of US$18.50. Board members of RYB Education have also declared they will buy back US$50 million of its stock in the next 12 months. RYB Education is an early child kindergartner education center. Reports were made that, after a number of parents noticed that their children had received injections with needles, were forced to ingest unknown pills or were stripped naked, news first broke out on social media. The official media, including CCTV and Xinhua then reported the news. The police department has, currently, launched an investigation into the case. During an interview with VOA, one early child educator who chose to remain anonymous said that the parents of RYB kindergartners were very afraid after they saw that a large number of posted videos on social media had been deleted. They believed that, as more and more videos were deleted, it was more likely that the officials wanted to take control of the situation. The parents were concerned that, since the police had not drawn any conclusions on the case, the parents might never get back the videos they turned over to the police. The end result could just be the arrest of a few scapegoats to close the case. Some parents were even considering filing a class action lawsuit in the U.S. because they thought that the Wall Street legal firm that represents the IPO of this company should also take legal responsibility.

Source: VOA Chinese, November 24, 2017
https://www.voachinese.com/a/red-yellow-bluw-kindergarten-beijing-stock-20171124/4136190.html

China News published an article on the three reasons why Xi Jinping regained exclusive control of the Armed Police less than one week after the 19th National Congress. According to the article, an announcement was issued that the State Council and the Military Commission will no longer co-manage the armed police. The Military Commission will manage the armed police directly. The local municipal government does not have the authority to mobilize the armed police either. The article listed three reasons why Xi Jinping decided to gain the sole authoritative power over the armed police:

First, Xi Jinping wants to prevent any future “usurpation of party or state power.” When Zhou Yongkang was in power, the armed police expanded rapidly. The millions of armed police enabled the Political and Legal Affairs Commission to be the second power center in the central administration. On the second day of the 19th National Congress, the official news media disclosed for the first time that Bo Xilai, Zhou Yongkang, Ling Jihua, Guo Boxiong and Sun Bocan allegedly planned to “usurp the power of the party and the state.” The news became the focus of the media overseas because the armed police force was used and directly involved in that unsuccessful coup. The old structure became a major threat to Xi Jinping. Therefore Xi decided to eliminate it.

Second, Xi disabled the power of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission over the armed police force and placed it directly under the control of the Military Commission. His real intent was to diminish the power of Political and Legal Affairs Commission. During the power struggle at the National Congress, Xi won in most of the areas but not in all. One of the areas he failed to win was the Political and Legal Affairs Commission which Zhou Yongkang and Meng Jianzhu controlled and which Guo Shengkun currently leads. All of them belong to Jiang Zemin’s faction and Jiang did not want to let go. Detaching the armed police from the Political and Legal Affairs Commission is the first step in that direction and more may follow.

Third, during the era when Jiang Zemin and Zhou Yongkang were in power, they established a system to “use violence to achieve stability” in which the armed police played a critical role. Now the armed police force is directly under the Military Commission. The local municipal government no longer has the authority to direct it when there are large scale rights protests or mass incidents. They must let the central administration decide whether the armed police force can be used. This represents a change in the old model Jiang and Zhou developed: to “use violence to achieve stability.”

Source: China News, November 2, 2017
http://news.creaders.net/china/2017/11/02/1885331.html

According to an article Radio Free Asia (RFA) published, during the 19th National Congress, reporters from foreign media have been under tightened security and have been limited in what they could report. The article stated that the reporters have been subjected to ID checks at hotels throughout Beijing. On certain occasions, reporters have only been allowed to listen during delegate meetings but could not raise any questions. Even when they were allowed to ask questions, reporters complained that there was not much to write about. All they heard was that almost all the delegates they interviewed gave similar answers such as, “Support Xi’s core values and line up with the central administration,” “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era,” or “The central administration is centered on comrade Xi.” The article stated that the police, the armed police, the special police, and the plain clothes police could be seen everywhere. Hotel staff have been told to pay special attention to reporters and to perform ID checks on them.

Source: Radio Free Asia, October 19, 2017
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/zhengzhi/ql1-10192017095300.html