Social Stability - 192. page

According to an Observer article on December 25, 2007, starting from 2008, China is entering a 10-year period of severe crises.

The article cites the following factors:

· Short-term crisis: The skyrocketing price of resources, coupled with social inequality
· Long-term crisis: A cross-the- board recession, given the constraints of limited land resources
· Crisis of Rule by Man: The one-party political system does not produce people with integrity.
· Justice Crisis: Courts are fatally overrun with corruption.

The article concludes that hope lies with the people. One of the goals of the rights movement will be to put a referendum in the constitution.

Source: Observer Magazine, December 25, 2007. Secret China reprint http://www.secretchina.com/news/223188.html

One local avian flu case can quickly become the alarm for the entire country, warns Outlook Weekly of Xinhua.

On December 7, the Epoch Times reported that, on December 6, a Chinese government employee publishing an open letter to Chinese leaders Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao and Wu Bangguo, urging them to bring former Chinese dictator Jiang Zeming and his Shanghai Gang to justice.

China’s Premier Wen Jiabao visited Wenlou Village in Henan Province on Friday, November 30, when World AIDS Day was approaching. It is a village heavily plagued by AIDS. Before Premier Wen’s arrival, local authorities not only put a group of activists and outspoken AIDS patients under house arrest; they also arranged for 1,600 policemen to dress up as villagers to welcome Premier Wen.

Xinhua News reported on August 21, 2007, that the directors of China’s Family Planning Association at the provincial levels held a meeting in which they discussed that China’s family planning work faces eight challenges [1].

In 1997, colleges in China combined the tracks for the tuition system. Previously there existed two tracks: one track was that most college students paid nothing or only nominal fees for a college education; the other track was that some students financially supported their college education. Various scholars have found that since the two tracks were combined, most students have had to pay the full tuition. College tuitions across the country have skyrocketed. [1]

According to the 2007 Annual Report on Capital Punishment released by Hands Off Cain, between 5,000 and 8,000 prisoners were executed in China in the year of 2006. Chinese official Xinhua News reports that more would have been executed in the first seven months of 2007 had mandatory case review by the Supreme People’s Court of China not passed in 2006. [1]

On September 5, the Yinchuan (银川) Public Security Sub-bureau posted a street bulletin showing photos of 28 prostitutes. Many pedestrians saw it. [1] The photos showed both frontal and profile views of the women. Their features were clearly recognizable, except for simple blurs around the eyes. Both pedestrians and an attorney criticized the display.