Is Red China Headed for a New Revolution?
China became Communist because the people were tired of the economic and social disparity between them and the ruling Gov't. Now that China is an economic giant, due to capitalism, it appears that social disparity is growing again and the people ARE getting restless.
This civil unrest trend can be a Good/Bad thing depending on where you sit. The Communist Gov't had better start thinking about major reforms or it may find itself going the way of the USSR and Hungary, violently with the people taking control. But the Commies won't change, they like power and control, so the revolution will be violent. That is the Good thing. The Bad thing is that every idiot and their brother has invested in China, thus when the upheavel does happen, the economic impact will be a tough one to weather through. China needs Democracy, and it is socially and economically ready for it, it just needs the people to fight for it. With a Democratic Gov't in China, the world will be whole lot safer, otherwise, there is a showdown in the future between Red China and America. Pray for a Revolution in China.
Mr Minority
The encounter, at first, seemed purely pedestrian. A man carrying a bag passed a husband and wife on a sidewalk. The man's bag brushed the woman's pant leg, leaving a trace of mud. Words were exchanged. A scuffle ensued.
Easily forgettable, except that one of the men, Yu Jikui, was a lowly porter. The other, Hu Quanzong, boasted that he was a ranking government official. Hu beat Yu using the porter's own carrying stick, then threatened to have him killed.
For this Yangtze River port city, the script was incendiary. Onlookers spread word that a senior official had abused a helpless porter. By nightfall, tens of thousands of people had swarmed Wanzhou's central square, where they toppled official vehicles, pummeled police officers and torched City Hall.
Minor street quarrel provokes mass riot. China's Communist Party, obsessed with enforcing social stability, has few worse fears. Yet the Wanzhou uprising, which occurred on Oct. 18, is one of nearly a dozen major incidents of spontaneous social unrest in the past three months, many sparked by government corruption, police abuse and the unequal riches accruing to the powerful and well-connected.
"People can see how corrupt the government is while they barely have enough to eat," said Yu, reflecting on the uprising that made him an instant proletarian hero and later forced him into seclusion. "Our society has a short fuse, just waiting for a spark."
Though it is experiencing one of the most spectacular economic expansions in history, China is having more trouble than at any time since the Tiananmen Square democracy movement in 1989 maintaining social order. Police statistics show the number of public protests reached nearly 60,000 in 2003.
That is an average of 160 per day. That marks an increase of nearly 15 percent over 2002 and was eight times as high as the number recorded a decade ago. Martial law and paramilitary troops are commonly needed to restore order when the police lose control.
This civil unrest trend can be a Good/Bad thing depending on where you sit. The Communist Gov't had better start thinking about major reforms or it may find itself going the way of the USSR and Hungary, violently with the people taking control. But the Commies won't change, they like power and control, so the revolution will be violent. That is the Good thing. The Bad thing is that every idiot and their brother has invested in China, thus when the upheavel does happen, the economic impact will be a tough one to weather through. China needs Democracy, and it is socially and economically ready for it, it just needs the people to fight for it. With a Democratic Gov't in China, the world will be whole lot safer, otherwise, there is a showdown in the future between Red China and America. Pray for a Revolution in China.
Mr Minority
