Unrest in China

As many of you know, I have been saying for years that China is the main country in the world that we need to be concerned about. The quiet and steady increase in China’s military capabilities (obviously intended to eventually challenge U.S. influence in the Western and Southern Pacific regions) combined with their increasing influence (some would say control) over the worlds economy makes it essential for western powers to watch developments closely and to take actions accordingly. There have been growing indications lately about unrest in the Forbidden Kingdom. This should not come as a surprise considering the daunting task facing the Communist Regime in controlling Chinas huge population, diverse ethnic makeup and uneven economic development.

Protests are not unusual or infrequent in modern China. But, most protests have been in rural areas where villagers and farmers have had their land stolen by China’s bureaucrats and property developers. The last few weeks have been different. Several large urban and metropolitan areas have seen protests against corruption. The ruling Communist Party has been frequently forced to deploy its massive security forces to contain public anger over economic and political grievances.

Most recently, armed police struggled to restore order in a manufacturing town in southern China after deploying tear gas and armored vehicles against hundreds of migrant workers who overturned police cars, smashed windows and torched government buildings there the night before.

The protests, which began in Zengcheng, in the southern province of Guangdong, followed serious rioting in another city in central China, plus bomb attacks on government facilities in two other cities in the past three weeks, and ethnic unrest in the northern region of Inner Mongolia last month.

Although not widely reported, anti-government protests have become increasingly common in China, but they have been mainly confined to rural areas. These latest cases of unrest have, by contrast, involved violent protests from individuals and large crowds in China's cities, where public anger is growing over issues including corruption and police abuses.

These more violent protests in China have been occurring at an increasing rate in spite of the fact the Chinese economy has been growing at 10% a year for a decade. The real question then becomes “What happens when China's growth slows to 4%?” (which it is predicted to do over the next decade).

Live Long and Prosper.....