Civil Unrest - a warning sign for China?

I am, unashamedly, a supporter of China's economic potential and get irritated by the external pressures brought on the country to do "this" with its trade flows or "that" with its currency - usually from countries who would themselves not take kindly to external advice. But let's leave the economy (in part) aside for a moment and reflect on a growing - or perhaps more visible to the outside world - concern that may just stall the machinery of growth in China.

Anthropologists would be better placed to comment on this in terms of where it could lead, but it seems to me that certain levels of officialdom and an unhealthy level of greed in China, independently of each other, are set to derail the economic "miracle". The recent reports of a young student being beaten in Zhengzhou  and the death of a flower seller in Chongqing, (SCMP: Subscription required for full article) as a result of heavy handedness by officials in both places have led to a spate of riots involving many thousands of people - and the reports of factory workers going on strike over pay and conditions, with some justification it seems, and who are often subsequently handled badly by employers and officials alike are becoming more common.

China's leaders are aware of the situation; of that I have absolutely no doubt. Also, action against the perpetrators of reported brutality has been - I understand - swift even if unspecified. But as the general population becomes emboldened to taking action it might just spread to other cities and places. If it gets to this stage, it will certainly give the foreign providers of jobs and capital to China cause to pause and think carefully about their next investments.

For China to continue its growth - which it must do if it is to provide jobs and wages to families across this vast country - it must take this unwelcome trend into serious consideration and then deal with it swiftly and firmly.

Comments

[David Eldon]

I think Macau was a microcosm of what potentially could happen elsewhere in China, gunfire included, although perhaps the cause in the Macau case was rather different from the incidents I mentioned.
As for the income gap disparity, not only can you look at it from the perspective of a widening gap - but also that many previously "no" or "low" income families are now better off than they were... but that is a debate for another time.

[JC]

The recent unrest in Macau was an evidence to the consequence of a turbo speed economy. The imparity of income has widened affecting many low income families. Both Macau and China were earning a big bulk from their so called "new economy", but where the new money has gone to. The unrest in Macau involved approx. 100 people, but it was so uncontrollable and already required to have a gunfire to dismiss the protesters! Would this drama be able to give us some hints for the consequence of our rapidly growing economy in China?