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China 'faces mass social unrest'
BBC ^ | 12.05.08

Posted on 12/05/2008 7:55:29 AM PST by Dr. Marten

Rising unemployment and the economic slowdown could cause massive social turmoil in China, a leading scholar in the Communist Party has said.

"The redistribution of wealth through theft and robbery could dramatically increase and menaces to social stability will grow," Zhou Tianyong, a researcher at the Central Party School in Beijing, wrote in the China Economic Times.

"This is extremely likely to create a reactive situation of mass-scale social turmoil," he wrote.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: china; economy; financialcrisis
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To: SantaLuz; All

I really hope the Chinese are not stupid enough to involve Taiwan — remember the last thing CHina needs is a Trade War or Economic Sanctions (this may be the only regime TRULY vunerable to trade sanctions)...

Seems to me FAR more likely that they go after Kashmir — much more morally ambiguous — far less likely to provoke a Western response... also, remember — go after Taiwan and (even if you “succeed”) you suffer serious losses and the mainland will see civilian casualties, major trade routes disrupted, etc...

A Kashmir conflict is well out of the way — you can call it part of the war on terror — nobody there can really fight back much — plus you are sending troops wayyyyy out to the boondocks where thay can not easily participate in uprest...


21 posted on 12/05/2008 8:17:09 AM PST by NYC_BULLMOOSE ("extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice" -- BG)
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To: Dr. Marten
Rising unemployment and the economic slowdown could cause massive social turmoil in China, a leading scholar in the Communist Party has said. "The redistribution of wealth ...

Only China? Then why are gun sales through the stratosphere?

22 posted on 12/05/2008 8:18:36 AM PST by The Sons of Liberty (NO Usurpers in the White House - NObama)
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To: Dr. Marten

China this morning increased the gas tax by 500%. That won’t exactly help calm the nerves of the public.


23 posted on 12/05/2008 8:20:52 AM PST by montag813 (www.FreepShop.com)
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To: Army Air Corps
They are more likely to hassle their neighbours (look out, SE Asia, India, etc.).

Agreed.

24 posted on 12/05/2008 8:26:21 AM PST by IYAS9YAS (Hey Obama, why lawyer up when you can pony up? Show us your vault copy BC)
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To: IYAS9YAS
"Yeah, I've often been concerned about this. However, for them to get to us, they'd have to go by sea and/or by air. We'd likely sink their boats and down their planes long before they could reach us."

Not us. Siberia is virtually unpopulated and has all of the natural resources that China needs (oil, gas, timber, gold, iron, coal). China just needs to whip up enough trouble in the Middle East and Balkans to destabilize Vlad & Co's money train. Send in the troops to make the gram and then offer to "buy" the land like we "bought" California, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada from Mexico. In other words my troops are sitting on it so either take the pennies on the dollar check or be prepared to see your capital in flames.
25 posted on 12/05/2008 8:28:10 AM PST by GonzoGOP (There are millions of paranoid people in the world and they are all out to get me.)
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To: norton

Same thing.


26 posted on 12/05/2008 8:29:01 AM PST by JimSEA
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To: 17th Miss Regt
One solution is to launch a war of conquest. Lots of men go into the army (and out of unemployment),

China has been steadily making massive cuts in the total troop strength of its armed forces for years. Human waves don't cut it any more; they're trying to become a smaller, better trained, higher-tech force.

27 posted on 12/05/2008 8:50:53 AM PST by Strategerist
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To: Dr. Marten

Amazingly; the same knee-jerk reaction there as here. Slap a band-aid on the symptoms because you lack the patience and resolve to research the causes. Throw money at the manufacturing side while you disregard the CAUSES for the lack of consumption. Perpetuate stupidity at all costs....


28 posted on 12/05/2008 8:53:16 AM PST by catchem (NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE STUPIDITY OF THE AMERICAN VOTER.)
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To: Zhang Fei
Most of the Chinese I know worship the Communist party and its leaders.

That's not my experience, at least with Chinese students at the university where I work. It's more of a fatalistic, matter-of-fact acceptance that CCP rule is the way it is, and that it's not likely to change in the near future. Many join the CCP because it facilitates material and social advancement, not because it (or its leadership) is praiseworthy.

I do acknowledge that there is a generational difference in attitudes toward the CCP. The older generations (even those who suffered through Mao's madness) have a lot more respect for the CCP than the younger generation does. I see a lot more quiet contempt in the younger generation.

29 posted on 12/05/2008 9:04:36 AM PST by Constitutionalist Conservative (ACORN is a criminal enterprise)
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To: SantaLuz

“Watch for a rattling of the swords toward Taiwan to create a diversion and an excuse to root out “enemies”.”

Not likely, given that relations between China and Taiwan are improving dramatically under the new Taiwanese administration.


30 posted on 12/05/2008 9:15:14 AM PST by Dr. Marten ("We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office." ~ Aesop)
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To: boxer21
All of these hungry mouths to feed and soon will add to the pressures when the country finds out they don't really have the distribution system they need because they have no money to spend on it.
31 posted on 12/05/2008 9:16:00 AM PST by noname07718 (Freedom is never more than one generation from extinction-Ronald Reagan 1993)
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To: ComputerGuy
Coming soon to an America near you.

Haven't been paying attention, have you?

We no longer have a constitutional government.
32 posted on 12/05/2008 9:18:08 AM PST by brityank (The more I learn about the Constitution, the more I realise this Government is UNconstitutional !!)
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To: brityank

Yeah, I pay attention


33 posted on 12/05/2008 9:24:16 AM PST by ComputerGuy (not my real name)
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To: Constitutionalist Conservative
That's not my experience, at least with Chinese students at the university where I work. It's more of a fatalistic, matter-of-fact acceptance that CCP rule is the way it is, and that it's not likely to change in the near future.

This may be political correctness at work - they probably know your views, and you do grade their work, don't you? I've dealt with Chinese students as their peers stateside and actually spoken with the man on the street in China. Worship of the party is practically universal.

Many join the CCP because it facilitates material and social advancement, not because it (or its leadership) is praiseworthy.

These things are not mutually exclusive. You can worship the party and join for personal advancement. You know how it goes - God the Party helps those who help themselves.

I do acknowledge that there is a generational difference in attitudes toward the CCP. The older generations (even those who suffered through Mao's madness) have a lot more respect for the CCP than the younger generation does. I see a lot more quiet contempt in the younger generation.

I see the reverse - the younger generation tends to zealotry in its love of the Party. The older generation remembers the privations imposed by the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution (while accepting the Party's rationalizations for these disasters), whereas the younger generation doesn't even believe that tens of millions starved to death while party members lived high on the hog.

34 posted on 12/05/2008 9:28:01 AM PST by Zhang Fei
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To: 17th Miss Regt

I agree. Add to that the huge disparity between numbers of young men and numbers of young women, due to the one-child policy and infanticide, it’s no wonder there’s unrest. I’ve said it before, millions of young men with absolutely NO chance of EVER getting laid breeds aggression and unrest. If the government can channel that into militancy, they probably will.


35 posted on 12/05/2008 10:11:15 AM PST by Hoffer Rand (There ARE two Americas: "God's children" and the tax payers)
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To: 17th Miss Regt
One solution is to launch a war of conquest. Lots of men go into the army (and out of unemployment), a lot may get killed, and a lot bring home foriegn women as wives. Production ramps up, too.

Look north, China. Lots of Lebensraum, oil and gas. And the Russian women are hot.

Couldn't happen to a more deserving Vampire Vlad.

36 posted on 12/05/2008 10:24:45 AM PST by Cheburashka (Democratic Underground: where PCP is not just for breakfast anymore.)
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To: noname07718

There 780 million pheasant farmers on roughly one acre plots although some have leased their land so larger farmers can farm more efficiently but that doesn’t amount to much. The government of China owns all land and only allot those small plots. In the past, farmers had to share their crop with the government but now, I understand, the farmers can keep and sell everything they grow.

The total arable land in China is approximately the same as the U.S. but here farms are large and efficient.


37 posted on 12/05/2008 10:56:38 AM PST by boxer21
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To: boxer21

“There 780 million pheasant farmers”

Man, that’s a heck of lot of game birds :)


38 posted on 12/05/2008 11:41:38 AM PST by -YYZ- (Strong like bull, smart like ox.)
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To: -YYZ-

Right; I guess I had my mind on my daughter who told me of her recent success hunting deer and “peasants.”


39 posted on 12/05/2008 12:41:39 PM PST by boxer21
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