Our religious faith gives us the answer to the false beliefs of Communism… I have the feeling that God has created us and brought us to our present position of power and strength for some great purpose.
- President Harry Truman
As Will Rogers put it so eloquently, Communism is like prohibition, it’s a good idea but it won’t work. These days there are only a few countries maintaining a political system they call communism, even though they are multiple dimensions away from Karl Marx’s ideal. The idea of communism is based on the assumption that everybody is equal, and in that respect it bares striking resemblance with the American constitution. The end result, though, is that communism, as it is practiced these days, is equivalent to oppression of the people, and China is a prime example. The human mind works primarily on principles of competition. Simply put, the harder you work the more money you make. More money means better lifestyle. It doesn’t work that way in China, unless you are one of the few privileged, those who are more equal than the rest, or you are in a position to use the millennium old bribery system. The people of China, however, are becoming increasingly educated and technology-savvy, mostly due to China’s rising economical power in the world.
The China Crisis is about the power of the people versus the communist system.
I am not a prophet, and I don’t claim I can predict the fall of the communist system in China in the near future. There are, however, an increasing number of reports of public unrest in various regions of the country. Yes, there have been many, much more competent sources than I watching the development in China for decades. My watch post is for my personal pleasure, and I take the liberty of sharing the information I gather.
Former Communist Officials in China Demand Media Freedom
New York Times. October 13, 2010
BEIJING — A group of retired Communist Party officials and intellectuals issued an unusually blunt demand on Tuesday for total media freedom in China, stating that the current regime of censorship and government control of the press violates China’s constitution and debases the government’s claim to represent its citizens. The document’s 20 signers, including academics and many former executives of China’s government-controlled press, have no public influence on the nation’s ruling coalition of Communist leaders. Some of them have issued other public demands for reform in past years, to no effect. Still, the bluntness of their message — and its timing, coming days after the jailed intellectual Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize — signaled that not all in the ruling establishment are content with the steadily tightening control over expression in the final years of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao’s leadership. Read the full article…
China Lashes Out Again at Nobel Award
New York Times, October 12, 2010
BEIJING — The Chinese government continued its vilification campaign against the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to a jailed dissident, Liu Xiaobo, by canceling another meeting with Norwegian officials and lambasting the award as an affront to the Chinese people and a ploy to try to change the country’s political system. “Some politicians from other countries are trying to use this opportunity to attack China,” Ma Zhaoxu, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, told reporters during a regularly scheduled news conference on Tuesday. He added that the prize, announced Friday, “shows disrespect for China’s judicial system” because the recipient is a convicted criminal. Read the full article…
U.S. Alarmed by Harsh Tone of China’s Military
New York Times, October 11, 2010
BEIJING — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates met his Chinese counterpart, Liang Guanglie, in Vietnam on Monday for the first time since the two militaries suspended talks with each other last winter, calling for the two countries to prevent “mistrust, miscalculations and mistakes.” His message seemed directed mainly at officers like Lt. Cmdr. Tony Cao of the Chinese Navy. Days before Mr. Gates arrived in Asia, Commander Cao was aboard a frigate in the Yellow Sea, conducting China’s first war games with the Australian Navy, exercises to which, he noted pointedly, the Americans were not invited. Read the full article…
China Investigates Extralegal Petitioner Detentions
New York Times, September 27, 2010
BEIJING — The system of interceptors and black jails has flourished in recent years as ordinary Chinese, frustrated by official malfeasance in their hometowns, flock to the capital in the belief that their problems might be solved if they can gain the ear of senior leaders. Studies have shown, however, that fewer than 2 percent of those who file petitions in Beijing have their problems resolved.
Although petitioning is allowed by Chinese law, it has become a barometer of civic harmony — one that can affect the careers of local officials.
Because the central government rewards or punishes officials based on their ability to maintain social stability, they are eager to catch petitioners before they can lodge their complaints.
Read the full article…
Resentment Simmers in Western Chinese Region
New York Times, September 4, 2010
URUMQI, China — Beneath the gloss and mercantile buzz of Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region, there is a palpable unease that neither tens of thousands of surveillance cameras nor the patrolling squads of black-shirted police officers can completely assuage.
Since July 2009, when rampaging Uighur mobs set upon Han Chinese with iron bars and bricks — a scene that was reversed for several days when Han vigilantes sought revenge — the Chinese authorities have arrested hundreds and tried to soothe frayed nerves with a $1.5 billion spending package, a change in local leadership and a barrage of uplifting slogans strung across public buses and highway overpasses.
Read the full article…
China requires ID to buy mobile phone numbers
Washington Post, September 1, 2010
BEIJING — China wants people who buy new cell phone numbers to register their personal details, joining many European and Asian countries in curbing the anonymous use of mobile technology.
Most countries that have such rules say they prevent the use of unregistered phones in terror attacks or drug crimes. In China, authorities say they have their sights on rampant junk messages – but some believe the government will use the new tool for monitoring its citizens.
Read the full article…
Blast Kills 7 in Restive Chinese Region
New York Times, August 19, 2010
HANGHAI — The police were investigating an explosion on Thursday that killed seven people and wounded 14 others in China’s restive, far western region of Xinjiang, the site of deadly ethnic riots last year.
The blast took place about 10:30 a.m. when an electric three-wheeled vehicle exploded on a bridge on the outskirts of Aksu, a city in northwestern Xinjiang, according to China’s state-run news agency, Xinhua. Most of those wounded were ethnic minorities.
Read the full article…
Chinese Hospitals Are Battlegrounds of Discontent
New York Times, August 11, 2010
SHENYANG, China — Over the past year, families of deceased patients have forced doctors to don mourning clothes as a sign of atonement for poor care, and organized protests to bar hospital entrances. Four years ago, 2,000 people rioted at a hospital after reports that a 3-year-old was refused treatment because his grandfather could not pay $82 in upfront fees. The child died.
Such episodes are to some extent standard fare in China, where protests over myriad issues have been on the rise. Officials at all levels of government are on guard against unrest that could spiral and threaten the Communist Party’s power.
But the violence also reflects much wider discontent with China’s public health care system.
Read the full article…
Chinese Factories Now Compete to Woo Laborers
New York Times, July 12, 2010
ZHONGSHAN, China — In recent months, as the country’s export-driven juggernaut has been revived and many migrants have found jobs closer to home, the balance of power in places like Zhongshan has shifted, forcing employers to compete for new workers — and to prevent seasoned ones from defecting to sweeter prospects.
The shortage has emboldened workers and inspired a spate of strikes in and around Zhongshan that paralyzed Honda’s Chinese operations last month. The unrest then spread to the northern city of Tianjin, where strikers briefly paralyzed production at a Toyota car plant and a Japanese-owned electronics factory.
Read the full article…
Author Is Threatened Over Book on Chinese Premier
New York Times, July 6, 2010
BEIJING — A bestselling Chinese author and democracy activist who was detained by security agents on Monday says the agents threatened to imprison him should he proceed with plans to publish a book criticizing Wen Jiabao, China’s premier.
The author, Yu Jie, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday that he still intends to publish the book, titled “China’s Best Actor: Wen Jiabao,” by autumn. Because Mr. Yu’s works are banned in mainland China, he said, he is negotiating with a Hong Kong publisher.
Mr. Yu, 36, said he was questioned for four hours on Monday by police officers and agents of Beijing’s public security bureau who specialize in dealing with political dissidents. One security agent “told me that Wen Jiabao is not some ordinary guy,” he said, “and my criticism against him will be considered as harming state security and the national interest.”
Read the full article…
Xinjiang riots: one year on, Uighur and Han fears still run deep
guardian.co.uk, July 5, 2010
Armed police are patrolling Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, in advance of the anniversary of China’s worst riots for decades. The region has recruited 5,000 extra security personnel , installed 40,000 riot-proof surveillance cameras and held special drills. The security budget has almost doubled to 2.9bn yuan (£281m) this year.
Tohti spent more than a month in detention following last July’s unrest. The region’s governor alleged “inflammatory propaganda” was spread via his website, although others described it as a “gentle and rational” forum for discussion.
While the 46-year-old condemns the violence as a tragedy, his concern is for the future and the impact of the government’s 10bn yuan pledge to ensure stability in the region through rapid, “leapfrog”, economic development. China’s president, Hu Jintao, has said the main source of conflicts is, as elsewhere in China, a mix of economic aspiration and underdevelopment.
Read the full article…
TV matchmaking show runs afoul of China’s morality campaign
Washington Post, July 5, 2010
The censorship is the latest and most public example of the government’s new crackdown on vice and perceived immorality. It comes even as China becomes more freewheeling and open, with people increasingly pushing the boundaries in matters involving taste, sex and money — and the intersection of the three.
In April, public security police in Beijing launched a “hard strike” campaign against prostitution, shutting down 33 entertainment venues — karaoke bars, massage parlors and nightclubs — said to be fronts for sex workers. The goal of the ongoing campaign is to “eradicate all social evils” and “advocate a healthy, civilized and high-minded lifestyle,” a police spokesman said.
Read the full article…
Workers in China grasp the power of the strike
guardian.co.uk, July 4, 2010
Industrial action does not get much lower key than this, nor does it get much more significant. The Denso strike was reported across the world because it took place on the frontline between global labour and global capital: workers in the workshop of the world had downed tools – and won.
For almost three decades, the world’s biggest corporations have outsourced an increasing share of their manufacturing operations to China, where they can benefit from cheap labour and lax regulation. In rich nations this has helped to keep consumer prices low and corporate profits high. In China it has meant workers having to endure a worsening environment, tough conditions and wage rises that have failed to keep pace with economic growth.
Read the full article…
As China Aids Labor, Unrest Is Still Rising
New York Times, June 20, 2010
BEIJING — On a hot morning in late May, while some 2,000 workers at a Honda parts factory were striking in China’s south, 100 irate employees at a hotel in the heart of the capital staged their own protest.
The Honda workers got lots of publicity. The hotel employees were mostly ignored. But the undercurrent was the same: labor disputes are becoming a common feature of the Chinese economic landscape.
Chinese workers are much more willing these days to defend their rights and demand higher wages, encouraged by recent policies from the central government aimed at protecting laborers and closing the income gap. Chinese leaders dread even the hint of Solidarity-style labor activism. But they have moved to empower workers by pushing through labor laws that signaled that central authorities would no longer tolerate poor workplace conditions, legal scholars and Chinese labor experts say.
Read the full article…
Walkout Closes Another Toyota Supplier in China
New York Times, June 18, 2010
TOKYO — Workers at an auto parts factory in Tianjin, China, run by a Chinese subsidiary of Toyoda Gosei, which is 42 percent owned by Toyota Motor, went on strike Thursday and have not returned to their jobs, a Toyoda Gosei spokesman said Friday.
The factory, one of two run by Tianjin Toyoda Gosei, produces plastic parts for a FAW assembly plant operated by Toyota in Tianjin. It has been closed since Thursday morning, when some of the company’s 1,700 workers staged a walkout, the spokesman, Shingo Handa, said. Tianjin Toyoda Gosei’s other factory in the city, as well as its six other plants across China, are operating normally, Mr. Handa said.
Talks are under way between the company and the striking workers in Tianjin, who are demanding higher pay, Mr. Handa said. It is unclear when production will resume, he said.
Read the full article…
In China, Labor Movement Enabled by Technology
New York Times, June 16, 2010
ZHONGSHAN, China — It is labor revolt by text message and video upload, underwritten by the Chinese government. The 1,700 workers who went on strike at the Honda Lock auto parts factory here are mostly poor migrants with middle-school educations. But they are surprisingly tech-savvy. Hours into a strike that began last week, they started posting detailed accounts of the walkout online, spreading word not only among themselves but also to restive and striking workers elsewhere in China. They fired off cellphone text messagesurging colleagues to resist pressure from factory bosses. They logged onto a state-controlled Web site —workercn.cn — that is emerging as a digital hub of the Chinese labor movement. And armed with desktop computers, they uploaded video of Honda Lock’s security guards roughing up employees.
Read the full article…
China Labor — the Pure Shame of It
HuffingtonPost.com, June 15, 2010
This is an incredibly fragile moment in Chinese labor history with implications not just for Chinese workers but for America as well. China could be on the cusp of a new movement that markedly improves the lives of its workers, or the world could see this movement wither through a lack of organizing expertise or because of government crackdown. While we need to be realistic about our own ability to impact any outcomes in China – and very sensitive to the fact that even our indirect involvement could result in the opposite of our intended outcome – I am eager to see the American labor movement smartly and creatively provide all the help to China’s workers that it can responsibly offer. And I look forward to their positive results.
Read the full article…
In China, Unlikely Labor Leader Just Wanted a Middle-Class Life
New York Times, June 13, 2010
SHANGHAI — Tan Guocheng is hardly a self-styled labor leader. Age 23 and introverted, he grew up among rice paddies and orange groves far from China’s big factory towns.
But last month, an hour into his shift at a Honda factory in the southern city of Foshan, Mr. Tan pressed an emergency button that shut down his production line.
“Let’s go out on strike!” he shouted. Within minutes, hundreds of workers were abandoning their posts.
Colleagues described Mr. Tan’s leadership as an uncharacteristic act of courage; Mr. Tan said he simply wanted a pay raise. Regardless, he has helped touch off a wave of strikes at Honda plants and other workplaces in China that are still playing out in surprising and significant ways.
Read the full article…
Chinese Strikers Win, but Unity Crumbles
New York Times, June 13, 2010
ZHONGSHAN, China — Striking workers at a Honda auto parts factory here in southeastern China have won higher wages — but not necessarily for themselves. Factory managers began hiring a steady stream of replacement workers on Sunday, and a significant number of strikers went back to work after increases in wages and benefits, even as many others remained on strike.
The 20 or so members of the factory’s new council of workers, chosen by the workers to represent them when the strike began on Wednesday morning, went into hiding on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, fearing retaliation by the local authorities.
Read the full article…
A Labor Movement Stirs in China
New York Times, June 10, 2010
ZHONGSHAN, China — Striking workers at a Honda auto parts plant here are demanding the right to form their own labor union, something officially forbidden in China, and held a protest march Friday morning. Meanwhile, other scattered strikes have begun to ripple into Chinese provinces previously untouched by the labor unrest. A near doubling of wages is the primary goal of the approximately 1,700 Honda workers on strike here in this southeastern China city, at the third Honda auto parts factory to face a work stoppage in the last two weeks.
A chanting but nonviolent crowd of workers gathered outside the factory gates on Friday morning and held a short protest march before dissolving into a large group of milling young workers who filled the two-lane road for more than a block outside the factory.
Read the full article…
