Show us the money
Maureen Fen, writing in The Washington Post, finds evidence of continued skepticism and dissatisfaction among Chinese farmers in spite of announced reforms.In Southeast China, Skepticism on Land Reforms
"More than 1,300 soldiers and riot police massed on a verdant ridge here in southeastern China earlier this month, facing off against a nearly equal number of angry farmers protesting plans to build a massive plastics factory on their land.
"Tens of thousands of such standoffs take place each year in China, and they reflect the Communist Party's greatest fear: social and economic instability. Six days after the demonstration in the village of Hebu, the Chinese government announced reform measures that, at their core, are designed to curb demonstrations of rural unrest...
"But here in the rice-and-corn-growing region of Guangdong province, where tensions are still running high weeks after the protest, farmers say the changes do not address their main grievance: corruption, much of it directed by local party officials far below the radar of the central government in Beijing...
"Guangdong province is where the economic reforms that led to the dismantling of communes first took root during the 1980s. But in the intervening years, the wealth gap has widened between the cities, where a prosperous middle class is taking shape, and the countryside, whose peasants were at the heart of the Chinese revolution...
"Behind the protests is a backdrop of anger shared by many of China's nearly 800 million farmers, who have been bypassed by the country's explosive economic growth. Even with a recent slowdown, growth in China's gross domestic product is at 9 percent, a rate other nations can only envy..."
Labels: China, cleavages, economics, politics
posted by Ken Wedding @ 6:19 AM
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