Saturday, September 8, 2007

Preparations for the Party

Next month is the 17th national congress of the Communist Party of China.

Already the domestic media are toning down criticism, especially on things like toy recalls and food safety.

And the police are going to be busy for the next month.

Police chief Zhou Yongkan says the Chinese police will intensify its crackdown on "hostile forces and evil cults."

According to a Xinhua story:

"All police should strengthen information collecting work to closely monitor and strike hard on overseas and domestic hostile forces, ethnic splittists, religious extremists, violent terrorists and the Falun Gong cult so as to safeguard national security and social stability," Zhou, minister of public security, told a police meeting.

He warned "the country was going through a period of outstanding disputes among the people, increased crime rates and complex struggles against hostile forces".

Many uncertainties remain, Zhou said, adding that it was "an arduous task to maintain social harmony" although he acknowledged that the overall social and economic development situation was largely favorable.

It is important for police to secure the state at all times. But making this announcement at this particular time is interesting.

Although Zhou says "domestic hostile forces" are extremists and the Falun Gong, one of the real threats to a "harmonious society" is the income gap.

The rich are getting obnoxiously richer and the poor barely surviving on meagre salaries. It's creating a class system with prejudices attached.

While the government has started addressing the needs of the disadvantaged, the actual measures are just a few drops in the bucket.

More needs to be done to ease the anger and frustration to prevent them from boiling over. Soon.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

there is an old saying:' fear not of poverty, only be fearful of inequality'. so long as everybody is poor there will be peace as people suffer together. the best example is during the 25000 li long march when everything is scarce, it will only strengthen the determination to survive and achieve a common ideal. now china is developed becoming richer. but if there is inequality and a widening gap between the rich and the poor, it possible a growing undercurrent is trying to achieve equality. that is the root of revolution, violence and crime.