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A wave of violent unrest in urban areas of China over the past three weeks is testing the Communist Party's efforts to maintain control over an increasingly complex and fractious society, forcing it to repeatedly deploy its massive security forces to contain public anger over economic and political grievances. The simultaneous challenge to social order in several cities from the industrial north to the export-oriented south represents a new threat for China's leaders in the politically sensitive run-up to a once-a-decade leadership change next year, even though for now the violence doesn't appear to be coordinated.
In the latest disturbance, armed police were struggling to restore order in a manufacturing town in southern China Monday after deploying tear gas and armored vehicles against hundreds of migrant workers who overturned police cars, smashed windows and torched government buildings there the night before. The protests, which began Friday night in Zengcheng, in the southern province of Guangdong, followed serious rioting in another city in central China last week, plus bomb attacks on government facilities in two other cities in the past three weeks, and ethnic unrest in the northern region of Inner Mongolia last month.
Antigovernment protests have become increasingly common in China in recent years, according to the government's own figures, but they have been mainly confined to rural areas, often where farmers have been thrown off their land by property developers and local officials. The latest unrest, by contrast, involves violent protests from individuals and large crowds in China's cities, where public anger is growing over issues including corruption and police abuses.
There is no evidence to suggest the recent violence is part of a coordinated movementthe party's greatest fearnor do the events threaten its grip on power given the strength of China's security apparatus, and its booming economy, analysts say. They are nonetheless troubling for China's government which, unnerved by unrest in the Arab world, has detained dozens of dissidents since appeals for a "Jasmine Revolution" in China began circulating online in February. The Mideast uprisings so far haven't inspired similar mass protests in China.
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Dey's riotin' in China...
Wave of Unrest Rocks China
JUNE 14, 2011 - Threats to Social Order Increasingly Hit Cities, Bringing Iron-Fist Response
A wave of violent unrest in urban areas of China over the past three weeks is testing the Communist Party's efforts to maintain control over an increasingly complex and fractious society, forcing it to repeatedly deploy its massive security forces to contain public anger over economic and political grievances. The simultaneous challenge to social order in several cities from the industrial north to the export-oriented south represents a new threat for China's leaders in the politically sensitive run-up to a once-a-decade leadership change next year, even though for now the violence doesn't appear to be coordinated.
In the latest disturbance, armed police were struggling to restore order in a manufacturing town in southern China Monday after deploying tear gas and armored vehicles against hundreds of migrant workers who overturned police cars, smashed windows and torched government buildings there the night before. The protests, which began Friday night in Zengcheng, in the southern province of Guangdong, followed serious rioting in another city in central China last week, plus bomb attacks on government facilities in two other cities in the past three weeks, and ethnic unrest in the northern region of Inner Mongolia last month.
Antigovernment protests have become increasingly common in China in recent years, according to the government's own figures, but they have been mainly confined to rural areas, often where farmers have been thrown off their land by property developers and local officials. The latest unrest, by contrast, involves violent protests from individuals and large crowds in China's cities, where public anger is growing over issues including corruption and police abuses.
There is no evidence to suggest the recent violence is part of a coordinated movementthe party's greatest fearnor do the events threaten its grip on power given the strength of China's security apparatus, and its booming economy, analysts say. They are nonetheless troubling for China's government which, unnerved by unrest in the Arab world, has detained dozens of dissidents since appeals for a "Jasmine Revolution" in China began circulating online in February. The Mideast uprisings so far haven't inspired similar mass protests in China.
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The unrest in Taizhou broke out on Tuesday after the head of a local village government got into a physical confrontation with a gas station employees during negotiations over land compensation fees the gas station’s owner was to pay villagers, the reports said. Within hours, hundreds of fellow residents of Rishanfen Village had surrounded the gas station, blocked an adjacent airport expressway, and seized the man who had struck the village head, said the eyewitness owner of a nearby garment factory.
Riot police then deployed, leading to scuffles with villagers, said the factory owner, who declined to be identified by name for fear of repercussions. -Reinforcements arrived on Wednesday and officers detained about a dozen people, including the village chief, other village officials and anyone found with images of the protest on their mobile phones, the man said. Calls to police and government offices in Taizhou rang unanswered or were answered by people who said they had no information about the protests and declined to give their names. As with many of the protests across China, the Taizhou incident appears rooted in disagreements over compensation to villagers for land seized for development.
The Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said villagers, hard pressed by soaring inflation, had been hoping for an increase in payments from businesses in the local industrial park, including the gas station. The factory owner, however, said many believed that compensation offered by the gas station had been embezzled by the former head of Rishanfen, who is now the local Communist Party secretary — a much more powerful position. The incident was the third large-scale outburst of unrest in recent days.
Police arrested at least 25 people following weekend rioting in Xintang, Guangdong Province, where security forces clashed with migrant workers from Sichuan Province Last week, residents of Lichuan in Hubei Province laid siege to government offices following the death in custody of a local city council member. A number of local government officials have been fired or placed under investigation over the death in an attempt to appease public anger. Though the triggers are different, most such events are driven by resentments over social inequality, abuse of power and suppression of grievances.
East China sees new unrest - Taipei Times
China has closed Tibet to foreigners ahead of the 90th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party on July 1, travel agents said yesterday. China, sensitive to instability or any other perceived threat to one-party rule, is wary of foreigners in its ethnic border areas, which it calls “autonomous regions,” especially ahead of politically charged anniversaries. “It’s a new rule because of the 90th anniversary celebration,” a travel agent at a major Western hotel in Tibet’s capital, Lhasa, said, requesting anonymity. “Even with a tour group, foreigners cannot come.”
A Beijing-based travel agency said it was notified months ago that foreigners would not be allowed in Tibet next month, but hoped that the restriction would be eased in time for important Tibetan festivals in August. “We had to make a lot of -cancellations, but we don’t know the reasons behind it. Perhaps it has to do with something political,” the Beijing-based travel agent said by telephone. “We are disappointed because we lost a lot of money. We just have to tell clients we are sorry,” the agent said.
Last month, Beijing told foreigners not to sow unrest in its vast northern region of Inner Mongolia, after rare protests by ethnic Mongolians sparked by the hit-and-run death of a herder garnered international attention. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu has said people overseas had an “ulterior motive” and were trying to use the incident “to cause trouble.” Foreigners always need permission to travel to Tibet, but the government periodically places Tibetan areas out of bounds.
In April, it banned foreigners from ethnically Tibetan parts of neighboring Sichuan Province, where exiled Tibetans and activists say authorities locked down a Tibetan Buddhist monastery after a young monk burned himself to death. Many Tibetans chafe at Beijing rule amid fears of an influx of Han Chinese diluting the Tibetan population.
However, Tibet governor Padma Choling, pointing to 18 years of double-digit economic growth ahead of the 60th anniversary of Chinese rule over the region, last month said that Chinese rule had rescued Tibet from thousands of years of feudal serfdom. Chinese troops marched into Tibet in 1950 and the Himalayan region’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama fled to India nine years later after a failed uprising.
China closes Tibet to foreigners - Taipei Times
Select gathering
The main thrust of President Hu Jintaos 90-minute long speech was that the Communist Party must adapt to a changing nation and changing world if it is to continue its uncontested rule. Speaking before a select gathering of the Partys ruling elite, Hu said without continued fast economic development and social stability, the achievements of the past two decades will be lost. He warned that acts of corruption by party members who hold political office could cause the public to lose trust. Hu urged the party to strive to eradicate corruption and to create what he described as a "clean government".
High security costs
Government figures released earlier this year indicate some $95 billion is spent on police, jails, state security and other internal security services. That figure exceeds the amount the government says it spends on the military. Earlier this year, Internet postings in China for a Jasmine-style revolution similar to movements in the Middle East and North Africa were firmly put down by authorities. Chinese security forces have cracked down on dissenting voices, resulting in international condemnation for what is perceived as heavy-handed tactics.
Positive spin
In Beijing and other cities across the nation Friday, the Communist Party was celebrated in pageantry events in schools, offices and in shopping centers. Like his predecessors, President Hu focused largely on the positive history of the Communist Party in China, ignoring those killed in the 1950s Great Leap Forward, the 1960s Cultural Revolution and the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre of pro-democracy protesters.
The president referenced these pivotal moments in the Partys history by saying that in the past, it has made mistakes and suffered setbacks. But he says the Party learned from them and today is leading the Chinese to what he says is a victorious future. He did not mention specifics of any kind of substantive political reform. Instead, Hu said that after 90 years, there was only one fundamental conclusion - that only the Communist Party can properly govern China. President Hu is to stand down next year. His expected unelected successor, Vice President Xi Jiping, gave a short speech praising model Party members.
Source
In a statement following the closed-door talks, the White House said Mr. Obama talked of the need for direct dialogue between the Dalai Lama's representatives and the Chinese government to resolve differences. It said the president also reiterated the U.S. policy that Tibet is a part of China. China sharply criticized the United States following the talks, saying that the meeting interfered in China's internal affairs, hurt the feelings of the Chinese people, and damaged U.S.-China relations.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman demanded the United States seriously consider China's stance and stop supporting what he called "anti-China separatist forces." China accuses the Dalai Lama of advocating Tibet's secession from China, a charge the Dalai Lama denies. The White House announced the meeting between the two Nobel Peace Prize winners Friday at the end of the Dalai Lama's nearly two-week visit to the U.S. capital.
Mr. Obama last met the Dalai Lama in 2010 at the White House in a low-key meeting that also angered China. Beijing has been warning the U.S. for more than a week not to hold official meetings with the Dalai Lama. Earlier this week, the Dalai Lama told VOA he would be very happy to meet with President Obama if given the opportunity. But he said his main reason for being in the United States is to give Buddhist teachings.
The Dalai Lama is in Washington for the 11-day Kalachakra ritual, the first time the ritual has been held in the U.S. capital. The days of meditation and teachings aim to inspire inner peace as a means of reducing conflict around the world. Although he formally retired from politics earlier this year, the Tibetan spiritual leader also met with officials at the State Department and with political leaders during his stay. This is the Dalai Lama's first trip to the United States since he stepped down as the political leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
Watch the Dalai Lama's recent interview with VOA
The Chinese foreign ministry warned the Dalai Lama Monday that only Beijing can approve his successor. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei says any decision by the Dalai Lama to appoint a successor through traditional reincarnation would break Chinese law. He insists that China endorses a policy of religious freedom including respecting and protecting succession in Tibetan Buddhism leadership. But Hong stresses China's historical claim to its rule over Tibet and says the title of Dalai Lama is only conferred by the central government in Beijing and is illegal otherwise. The Dalai Lama formally stepped down as the head of the Tibetan government-in-exile in July, when Harvard-trained scholar Lobsang Sangay was sworn in as the new political leader.
On Saturday, the Dalai Lama said he will decide when he is about 90 years of age if he will be reincarnated. Traditionally, Tibetan monks identify a boy who shows signs he is a reincarnation of a late leader. The 14th Dalai Lama says he will set clear guidelines to recognize the next leader while he was still physically and mentally fit to do. He says this will ensure there is no room for what he describes as deception. The Dalai Lama set out his plan after a gathering of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism in the northern Indian town, Dharamsala. where the Tibetan government sits in exile following China's military invasion and occupation in 1950.
The former prime minister of the exiled Tibetan government, Samdhong Rinpioche, says the meeting is discussing even if the Dalai Lama, as an institution, should continue. "During this congregation, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama had conferred with the heads of religious traditions regarding his interim declaration about whether it is necessary to continue the reincarnation of Dalai Lama institution after the 14th," explained the former prime minister. "As he had announced as early as 1969 whether the Dalai Lama institution should continue or not, will be decided by the Tibetan People and His Holiness' position still continued."
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The aftershocksfrom the sacking last week of a powerful Communist Party secretary are still rattling China, injecting an element of turmoil into a transition the government had hoped would showcase the stability of its political system. State media reported this week that 3,300 party cadres from the security apparatus would be sent to Beijing for ideological retraining. The order was unusual enough, but even more so was the fact that the report omitted mention of internal security czar Zhou Yongkang, who heads the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee that is recalling the cadres.
Zhou, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and until now one of the most powerful men in China, had been the committee's strongest backer of Bo Xilai, the Communist Party secretary of Chongqing who was removed from his post last week. Some overseas Chinese-language Internet sites carried wild (and unsubstantiated) rumors that Zhou and Bo, a popular figure among Maoist traditionalists, had tried to stage a coup. A level of edginess was apparent this week in the unusually large security presence in central Beijing, complete with armed SWAT teams in some subway stations.
Jin Zhong, a veteran political analyst based in Hong Kong, dismissed the more fantastic rumors, while acknowledging the underlying tension between economic reformers and Maoist traditionalists. "It hasn't reached the point where you are going to hear gunshots. It is not like when China arrested the Gang of Four in 1976, but there is a very strong conflict going on," Jin said.
Zhou had been a strong supporter of Bo's law-and-order campaigns in Chongqing, where thousands were swept up in a gang-busting dragnet and retirees had been gathering in a public park for now-banned patriotic singing and dancing. According to Jin, Zhou made several visits to the Chongqing delegation at the recently concluded National People's Congress, fighting for Bo's political future until the very end. Like most of China's senior leaders, the 70-year-old Zhou is due to retire at the 18th party congress in October. Until recently, Bo was thought to be a likely replacement. Jin said he doubted that Zhou would be removed from the Standing Committee because he is already set to leave. "They won't touch anybody on the Standing Committee before the congress. It is too risky. They've put in a big effort trying to present a picture of stability," Jin said.
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Are you going to start talking about Chinese universities and force me to correct you again?
Are you going to start talking about Chinese universities and force me to correct you again?
I rely on those Chinese nationals who lived all their lives in China, as Chinese people, not you. Sorry. I would very much like to find your views solidly formed but they digress too far from what I am told by the Chinese.
Are you going to start talking about Chinese universities and force me to correct you again?
I rely on those Chinese nationals who lived all their lives in China, as Chinese people, not you. Sorry. I would very much like to find your views solidly formed but they digress too far from what I am told by the Chinese.
You are wrong and don't care enough to inform yourself. Ignorance is not something to cling to proudly.
http://www.usmessageboard.com/education/214674-college-in-china.html
I rely on those Chinese nationals who lived all their lives in China, as Chinese people, not you. Sorry. I would very much like to find your views solidly formed but they digress too far from what I am told by the Chinese.
You are wrong and don't care enough to inform yourself. Ignorance is not something to cling to proudly.
http://www.usmessageboard.com/education/214674-college-in-china.html
No. What you are saying is that people born and raised in China are wrong, their parents are wrong and possibly their grandparents are wrong too. Instead, I can rely on an article from someplace and what you say. I have never been to China. I expect that people who have lived there all their lives, for generations know more than I do or what you do for that matter.
As I said before, they great weight of evidence is toward the numerous Chinese nationals that I know and they don't agree with you.
His comment on Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblogging site, was reposted 20,000 times and drew 3,000 comments, including this riposte: "We wouldn't just know the night before, we would know five years ahead of time." Followed with equal avidity online were Hong Kong's recent, albeit restricted election for chief executive and the ouster of a powerful Communist Party official, Bo Xilai, the latter prompting tens of thousands of comments and reposts. That such high-level, behind-the-scenes political maneuvering made it into the media light of day, let alone be openly chewed over by the citizenry, would have been unthinkable a few years ago.
"The Internet has changed everything," said Hongkai Tan, chief commentator at the English-language China Daily, at a lunchtime gathering I attended at a Beijing restaurant 10 days ago. "There are attempts to control it" - like a government regulation imposed last month requiring microblog users to register with their real name - "but it can't be done," he said. Proximity to Hong Kong has been another factor. The government's initial news blackout of December's protests in the fishing village of Wukan against corrupt land deals was overcome in part by Hong Kong television broadcasts that could be picked up on the mainland.
"This exposure to a free press gave the (insurgent) village representatives an extra edge in media relations, allowing villagers to neatly guide any debate back to the corruption of village officials," noted NewsChina, the English-language edition of China Newsweek, published in Beijing. It also led to an unprecedented changing of the guard, with the officials being ousted by the insurgents in a subsequent secret-ballot election, as even state-controlled media noted. Hong Kong could have even more influence if the Chinese government follows through on an agreement that its next leadership election, in 2017, be of the one person-one vote variety, rather than by a committee of 1,100 members of Hong Kong's elite.
To speak of a "China spring" would be premature at best, however. Last month, a similar protest in another province was quickly squelched, as have numerous others in the recent past, many of which go unreported or are blacked out by government censors. Limits: "The government still puts an incredible amount of money and resources into stopping the flow," said Sophie Beach, editor of China Digital Times, a bilingual website in Berkeley that provides links to news and views from China often not found in the country's mainstream media. Censorship remains rife - Sina Weibo is regularly ordered to take posts down. And self-censorship still occurs at newspapers and Internet sites, aware that the government is looking over their shoulders. "The government is especially careful to prevent the Internet from being used as an organizing tool," said Beach.
Surveillance systems, ostensibly for crime prevention (though human rights activists suspect otherwise), are one of China's biggest businesses. Last year, San Jose's Cisco Systems was awarded the contract to provide networking equipment for 500,000 surveillance cameras being installed in Chongqing (population: 32 million), as part of the city's "Peaceful Chongqing" initiative. A Cisco spokesman said at the time the contract was part of broader deal "to provide a 'city cloud' infrastructure for a green and sustainable city platform."
Read more: Change in China steadily wrought by Internet
Two officials from the Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco have written to the mayor of Corvallis about the mural and last week visited the town to lodge a formal complaint. As you are aware, the First Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees freedom of speech in this country and this includes freedom of artistic expression, Corvallis Mayor Julie Manning has told them. She has refused to do anything about the 3m by 30m mural, which was painted last month on the wall of an old building by Taiwanese-born artist Chao Tsung-song. The vividly colored mural was commissioned by the buildings owner, Taiwanese-born David Lin, who is determined to leave it there.
It depicts images of Taiwan as a bulwark of freedom, Chinese riot police beating Tibetan demonstrators and Buddhist monks setting themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule. The wall on which the mural has been painted is part of a building being redeveloped by Lin as a restaurant. There is only one China in the world and both Tibet and Taiwan are parts of China, the letter to Manning from the Chinese Consulate General said. To avoid our precious friendship from being tainted by so-called Tibet independence and Taiwan independence we sincerely hope you can understand our concerns and adopt effective measures to stop the activities advocating Tibet independence and Taiwan independence in Corvallis.
After Manning replied saying that she had no authority to regulate art and could do nothing about the mural, Vice Consul Zhang Hao and Deputy Consul General Song Ruan visited the town last week. The two officials met with Manning and City Manager Jim Patterson. Patterson later told the Corvallis Gazette-Times: They expressed their concern and the concern of the Chinese government about the mural on Mr Lins building. They viewed the message as political propaganda. After making it clear that the city could not and would not order the murals removal, Manning and Patterson agreed to pass on Beijings concern to Lin. We also had a conversation with them about the US Constitution, Patterson said. The Taipei Times was unable to reach officials for comment at the Chinese embassy in Washington or the consulate in San Francisco.
Lin told the Corvallis Gazette-Times that no representatives of the Chinese government had contacted him directly. However, he said that friends and family were concerned they might face some form of retaliation if they visited China. I am under a lot of pressure to take down the mural, but have no plans to do anything of the sort, he said. Ill just keep it the same, Ive got to live my life, thats all. Lin was born and raised in Taiwan and went to the US in the 1970s. He said that he was a strong supporter of a free Tibet and an independent Taiwan.
US mayor lectures Chinese official on freedom of speech - Taipei Times
The forced eviction of residents from their homes and farmland has quickened over the past three years, human rights group Amnesty International said in a report issued Thursday. Evictions make up the leading cause of protests here, especially in the countryside. Homeowners have been risking violence and jail to prevent their ouster and protest the often inadequate compensation offered by developers and officials. "Millions of people" have been evicted "without appropriate legal protection and safeguards," and often with violence, Amnesty said. "The problem of forced evictions represents the single most significant source of popular discontent in China and a serious threat to social and political stability," said the group, citing Chinese academic research.
An increasing number of those being evicted have turned to self-immolation as a desperate protest of last resort. In a recent example, police in northeast China last month shot and killed a man who had set himself on fire while resisting a demolition crew. The official explanation from police was that the officer had acted in self-defense. Forced eviction "has become a routine occurrence in China and represents a gross violation of China's international human rights obligations on an enormous scale," said the Amnesty report 'Standing Their Ground,' which looked at evictions from February 2010 to January 2012. Violent forced evictions are increasing as local authorities, often highly indebted, seize land and sell it off to developers to meet bank repayments for funds borrowed to finance projects, Amnesty said.
Income from the sale of land rights to developers represents local governments' single largest source of revenue. And officials looking for promotion also rely on developing land to deliver the high growth rates their superiors demand, the group said. Of 40 forced evictions Amnesty examined in detail, nine culminated in the deaths of people protesting or resisting eviction, including Wang Cuiyan, 70, who was buried alive in March 2010 when resisting a demolition crew at her house in Wuhan city, Hubei Province. Amnesty said it found 41 cases from 2009-2011 of people lighting themselves on fire to protest evictions, compared with fewer than 10 cases reported in the previous decade.
Former homeowner Hu Cheng understands the level of desperation that provokes such extreme steps. Since his apartment in the southwest city of Chongqing was demolished in December 2010, Hu has been detained by police several times and beaten twice he says for trying to sue local government for a higher rate of compensation. "I think the central government is good, and so is their white paper on judicial reform, but they don't know what goes on in local areas" which are very corrupt, said Hu, 40. Uniformed and plainclothes police now watch his rented apartment, he said. "If there's really no way to continue, I will go to the city government and set myself on fire," Hu said.
More China evictions increase, leading to more unrest
Furious villagers in eastern China are demanding the closure of a new stone quarry after it turned their river completely white. Residents in Aodi, Zhejiang province, say the river is now so heavily polluted that they can't use it for drinking water for their livestock, nor are they able to water their crops. They say that since the quarry opened a few years ago, the water regularly turns white, as the quarry bosses use the river to drain away residue caused by blast-cleaning white stones, which are cut from pits beside the river. One local resident told reporters: 'Our animals can't drink it, it poisons the fields and we can't even wash our clothes in it. We want this quarry closed now.'
It is just one of a number of rising concerns about water in China - it is not the first time rivers have taken on different hues - and there are regularly reports of everything from pollutants to dead bodies found in waters used for cleaning and drinking. Last month a milky white river in Jiangsu city turned white, and included a bad smell. The reasons for the colour change is still not known - but researchers discovered that there are now no living animals reported to be found in the 10 meter wide body of water. There were reports in July of how a natural latex polluted more than a mile of the Quxi River in China’s Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province. The river also turned into a 'river of milk', which is blamed on a local latex company in the region.
Resident Xiao Wu said: 'Only yesterday, I was doing my laundry in the river, and yet this morning it’s turned completely white, as though somebody poured milk into it.' This also follows a case of an orange river in Jiaxing city created by excessive iron ions in the water last March. Last month, the residents of Chongqing woke up to find the Yangtze river, which runs through the city in south-western China, coloured a bright shade of orange-red. While officials investigate the cause of the colouring, one fisherman went about his daily business as if nothing had happened. Others were so amazed that they collected samples in water bottles.
Although the cause is yet to be determined, it is not the first time a river has turned red in China. Last December, the Jian River in the city of Luoyang, in the north Henan province, turned red after becoming polluted by a powerful dye. The dye was being dumped into the city's storm drain network by two illegal dye workshops. Officials raided the factories to shut them down, and then disassembled their machinery. According to chapter 16, verse 4 of the Bible's book of Revelations, one of the signs that Armageddon is near will be an angel pouring a bowl into the rivers, turning them into blood.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...r-mysteriously-turns-white.html#ixzz2912IVOTe
Chinese citizens have become far more concerned about domestic quality-of-life issues over the past four years, the Pew Global Attitudes Project report on attitudes in China found. The new attitudes highlight the challenges China's new leadership will face when it assumes power in a once-in-a-decade transition next month. China's runaway growth in recent decades has led to a yawning gap between rich and poor and worsening pollution. The Communist Party has said repeatedly that pervasive corruption threatens its hold on power.
Most Chinese say they are better off financially, according to the Pew survey, but inflation remains their top concern, with 60 percent saying it's a "very big problem," though that figure was down from 72 percent in 2008. Half of the respondents said corrupt officials are a major problem, up from 39 percent four years ago. The gap between rich and poor was the third biggest concern, with 48 percent of respondents citing it, up from 41 percent in 2008. Concerns over the safety of food and medicine have increased the most. In 2008, 12 percent said food safety was a major problem; this time, after numerous food scandals involving products from baby powder to pork, the number more than tripled to 41 percent.
Quality of life issues are coming to the foreground in China as average incomes rise and leisure time increases, said Steve Tsang, a professor of contemporary Chinese studies at the University of Nottingham, who wasn't connected to the survey. "People have to live with them on a daily basis," he said. "When one was too busy making a living to get bothered by them in the past, less attention was paid to them. Now that the overall standard of living has improved and individuals have more scope to slow down and reflect a bit, the poor quality of life becomes more of an issue."
The survey released Tuesday indicated a small increase in the embrace of U.S. democratic ideas - up to 52 percent, from 48 percent in 2007 - though it was unclear whether that reflected a real increase, because the difference was smaller than the poll's margin of error. A decrease in the number of people rejecting American democratic thought was more dramatic, down to 29 percent from 36 percent in 2007.
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