The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday that the biggest challenge facing the Chinese government is the social unrest that will result from the failure of China's political system to resolve growing social inequity in that country.
MAC Vice Chairman Johnnason Liu (
Liu said statistics show that there were 74,000 protests in China last year, 17 of which involved more than 10,000 people, while 46 drew crowds of more than 5,000 and 120 had more than 1,000 people. Direct economic losses caused from these protests ranged from 34 billion yuan to 40 billion yuan (US$3.7 million to US$4.9 million).
Liu said the main reason so many Chinese are launching protests against their government is that China's political system, lacking democracy, lacks the necessary laws and regulations to protect its people's rights.
Taking the Chinese measure of expropriating rural land, for example, Liu said that there have been about 40 million people who have lost their land.
While the number of landless people has been increasing at a rate of 2 million people per year, the Chinese government is incapable of helping these people, the council said.
According to a report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, there are 9 million job vacancies for 24 million jobless, showing that unemployment is a huge problem, the council said.
Liu said that the experience of other countries shows that social unrest often intensifies when a country experiences its initial economic development -- as its GDP increases from US$1,000 to US$3,000 -- accompanied by income inequality, unemployment and moral disorder. He said China is at this stage now.
Liu said that while the stage could be a golden period in development, it could also be a period that many social problems occur.
The council said the Chinese government considers the recent incidents of social unrest as unrelated incidents, failing to realize that the crucial problem is its political system.
Liu said that the biggest challenge to the government of Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) will occur when the Chinese people lose hope in their government.
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