Chinese Killings

I stayed with a couple in Boston a month back when I went out there to interview. He felt we might have an escalation with China and eventual war. I disagreed for many reasons, mostly political, but one I didn't mention at the time was economic--China will become democratic.

This is proof. People, even those used to living in a confucian-dominated society of order, will eventually clammer for rights, representation, and decency. The communist party in China has given none of these to its citizens, but now the citizens are becoming wealthier, and have greater access to outside knowledge. There will be a revolution. It's only a matter of time. CNN reports,

The number of protests in China's vast, poverty-stricken countryside has risen in recent months as anger comes to a head over land seizures, corruption and a yawning wealth gap that experts say threatens social stability. The government says about 70,000 such conflicts occurred last year, although many more are believed to have gone unreported.

The clashes also have become increasingly violent, with injuries sustained on both sides and huge amounts of damage done to property as protesters vent their frustration in face of indifferent or bullying authorities.

Today police killed ten demonstrators, wounded 20 more, and many others are "missing" after villagers from a small southern town gathered to protest their low renumeration for land taken to build a wind power plant.

Thousands of people gathered Tuesday in Dongzhou, in southern Guangdong province, to protest the amount of money offered by the government as compensation for land taken to construct a wind power plant.

But here's what really got me as typical China and the reason the government won't last forever:

State media have not mentioned the violence, and both provincial and local governments have repeatedly refused to comment. This is typical in China, where the ruling Communist Party controls the media and lower-level authorities are leery of releasing information without permission from the central government.

Just like they did with the benzene spill a little while back. The government is inept. It tries to cover up its mistakes and looks stupider. And people in America want to move to socialization like socialized medicine....