"China will boost spending, try to close income gap; Policies needed to head off social unrest, Wen says" by Charles Hutzler, Associated Press / March 6, 2011
BEIJING — China’s government called yesterday for higher social spending, controls on inflation, and measures to urgently close a divisive rich-poor gap, betting that rising living standards, better services, and heavy policing will dampen growing public expectations for change.
See what happens when you adopt AmeriKan-style ways?
In a speech that is China’s equivalent of a state-of-the-nation address, Premier Wen Jiabao said the government will boost spending 12.5 percent this year, with bigger outlays for education, job creation, low-income housing, health care, and pensions and other social insurance.
Spending on police, courts, prosecutors, and other domestic security is projected to exceed the usually favored military budget for the first time in years, climbing 13.8 percent to $95 billion.
Wen reiterated several times during his two-hour-plus speech that the authoritarian government sees the combination of policies as crucial to forestalling unrest among a population grown used to greater prosperity and expecting more....
Meanwhile, In AmeriKa: Living better on less? It’s easier than you think
Don't worry about it if your a Wall Street banker.
The emphasis comes as the government seems increasingly anxious about calls of unknown origin posted online urging Chinese to stage peaceful rallies every Sunday like the ones that toppled autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt. Beijing has been under ever heavier security since the Internet messages first appeared more than two weeks ago.
With a new appeal calling for more rallies today, the Beijing Daily, the official Communist Party newspaper, issued a rare front-page editorial yesterday warning people not to be fooled into joining protests that would wreck China’s prosperity.
My whole paper is full of the stuff.
“It’s worth noting that people with ulterior motives from within and outside the country are attempting to lead China into chaos,’’ the editorial said....
Yeah, I'm reading one of them right now.
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Related:
"Chinese authorities cracked down on activists as a call circulated for people to gather in more than a dozen cities today for a “Jasmine Revolution.’’
The source of the call was not known, but authorities moved to halt its spread online. Searches for the word “jasmine’’ were blocked yesterday on China’s largest Twitter-like microblog, and the website where the request first appeared said it was hit by an attack.
Activists seemed not to know what to make of the call to protest, even as they passed it on. They said they were unaware of any known group being involved in the request for citizens to gather in 13 cities and shout “We want food, we want work, we want housing, we want fairness.’’
Oh, this is REALLY STARTING to REEK of a WESTERN INTELLIGENCE OPERATION of DESTABILIZATION.
Some even wondered whether the call was “performance art’’ instead of a serious move.
China has limited reporting on protests in the Middle East and quickly shuts down most protests at home. Authorities appeared to be treating the protest call seriously.
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"Chinese authorities wary of any domestic dissent staged a show of force yesterday to squelch a mysterious "Jasmine Revolution," breaking up several protests modeled on the prodemocracy demonstrations sweeping the Middle East.
Authorities detained activists, increased the number of police on the streets, disconnected some cellphone text-messaging services, and censured Internet postings about the call to stage protests in Beijing, Shanghai, and 11 other major cities...
China's authoritarian government has appeared unnerved by protests in the Arab world. It has limited media reports about them, and restricted Internet searches to censor information about Middle Easterners' grievances against autocratic rulers.
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"Release of prisoners in Bahrain meets key opposition demand" by Associated Press / February 24, 2011
MANAMA, Bahrain — Officials in China rounded up Internet users who had reposted a call for protests and charged them with subversion as the authoritarian government continued its campaign to crush any Middle East-style democracy movement, activists said.
Though only a handful of people responded to the call to demonstrate in 13 cities across China this past weekend and were met by a show of force from authorities, the unidentified organizers issued a renewed appeal to gather peacefully in parks or near monuments on Sundays.
Twitter and Facebook, instrumental in Egypt’s protests, are blocked in China. Tech-savvy Chinese can circumvent controls, but few of the country’s Internet users seek subversive content....
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"Police and security officials displayed a massive show of force in Beijing, Shanghai, and other cities, trying to snuff out any hint of protests modeled on the uprisings in the Middle East."
"Apparently unnerved by an anonymous Internet campaign urging Chinese citizens to emulate the protests that have rocked the Middle East, Chinese authorities this week have begun a forceful and carefully focused clampdown on activities by foreigners that the government deems threatening to political stability.
Public security officials have summoned dozens of foreign journalists in Beijing and Shanghai to be dressed down on videotape, warning them that they had broken reporting regulations by visiting locations that had been selected as protest sites in Internet postings (New York Times)."
"China’s prime minister on yesterday rejected any comparison between his country and the Middle East and North African nations where popular uprisings toppled long-serving autocrats."
