The newspaper issued its appeal for Chen Yongzhu’s release in the form of an editorial on today’s front page with a headline consisting of three very large Chinese characters that said: “Please release our man.”
The editorial blamed his arrest on a series of articles he wrote accusing Zoomlion, a leading construction machinery company, of misreporting its income. The newspaper said it was ready to accept that errors may have been made in the articles, but it would do so only in a manner established by the law.
Chen was arrested by police from Changsha (in the southern province of Hunan), the city where Zoomlion is based. The police were reportedly also looking for the newspaper’s business editor.
Liu Hu, the other detained Xin Kuai Bao journalist, was formally charged with defamation on 30 September after being arrested on 24 August in connection with a 29 July post on his Sina Weibo account implicating the state administration deputy director for industry and commerce in corruption.
China is on the Reporters Without Borders list of “Enemies of the Internet” and is ranked 173rd out of 179 countries in the 2013 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index. Read the 2013 special report on surveillance, “Enemies of the Internet” - China.
China's economy is riddled with vested interests, while free speech is suppressed. No wonder the regime is cracking down on. But it won't be easy to maintain the current political model or to reform it. And failure to do either could knock the economy off its extraordinary trajectory. Xi Jinping declares anticorruption efforts should target low-ranking flies as well as powerful tigers.
Inequality is high and rising. If this inequality were merely a reflection of the market, the fact that some Chinese are more talented and hard-working than others, it could be motivational. But a lot is also a result of economic goodie being grabbed by insiders, sometimes via corruption and in other cases by excluding outsiders from opportunities. Populations can grow restless when they think rulers and their cronies are enriching themselves unfairly.
In China, the class system operates on several levels. At the top of the socio-economic scale are the princelings, children of important party officials, who have become multimillionaires by trading on their contacts. Then there are bureaucrats, who enjoy attractive lifestyles funded by the people's taxes and bribes. State-owned enterprises, meanwhile, benefit from monopolies or oligopolies and pay minimal dividends. The fruits of their economic activity are therefore largely enjoyed by those who run them. Xi Jinping is himself a princeling, as a descendant of a revolutionary fighter and vice premier, and so are most members of the ruling Politburo Standing Committee. Xi’s extended family has amassed total assets of two billion euros.
Inequality is high and rising. If this inequality were merely a reflection of the market, the fact that some Chinese are more talented and hard-working than others, it could be motivational. But a lot is also a result of economic goodie being grabbed by insiders, sometimes via corruption and in other cases by excluding outsiders from opportunities. Populations can grow restless when they think rulers and their cronies are enriching themselves unfairly.
In China, the class system operates on several levels. At the top of the socio-economic scale are the princelings, children of important party officials, who have become multimillionaires by trading on their contacts. Then there are bureaucrats, who enjoy attractive lifestyles funded by the people's taxes and bribes. State-owned enterprises, meanwhile, benefit from monopolies or oligopolies and pay minimal dividends. The fruits of their economic activity are therefore largely enjoyed by those who run them. Xi Jinping is himself a princeling, as a descendant of a revolutionary fighter and vice premier, and so are most members of the ruling Politburo Standing Committee. Xi’s extended family has amassed total assets of two billion euros.
Most Chinese think political corruption is the biggest problem of China. Sinokleptocrat Wen Jiabao's relatives have accumulated three billion euros. Most of this wealth has been accumulated in areas of the economy over which Wen had direct authority. Wen family's investments span several sectors. Ping An, an insurance company, had benefited from reforms enacted in 2004 by a state body over which Wen had oversight. A growing wealth gap is causing public discontent, as are the frequent corruption scandals involving government officials.
There is also the hukou system which prevents rural migrants from participating fully in China's economic miracle. The country has at least 150 million people who come from the villages but work in the cities. The snag is that they don't have the right to be resident, so often live in dormitories, and their children don't get the same access to schooling as local residents, so usually stay in the villages with their grandparents. The cities want these workers but don't want to be swamped by the need to house them and pay for the education and health care of their families. The result is a potentially unstable two-class society.
China uses a classic mixture of carrot and stick. The carrot has been growth. Even if the benefits of growth haven't been equally distributed, hundreds of millions of people have still been taken out of poverty. Meanwhile, the stick has been to crack down on anybody who is perceived to be stepping out of line.
The problem is that both the carrot and the stick are becoming harder to wield. Economic growth is going to slow down in the coming decade. It then won't be as easy to buy off potential dissent. Meanwhile, mobile communications and the Internet are mutating in ways that Beijing will find increasingly difficult to control.
What's more, there's a connection between political rights and economic advancement. This was not apparent in the past three decades, when the Chinese model was based on low-value manufacturing. Millions of people could be stuck in factories and told to get on with the job. But it will become apparent as Beijing tries to switch to a new model based on services and high-value manufacturing. If this transition is to be successful, people will have to think for themselves more. They will also have to harness the full power of modern communications. It will then be virtually impossible to keep a lid on free speech.
There is also the hukou system which prevents rural migrants from participating fully in China's economic miracle. The country has at least 150 million people who come from the villages but work in the cities. The snag is that they don't have the right to be resident, so often live in dormitories, and their children don't get the same access to schooling as local residents, so usually stay in the villages with their grandparents. The cities want these workers but don't want to be swamped by the need to house them and pay for the education and health care of their families. The result is a potentially unstable two-class society.
China uses a classic mixture of carrot and stick. The carrot has been growth. Even if the benefits of growth haven't been equally distributed, hundreds of millions of people have still been taken out of poverty. Meanwhile, the stick has been to crack down on anybody who is perceived to be stepping out of line.
The problem is that both the carrot and the stick are becoming harder to wield. Economic growth is going to slow down in the coming decade. It then won't be as easy to buy off potential dissent. Meanwhile, mobile communications and the Internet are mutating in ways that Beijing will find increasingly difficult to control.
What's more, there's a connection between political rights and economic advancement. This was not apparent in the past three decades, when the Chinese model was based on low-value manufacturing. Millions of people could be stuck in factories and told to get on with the job. But it will become apparent as Beijing tries to switch to a new model based on services and high-value manufacturing. If this transition is to be successful, people will have to think for themselves more. They will also have to harness the full power of modern communications. It will then be virtually impossible to keep a lid on free speech.
Chinese resent Occidentals telling them what to do, especially which imprisoned dissident to free. It should be noted that the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment. The families of dissidents are routinely the targets of government harassment and reprisals. Liu Xiaobo’s wife, Liu Xia, is under house arrest and permanently watched by the police.
Government is the #1 enemy of the people and the source of all major problems of humanity. Anarchy is the best political system. Basil Venitis, venitis@gmail.com, http://themostsearched.blogspot.com, @Venitis
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