WP,pg1: A Chinese City's Rage At the Rich And Powerful

[DeepModem Mom]

A Chinese City's Rage At the Rich And Powerful
Beating of Student Sparks Riot, Looting
By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, August 1, 2005; A01


CHIZHOU, China -- Liu Liang, a slightly built computer student with big glasses, was home in Chizhou for summer vacation. At about 2:30 on the hot afternoon of June 26, he was pedaling his bicycle by the downtown vegetable market on Cuibai Street.

Driving down the same street in his new-looking black Toyota sedan was Wu Junxing, deputy manager of a hospital in nearby Anqing. Wu, accompanied by a friend and two bodyguards, had come to Chizhou that day to attend opening ceremonies of a new private hospital and, associates said, survey the market to judge whether he should invest in his own facility.

Liu's bicycle and Wu's shiny four-door sedan collided, sending Liu crashing to the ground. Almost immediately, witnesses said, Liu, 22, and Wu, 34, began arguing over who was at fault. In the heat of the dispute, they said, Liu damaged one of Wu's side-view mirrors, prompting Wu's muscular bodyguards to burst from the car and beat the skinny young man senseless, leaving him bleeding from his mouth and ears.

The beating, part of a minor traffic incident on a slow Sunday afternoon, ignited a spark of anger. The spark became a riot, evolving over eight chaotic hours into an expression of rage against the Chinese Communist Party's new fascination with businessmen, profits and economic growth.

After they saw what happened to Liu, Chizhou's self-described "common people" rose up against what they perceived as their local government's willingness to side with rich outside investors against Chizhou's own. By the end of the evening, 10,000 Chizhou residents had filled the streets, some of whom torched police cars, pelted overwhelmed anti-riot troops with stones and looted a nearby supermarket bare....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/31/AR2005073101163_pf.html

[Dora]

1. Just one spark

If the conditions are right, any culture or community can erupt.

Fascinating post, thanks for the link.

[hobbit709]

2. History repeats

From the Boston Tea Party, through "Let them eat cake" to "Little Father, give us bread." And the powers that were never seem to learn.

[LiberalEsto]

3. A hidden warning?

I read this in the paper earlier today and wondered if it carried a hidden warning to the power elite who subscribe to the WashPost.

If the current regime in the US keeps taking away our pensions, our jobs, our health benefits, our civil liberties, our Social Security benefits, our ability to buy a home, our privacy rights, our freedom from random search and seizure, our right to speedy trial by jury, our right to fair elections, our freedom of the press, eventually some among us are going to snap and fight back.

I hope we can resolve these issues with fair, legal democratic processes, but I am truly afraid that this Misadministration will keep pushing and pushing until some Americans "go postal."

[54anickel]

6. Not sure if it's a warning, but I wonder why the WaPost keeps writing

about this riot. There was another story from them posted a couple of weeks ago about a riot that made it sound like a new incidence. I googled around to find it wasn't a new incident, but this same one.

Not sure if they are trying to make China seem worse than it is, or if something else motivates them. :shrug:

[AnneD]

20. Hey 54anickel

I think back to the stories Grand pa (a yellow dog Dem) told me about the Depression. He said the politicians were starting to crap in their pants because socialism was gaining a toehold in the US and took what was happening to Russia to heart. That was the soul of the new deal. Smart and funny man-sure do miss his take on things.

[Greyhound]

26. Don't forget who owns the Post

He and his followers hate the Chinese. :shrug:

[scarletlib]

31. If you are talking about Moon, he owns the Washington Times

not the Post

[earth mom]

8. Well said!

This part of your post resonates with me the most:

If the current regime in the US keeps taking away our pensions, our jobs, our health benefits, our civil liberties, our Social Security benefits, our ability to buy a home, our privacy rights, our freedom from random search and seizure, our right to speedy trial by jury, our right to fair elections, our freedom of the press, eventually some among us are going to snap and fight back.

How bad does it have to get before people say ENOUGH! -???

Now...THAT is the question....

[K-W]

4. The triumph of capitalism. EOM

[DBoon]

5. ironic this was how communist parties started

the struggle of the workers against the arrogance of the rich

[cliss]

16. You noticed that too?

I was pretty surprised when I read the article. Note:

a)"rich Chinese", "a new-looking Toyota". I thought this was a COMMUNIST country.

Worst of all:
b) a PRIVATE hospital. What goes on here? What kind of tax structure do they have, that people can accumulate wealth in China?

Sweden, for example, has a progressive tax structure that punishes people who make too much money. They really don't want extremes of both kinds: ultra-rich and ultra-poor, so they redistribute the tax revenues. On average, you pay 52% in taxes. But after a certain earning, you will pay successively more.

So what's the deal here?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

34. China is now Communist in name only

They still have the strict government controls on political expression, but their economy is thoroughly capitalized. This makes them fascists in my book.

[HereSince1628]

7. Didn't Carnegie say the rich must share or the poor will take it away?

or something like that?

[xchrom]

9. makes you wonder if china will accept rampant capitalism

the same way we have in the west -- my overall feeling is yes -- but this is indeed interesting.

[K-W]

10. The west didnt so much accept it, as it was beaten into submission.

Almost assuradly the Chinese elite will attempt to force it on China, the question is whether they will succeed. The west certainly didnt have an easy time of it.

[autorank]

11. This is perfect...a "union" movement starts in China.

That's where this should go. They need to organize and hang together. I think this is great. I've been reading how Chinese leaders are talking about this being their time and how they plan to rule the world. Well if you take slave labor out of the mix and insert environmental consciousness, you've got a really great country with a history of minimal aggression. Wouldn't that be nice.

[chenGOD]

12. "A really great country with a history of minimal aggression.."?

Are you talking about China?

umm, maybe you want to re-read some history....

[autorank]

28. I was being ironic...they do invade nations less frequently than we do.

But of course, they're dreadful; threatening Taiwan all the time, firing a missile over Japan to make a point, and their general talking about using nuclear weapons against the US in case there is a conflict near Taiwan. They're nuts. My real hope is that the people of China get fed up with these crooks and trow the bums out. If they don't do this and form some sort of realistic government, we're all toast. China industrializing along with India equals death to the planet unless there is a whole new approach to the environment. It's a nice thought but we're probably all toast. The irony is that China and India's nuclear shield will allow them to develop at a pace that will kill us all. Happy thoughts. Kind of makes Bolton look insignificant, but, then, I'd be wrong. Bolton can effectively enable our demise by pissing everybody off at us. It's a grand life if you don't falter or the world doesn't en incrementally.

[ckramer]

32. " firing a missile over Japan to make a point,"

That's North Korea, not China.

[autorank]

33. You're right. China fired one over Taiwan, though so they're into this too

I guess it's just some quaint jet age symbolism. You don't fire the missle at your enemy full loaded with megatons, you just shoot a blank over the territory to scare thlem. My mistake. Maybe Bush and Company could do this with the next country they want to invade--just fly a bunch of B-52's over the country for a while, fake 'em out a little, and then leave. They might think Bush was crazy or something and relent at whatever "evil" deed they had going.

Here are two interesting links on the North Korean-Japanese escapade. The first one is priceless.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/dprk/1998/980904-dprk-s.htm

http://www.earthchangestv.com/predict/nostrabobus/0219korea.htm

[Jack_DeLeon]

13. Thats good news...

its good to know there are people in the world who wont stand for the kind of bullshit that means that if you have money you are right.

[stepnw1f]

14. This May Happen Here If the Republican Party Stays in Power

America's actions abroad will falls upon itself as has been seen the last 8 or so years. Probably more....

[Greyhound]

27. The tree of liberty must, from time to time, be nourished with the blood..

of patriots. We've forgotten/ignored this for far too long.

[brentspeak]

15. There comes a time when the common people finally realize...

..."Hey, you know something? There's a lot more of US than there are of THEM!"

That's when "them" realize they've taken their exploitation too far.

[barb162]

17. I have to give these people credit. I see a big diff

between them and the US. Mainly they were educated as socialists and for sharing and we were educated as capitalists. SO I can see how they reacted and why. And I can see why it won't happen here despite the working person's situation getting worse year by year.

[K-W]

18. If you read up on US labor history,

you will see similar reactions to the economic assualts accompanying industrialization on traditional values. But the US using violence and propaganda has largely overcome that resistance by now.

[barb162]

21. I think the US education system assumes capitalism

is the only way (especially since the breakup of the USSR) and as long as a golden carrot is held out to the populace in the form of "anybody can make it/be rich" the whole system never gets questioned anymore as it once was. Also union busting has been and is going on now and the whole atmosphere of the country makes it so unlikely that China demonstration would ever happen here

[K-W]

23. That is a big part of it.

All of the institutions in our society are designed to suppress class conciousness. And this issue dates back to the very beginnings of our nation.

[barb162]

24. As the middle class shrinks away and is forced into the lower

class and as the rich get super rich, you'd think incidents like the one in China would start happening here. But it doesn't and it won't happen in the future. The "American Dream" is still held out as the carrot that everyone can achieve. Decades back it was I think something truly achievable, especially after WOrld War 2. There's a hell of a lot less movement statistically these days between the middle and upper class. And there is more and more movement down of the middle class.Still, people here keep thinking they can strike it rich or work their way up classes, you know, if you just keep plugging away at it. But the whole economic atmosphere now doesn't lend much credence to that. Some can still break the barriers between the classes going upward but not as many, I believe, as in the 1950s, 60s, 70s.

[reprobate]

30. Robert Reich has said that there is now NO upward economic movement.

And a lot of downward movement from the middle class.

He also warns that at some point there WILL be a 'snap' and a REAL class war will start.

And the thing to remember about the difference between us and china is that Americans are ARMED! The most armed citizens in the world.

[barb162]

35. I hope he is right.

I love listening to him and think he is always right on. This country needs some sort of a snap. Maybe that will wake people up

[jokerman93]

25. The new American dream

The old meme was that anyone could make it.

What I see happening now isn't the good old myth of the American dream where ambition and elbow grease can make you a success. The new manufactured dream has more to do with becoming a celebrity by some highly unlikely fluke or twist of fate.

Read: Slave your way through life working for Walmart while hoping for the unattainable American fantasy.

Such dreams serve to fortify the complacency of the slow and the ignorant.

[reprobate]

29. "We" are educated as Capitalists? Hardly. Americans aren't educated.....

....They are trained.

When many can't balance a checkbook, and most are in debt to the credit card monsters, and they buy reverse mortgages, Americans are not educated as capitalists. They are trained to 'buy' 'buy' 'buy', with absolutely no background in economics without which you aren't a capitalist, you're a consumer.

And I think this is the reason that we, as a nation, are devolving into a nation of idiots.

[barb162]

36. I agree the huge majority of Americans have never picked

up an economics book or had a class in it. Many are in debt to their eyeballs or above and still they buy. Oh yes. It is almost fascinating to watch. I agree with your conclusion too. I see a lot of things coming together for perhaps the perfect storm. Just recently the Walgreens drugstore chain had a strike by the pharmacists which was broken when some went right back to work after about a week because the needed the money and because of that, the others on strike decided to give up except for a few holdouts. I think the longest the last ones were out was 3 wks. They all make 90,000 and up and I thought the ones who had to go back to work in a week must be spending every darn cent they earn.

I don't know why so many people fall for the spend, spend, spend routine and don't save for the proverbial rainy day. If interest rates take a big jump and the people with the "funny" mortgages have to come up with extra dough fast, most probably wont be able to do it. A lot of people are living on the edge.

Capitalist: meant to add we aren't trained as socialist or in the ins and outs of any other economic system. To many in the US they are unaware of the modified socialism forms such as Sweden that seem to work quite well. ALL they seem to know is the USSR collapsed and socialism per se is no good. Therefore capitalism must be good and the only way. I bet they couldn't tell you why (nor could they tell you what a deficit is about or that China will be eating our lunches soon.)

[Freddie Stubbs]

19. Hospital managers need bodyguards?

:shrug:

[anotherdrew]

22. this is what we should be doing in America every day