Thousands riot over rising public transport fares in China..

[Virginia Dare]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/6441295.stm

The U.S. and China are heading towards a cataclysmic economic and social disaster. We need to pay close attention to what is going on over there.

[BluePatriot]

1. ...yet Americans quietly swallow price increases...

Are we just too pacified here with our "bread and circuses" to care about rioting?

edit: hi again Agent Mike!

[liberal N proud]

2. And in America, we just keep paying for higher priced gas and doing nothing about

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. That really breaks my heart.

They can't afford to pay the fare to get to work at the factories that were moved from here. Tough ass. I hope the whole god damn place erupts into a riot.

[Lasher]

7. They have started to expect more compensation that a handfull of rice a day

Time to move their jobs to another country.

[The_Casual_Observer]

9. What's left? The Sudan?

It's very telling that nobody criticizes communism in the context of china, since it's been all good for Walmart & cheap shit goods. Castro on the other hand is soundly hated
by every pundit & decision maker that cares to chime in.

[Virginia Dare]

10. Yes, that's exactly where China is outsourcing...

and other places in Africa.

[pampango]

11. 30 years ago there was no one on earth poorer than a Chinese

citizen. If they are outsourcing, or even thinking about it, that represents some progress for them. I hope that progress spreads to other countries in time.

[Virginia Dare]

13. Little progress is being made there in terms of civil liberties...

and human rights unfortunately, and the vast majority of the population, especially in rural areas, still lives in abject poverty. Personally, I don't think outsourcing represents a good thing for anybody really.

[pampango]

14. Certainly agree regarding civil liberties there. They have got a

very long way to go. For their sake I hope they get there. I read somewhere that political and civil rights didn't come to Taiwan and South Korea until their per capita income hit $8,000. I don't think that is any kind of magic figure, but do hope that with some prosperity comes pressure for civil liberties.

[Virginia Dare]

16. I read somewhere that roughly 165 million Chinese...

are looking for work, so this will keep their wages low for some time to come.

[NewJeffCT]

18. Chinese take a long-term view of things

Unlike here, where we demand results yesterday...

One thing I've noticed in traveling to China, and dealing with many Chinese is that they mostly tend to ignore the government and are skeptical of just about everything they see on the news. To them, the repressive Communist government isn't all that different than the repressive emperors that came before them: meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Rampant corruption in local government has been a staple of the Chinese government for centuries.

So, if Chinese parents can work hard and hope things are a little bit better for their child, and that child is set up so he or she can make things better for their child in turn, then they are satisfied. They've never really had things freedom of speech, freedom from unreasonable search & seizure, etc, so what is another generation or two or three without it to them?

And, over the past 25 years, China has moved the equivalent of the entire US population out of poverty - 300,000,000 people. The hundreds of millions of Chinese that are still in poverty often don't look at their newly wealthy neighbors and demand instant gratification - they just hope they are in the next wave of 300,000,000 that rise out of poverty over the next 25 years.

[pampango]

19. Thanks for the personal insights into the Chinese attitudes

towards their government and their future.

I have read that the 300,000,000 Chinese who have been lifted out of poverty is the greatest reduction in poverty in human history. Such an accomplishment should be celebrated.

I do agree that most people in the Third World, perhaps the Chinese more than some others, are content to wait a generation or two or three for things to improve, as long as they see things headed in the right direction. Even if the glass is only one tenth full (from a Western perspective), they can be happy that the glass appears to be slowly filling, not stagnant or lowering.

[geomon666]

15. Hey what goes around, comes around.

Maybe we'll get those nice Sudanese factory jobs one day.

[Virginia Dare]

17. As soon as all of our pesky labor and environmental laws..

are repealed, who knows, maybe the American manufacturing companies will come crawling back to us. We may just get desperate enough one day.

[Double T]

4. Thousands riot over rising gasoline prices in the USA.............

headlines coming to the USA....someday.

[Lasher]

5. I'm starting to get worried about the Chinese

The government there is not going to let these riots continue. :-(

[BluePatriot]

8. My Mom has a Telex

from 1989, from a colleague at a freight business in China, during Tienanmen Square. To paraphrase, "they are killing us all in the streets!" I wonder what is really going on in China right now. Those people are in my thoughts.

[Greyskye]

6. Not just 1000's, but 10's of 10,000's!

Several people were injured as up to 20,000 people clashed with 1,000 police in Hunan province on Friday, a local official told Reuters news agency.

<...>

At least nine police cars were burnt during the clashes, the Boxun report said.

Zhan Zilin, an eyewitness and a local activist, told the BBC Chinese Service that "the authorities sent over about 1,000 armed police, special police and local police and attempted to cordon off the roads in front of the local police station and government buildings".

[lovuian]

12. The workers will revolt

Marx was right