What China And Iran Have In Common

by John Hawkins | June 22, 2009 8:26 am

A lot of people think China is destined to be the world’s next great super power. They have the world’s largest population, a thriving economy, a huge cash surplus, a large manufacturing base, and one of the world’s strongest militaries.

China certainly does have plenty of advantages — but, and this is a huge but — before they can rule the world, they’re going to have to deal with a revolution at their own front door.

The government is corrupt, there are frighteningly large income disparities between the wealthy wheeler dealers in the cities and the people living in dirt floor huts in the country, they have 120 males for every 100 females in China[1], and then, there’s the rioting[2]:

But after months of calm, there have been a spate of reported riots recently. Is this because media restrictions have been lifted, allowing news of riots to spread, or has there been a genuine increase in social tension in the countryside?

It is impossible to tell. China no longer publishes the figures for how many riots take place each year, but most people put the figure at around 80,000 and the vast majority go totally unnoticed.

The fact that there have been a dozen riots reported in the last couple of months may not demonstrate anything out of the ordinary. There is no theme that connects the recent protests – some are about property, some have been triggered by work disputes, some are because of corruption.

But then again, a huge number of migrant workers are still out of work because their factories have not recovered from the economic crisis, the harvest is finished and people’s savings may be running low. Perhaps the tinderbox is drier than usual.

Despite what some people would have you believe, the Chinese people are not suffering gladly under the whip hands of their masters in Bejing. China is a country aboil and at some point, it’s going to erupt.