China
Content about workers' struggles and events in China.
Is the East still red? - Notes on China - Red and Black Notes
Red and Black Notes look at the nature of modern Chinese society.
From the racist Charlie Chan caricatures of the "inscrutable Chinese" to the influence of Mao Zedong thought, China has always been a source of fascination in the west. But what sort of influence does it have? For one thing, many people seem unsure as to what sort of society China actually is?
China: three days of rioting over suspicious death
Residents of the city of Shishou in the central province of Hubei fought police and set fire to a hotel after authorities labeled the death of a chef at a hotel a “suicide”.
The chef, 24 year old Tu Yuangao, was found dead outside the Yonglong hotel on the 17th of June, but his family cast doubt on the finding of “suicide” after viewing his body. They said there were no signs of blood where he was found, and the injuries on his body were inconsistent with a fall.
Protests in south-east China force repeal of new tax law
The Chinese state news service, Xinhua, reported on the 16th of June that violent protests in the south-east province of Jiangxi had forced authorities to repeal a new tax law.
The government of Nankang city had planned to increase the tax on furniture sales from 15th of June. Though a major industry in Nankang, furniture sales has a low profit margin, and the new tax law would have increased the tax burden, forcing many stores to close.
China: Over 100 teachers in Inner Mongolia strike
At the beginning of June, more than 100 teachers went on a five day strike in the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia over wages.
The Wulanchabu City Board of Education director Duan Yong denies that teachers went on strike, despite Shangdu County’s primary and secondary schools being at a standstill and even college entrance exams being affected.
The wife of one teacher said:
20 years ago… In China democracy disarmed and slaughtered the proletariat!
Draft translation from our central review in French “Communisme” N°30, January 1990.
1. Introduction
Chinese trade union officials seek to suppress new workers’ rights group
Trade union officials in the central province of Shaanxi have threatened the founders of a new workers’ rights group, saying it is a “reactionary organization” that could harm China’s “Harmonious Society,” Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on 29 June.
More than 380 workers from some 20 enterprises in Shaanxi applied to the provincial Party committee and trade union federation to set up the Shaanxi Enterprise Union Rights Defence Representative Congress, or, “rights defence congress” for short.
Taxi drivers strike in China
More than 5 000 taxi drivers Xining, a city in the western province of Qinghai, went on strike during the night of Saturday the 13th of June over new licensing regulations.
This was followed the next day with a sit-in protest in front of the municipal government headquarters attended by several hundred people, who dispersed at 3pm when officials promised to address the issue. However, although the number of strikers apparently halved on Sunday, protests have continued, with a second sit-in on Monday of a similar size to the first.
58,000 mass incidents in China in first quarter as unrest grows to largest ever recorded
There were 58,000 “mass incidents”, the Chinese state's euphemism for strikes, street protests, roadblocks and other forms of mass protests, in China in the first three months of this year.
Chinaworker.info reports the monitoring agencies in Hong Kong, and cites the pace of job losses and migrants being forced to return home as the main causes. The figure covers protests which involved 25 or more people.
The report said that if this trend continues, then 2009 would break all previous records with over 230,000 'mass incidents', compared to 120,000 in 2008 and 90,000 in 2006.
China in crisis: reason to panic?
Prol-Position's outline and analysis of the development and extent of the 2008-9 financial crisis's impact on China, and its implications for working people in the region and across the world.
Chinese union's plans for 2009 and union vigilance against “hostile forces”
The All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) has come out with a series of recent policy goals and policies designed to help workers get through the current financial crisis and maintain social stability. But, these policies, however well intentioned, continue to reinforce the ACFTU’s misplaced identity. Meanwhile, an ACFTU vice-chairman has warned about foreign and domestic enemy forces using the economic crisis to infiltrate and cause damage to China’s migrant workers.
On February 12, ACFTU Chairman Wang Zhaoguo gave a speech at an international forum entitled “2009: Economic Globalization and Unions”. In the speech, Wang recapped the CCP and the government’s recent policy measures to combat the economic crisis and to save the economy from going into turmoil.
