Shanghaiist: 230 'riots' a day in China?

Nick Withycombe

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 16:19:56 +0800

I did not write about specific cases. I quoted what The Guardian had stated. I do not think any injustice is done by questioning the credibility of The Guardian statements (as all I was doing was 'questioning', which is never wrong to do) seeing as they themselves made the greatly misguiding statement of 230 riots a day. I hope that completely clears it up, Mr. Feng 37.

agitprop

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 09:36:00 +0800

Hilarious article, but you forgot this quote from Economist: "...and all but the very richest complain bitterly about a government that, despite strong and growing revenues, has presided over the collapse of affordable health care and education."

Feng 37

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 03:18:41 +0800

Media workers covering China must be called on for fear-mongering and xenophobic reporting—and Shanghaiist is doing a great job covering the Intel story—but it does this debate great injustice, Mr. Withycombe, to write about specific cases about which, as you indicate in your comment above, you're rather uninformed. The CCP is scared shitless things will go the way of the CCCR.

davesgonechina

Mon, 17 Apr 2006 07:31:17 +0800

We can't be sure of the above definitions of a "riot". Maybe they just mean a heated argument at a bao zi fang dian? Because then we can definitely believe that there are millions of riots in the "you owe me 1 jiao" / "this bao zi is very slightly smaller than the others" area. BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! That's a riot!

Nick Withycombe

Sat, 15 Apr 2006 20:51:23 +0800

I saw the housing protests last year but it is impossible to tell whether these people were mistreated or just wanted more money. Anyway, they soon stopped... for some reason. Is the CCP still frightened ot the solidarity thing? They were 50 years ago, but I can't believe that they are really frightened now, they have such a complete and unquestionable grip on things.

peijin

Fri, 14 Apr 2006 21:59:53 +0800

several points: i would bet that some of the events that i attended relating to the housing protesters would count. they were mass gatherings--i think over 5 people or something without approval counts as illegal mass gathering. in the summer that happened every wed. in front of the portman. on other days of teh week, these ppl would flock en masse to the city government, and although ostensibly waiting in line to get cases heard, this agian might be considered one such riot or protest. the point is, a lot does occur under the radar--most Shanghainese are not aware of the housing protests. they know of the issue, but not of the protests, of what these people do. it's not reported in the media, and it's only via word of mouth that they may know about these things. frankly, some of these people don't care because they think the protesters are just whiners that got a shit deal on their demolished homes (which is not altogether false). i think the CCP is afraid they will go down Poland/Solidarity (or some other e. european country's) path. They don't want to be one party among many. There is just too much at stake--not the flag, perhaps, and not the history--but a helluvalotta perqs. It's a safe and familiar system--get into the old boys club and stay there. they'll make sure you have enough to eat, your kids go to school, and you have a pension. If i had been born in China and could deal with all the boring, conformist people whose every word is rimed with bullshit i might very well have been a strapping young Party member myself.