UNREST IN CHINA

FACED WITH UNREST, WARY CHINA FLEXES MUSCLE

China has put on a display of force to quell recent violent bouts of unrest.

AFP

AsiaOne, June 15, 2011

BEIJING, China - China has put on a display of force to quell recent violent bouts of unrest - events that analysts say highlight resentment towards an unresponsive government grappling with economic and social strife.

Protests against local authorities have erupted over everything from social injustices to ethnic tensions, compounding the jitters of a stability-obsessed government already wary about inflation's potential to spark Arab-style unrest.

"There are so many social groups that have become angry. There's a general feeling of tension between the government and people," said Zheng Yongnian, director of the National University of Singapore's East Asian Institute.

For more than 30 years, communist China has focused on growth, lifting millions out of poverty and becoming the world's second-largest economy in the process.

But analysts say social and political reforms have not followed suit, sparking a litany of problems such as corruption, government abuses, illegal land seizures, a growing rich-poor divide and pollution.

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