From Economist.com:
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has governed China since 1949 and retains an iron grip on politics. Other parties and folk religion are illegal, criticisms quickly suppressed.
At the 16th Party Congress in 2002 Hu Jintao was named leader of the CCP and Wen Jiabao prime minister. Mr Hu, who was thought to be a potential reformer, has proved more authoritarian”cementing his authority by prosecuting cases of graft.
Ordinary Chinese rarely see their legal wrongs addressed: not a single official has been punished over the spread of AIDS via blood transfusions to 55,000 Chinese, for example. Not surprisingly, dissatified citizens have increasingly taken to public protests, which the government quickly suppress. A new property law will go some way toward keeping the growing middle class happy.
