Asia Times has another article about the rise of social unrest in China, “Recent protests have been sparked by the near-fatal beating of a migrant worker, an illegal hike in taxi fees and low wages in an electronics plant – to name a few. These are but the tip of the iceberg in the nation of 1.3 billion people where the wealth gap is widening, corruption is widespread and the rule of law is far from entrenched. For those who know their Chinese history, this raises the specter of devastating peasant and other revolts over the ages, sometimes cataclysms that have toppled regimes. ” The full article is here.
Meanwhile, three workers at a Taiwanese-owned shoe factory in Dongguan have been sentenced to up to three and a half years in prison for protesting wages and conditions, according to this BBC report. Several articles have been published recently about the increase in labor unrest (see here, here, and here.)
