From The Boston Globe:
Since the government has only recently withdrawn from many spheres of public life, Chinese society has not learned how to manage competing social interests, the analysts say. Hence the grass-roots mechanisms that open societies rely on to sort out similar ethnic or social tensions must be given time and support to develop, said Chen Xin, a professor of sociology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
From the back of his car Wang, the retired mill worker, said his life seems to be spinning outside the government’s, and his, control. “I have a Hui friend, and we used to eat and go out together,” he said. “Now, I’m not sure if I can. I don’t want things to change, but I can’t help it if they do.”
