From RADIO FREE EUROPE/ RADIO LIBERTY:
Traditionally China’s 900 million peasants have served as the power base of the Communist Party(AFP)Scarcely a month goes by without news coming from rural China of often-violent protests by locals over corruption, land-grabs, taxation, or environmental issues. The authorities are struggling to stem this rising tide of challenges to abuses that are probably inherent in any one-party dictatorship.
China’s extensive economic growth in recent years has not been an unmitigated blessing for all. The late “paramount leader,” Deng Xiaoping, was fond of the slogan “to get rich is glorious,” but later added that “some people will get rich before others.” Today, income disparities continue to grow between the coastal and inland provinces and between urban and rural areas. The most prosperous areas are the urban settlements in the coastal regions and the least fortunate places tend to be in the rural interior.
At the heart of the problem is the one-party dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which has held undisputed power since 1949. There is no system of checks and balances, no independent judiciary, little rule of law as is understood in Western countries, and no system of transparency. Along with the reforms launched in 1978, there has been a tendency for various reasons for local officials to become more powerful and, perhaps not surprisingly, more corrupt.
