From World Socialist Website: “A wave of militant urban protests has erupted in China over the past month against official corruption, social inequality and the destruction of jobs.
……The growing class tensions underscore the reasons for the transfer of control of the Chinese military from former president Jiang Zemin to Hu Jintao at last month’s Communist Party central committee plenum. The new leadership is dependent on the armed forces to deal with social unrest.”
“Calls are being made in Chinese ruling circles for a build-up of paramilitary and police numbers. In an interview with state-controlled China Central Television on October 17, Public Security Minister Zhou Yongkang declared that police numbers were “insufficient” and “could not win” where demonstrators vastly outnumbered them.
Beijing’s greatest fear is the massive growth of the Chinese working class, both numerically and in terms of its social weight, over the past two decades. The regime has 1.7 million police, one million paramilitary police and two million troops in the Peoples Liberation Army, to control a population of 1.4 billion. More than 110 Chinese cities now have over one million residents. ”
