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December 09, 2005

Unrest in China?

SHANGHAI, Dec. 9 - Residents of a fishing village near Hong Kong said that as many as 20 people had been killed by paramilitary police in an unusually violent clash that marked an escalation in the widespread social protests that have roiled the Chinese countryside. Villagers said that as many as 50 other residents remain unaccounted for since the shooting. It is the largest known use of force by security forces against ordinary citizens since the killings around Tiananmen Square in 1989. That death toll remains unknown, but is estimated to be in the hundreds.
The violence began after dark in the town of Dongzhou on Tuesday evening. Terrified residents said their hamlet has remained occupied by thousands of security forces, who have blocked off all access roads and are reportedly arresting residents who attempt to leave the area in the wake of the heavily armed assault.

Why huge? Because China has had a mounting problem of domestic unrest - people are angry over corrupt local governments, economic disparities between city and country and, of course, the continual aggravation of having to bow down before oligarch's who care nothing for the lives and happiness of the average Chinese.

It is additionally important because as unrest spreads to rural China, we might see the Chinese military - largely made up of rural people - become unwilling to shoot their own in order to maintain corrupt thugs in power. There is a big opportunity here, as well as a big risk - the opportunity is that China's people will break their chains, the risk is that the Chinese government, under increasing pressure, will lash out in hopes of provoking a surge of nationalist feeling in the Chinese populace.

As Drudge would say, developing...

Posted by Mark Noonan on December 9, 2005 09:17 PM

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Comments

Approximately 600 professional soldiers are killed per year in an armed conflict which has toppled a brutal regime, saved a hundred thousand or so innocent Iraqis from torture, rape, and murder, and possibly saved untold other lives by eliminating the threat of Iraq WMD being distributed to terrorists worldwide----and the world's press are full of hysterical headlines about death tolls and whether or not the war is just.

But when the largest country in the world is murdering its own citizens for simply expressing themselves, in an effort to stifle any form of free speech, the world's press are notably silent.

When I see the same attention paid to the outrages in China as we see paid to our efforts to protect Iraqis and the rest of the world, I'll start respecting the media a little more.

..................

BTW. I can add---but about 500 or so of the military deaths in Iraq were not due to enemy action, so I did not count them when I did my yearly estimates of war casualties.

Posted by: Almiranta at December 11, 2005 07:41 PM