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Beijing faces winter of discontent
By CNN Senior China Analyst Willy Wo-Lap Lam
(CNN) -- A major goal of the anti-terrorist exercises held in different Chinese cities last week is to prevent outbreaks of urban violence perpetrated by disgruntled workers and peasants. Beijing has insisted that the country is subject to terrorist attacks from shadowy, secessionist groups in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region (XAR) such as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement. However, both the army and the People's Armed Police (PAP) have largely tamed XAR-based pro-independence outfits after two years of a heavy-handed crackdown -- and Xinjiang authorities have felt emboldened to again invite foreign executives to talk business in the far-off region. After watching a PAP anti-terrorist war game in the outskirts of Beijing last Friday, President Hu Jintao said China must "resolutely prevent and combat all types of terrorist activities so as to earnestly safeguard the masses' security and world peace." What is uppermost in the minds of Hu, Premier Wen Jiabao and other Politburo members is what the Chinese media call "quasi-terrorist crimes committed by individuals" with horrendous gripes against the authorities. Last weekend alone, bomb scares were reported in Guangzhou and Beijing. A bomb-like object was found in a high-rise building in the southern metropolis, while in the capital, a man boarding a plane told airline staff there were explosives in his checked-in luggage. Real or fake bombs have in the past few months been placed in supermarkets, department stores and fast-food chain stores in large cities including Shenzhen, Nanjing and Wuhan. PoisoningsAlso last week, about 400 pupils in Hunan Province, and 75 in Guizhou Province, were hospitalized for food poisoning after taking meals laced with Dushu Qiang, a potent rat poison. In a three-month period ending January this year, police handled nearly 600 cases of the criminal use of Dushu Qiang. The official Chinanewsweek magazine reported earlier this month that "individual terrorist crimes" had posed a serious threat to socio-political stability. Means used by these quasi-terrorist felons -- many of whom are members of disadvantaged and marginalized sectors of society such as the chronically unemployed -- have included explosives, poison, arson, hijacking and assassination. Chinanewsweek quoted noted Beijing scholar Hu Lianhe as saying that "social contradictions have been magnified because [traditional] social adjustment mechanisms and safety valves have lost their function." Other experts have cited as evidence of growing popular discontent the recent rash of suicides and self-immolation committed by urban and rural residents who have been forced to vacate their domiciles by greedy property developers. Communist party sources in Beijing said the Hu-Wen leadership had recently set up a high-level interdepartmental steering group to handle quasi-terrorist social violence. Advance warning
The sources quoted Wen, who heads the unit, as saying "we must have an advance warning and crisis management system on urban violence that is as effective as the one against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome." Security cadres have alerted Wen and the Politburo to several disturbing trends in the past couple of years. Until the late 1990s, the cadres indicated, an embittered, wrongfully sacked factory worker might vent his anger by murdering his boss. Now, quite a number of desperate citizens have taken to airing their grievances by letting off explosives in a crowded place in a big city. Moreover, partly thanks to market reforms, it has become much easier for would-be urban terrorists to purchase and manufacture lethal weapons. For example, a bomb costs less than 30 yuan to make, and 10 yuan worth of Dushu Qiang can kill several hundred people. Beijing's nightmare is that the terminally frustrated and disaffected may band together and form guerrilla-style urban terrorist groups. The Wen team has come up with multi-pronged strategies to keep the forces of chaos at bay. Safety valvesThe anti-terrorist exercises, which were recently held in cities and provinces including Beijing, Guangzhou, Shandong, Henan and Anhui, were part of an enhanced regime of training against bombings and hostage-takings. The PAP and police are hiring more personnel with expertise in areas including disposing bombs and foiling hijacking. The inter-departmental unit has also decided to provide more channels for peasants and laborers to present petitions to provincial and central leaders. Until recently, local cadres were told to discourage -- and physically prevent -- petitioners from going to the capital. That Beijing is serious about making available more safety valves is evidenced by the fact that a Politburo-level cadre has been put in charge of defusing the mushrooming protests against unfair compensation for people obliged to make way for real-estate development. The Guangzhou-based 21st Century Economic Herald reported last week that President Hu had sent four teams of inspectors to look at disputes relating to urban clearance in Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou and Shandong. Moreover, several influential National People's Congress members have proposed that Beijing slow down reform measures -- such as privatizing state factories -- that will engender unemployment and other destabilizing consequences. In recent remarks about the victims of forced eviction, Hu reportedly said: "We must take a firm grip of -- and thoroughly implement -- policies to relieve the suffering of the masses." The president realizes only too well that the ferocity of the PAP's anti-terrorist squads notwithstanding, failure to address the people's malcontents could cost the party its mandate of heaven.
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