President Hu Jintao's government, in an indication of concern about the unrest among suddenly landless farmers, has launched a campaign to preserve the fields and paddies that feed China's 1.3 billion people. In addition, it has allocated $42.5 billion to improving the lives of the 700 million Chinese still attached to the land and filled official propaganda with stories of Communist Party cadres out in the countryside solving problems for grateful farmers.
Despite the two-day riot here, the first signs have emerged that the campaign may be having an effect. Although party censorship makes information in China hard to assess, reports of violent protests in farming villages have declined sharply over the past six months. This marks a significant shift from 2004-05, when clashes between farmers and police escalated dramatically. The Public Security Ministry reported 84,000 violent protests in 2005, more than 200 a day.
The villagers said, they were promised an explanation of how the 200 private guards, many with buzz cuts and tattoos typical of Chinese gangsters, came to be in Sanzhou protecting a multistory apartment complex built on a prime piece of the confiscated farmland.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/27/AR2006062701648_pf.html
Corruption world wide is a major concern for the common citizen. Russia and China both seem to be led by criminal groups. The West is highly affected by similiar activities and our major conflict is with so-called terrorist groups. All of this, shows the effectiveness of power going private and the in-effectiveness of public and open government. That could be a coming 'Dark Age'.
Tags: corruption, gangsters, criminal groups, China
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