bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

quizIds

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

paywallTypes

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Will Clem

Riots and other unrest across the mainland are increasingly being caused by underlying discontent about long-standing  problems, rather than personal interests, according to an influential report on social  order. 
The findings were contained in the Chinese Academy of Social Science's  annual blue paper on social stability, 'Society of China: Analysis and Forecast (2010)'.  
Delivering the report yesterday, Li Peilin, director of the Institute of Sociology,  said there had been increased interest in 'social stability' this year as it was the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic. 
'As a result all areas ... introduced measures against negative forces, especially in terms of clearing from society the activities of criminal groups,' Li said. 
'But a fairly prominent problem is the occurrence of incidents of a mass nature.'
He said there had this year again been a relatively high incidence of such mass protests, many of which were essentially repetitions of earlier disturbances. Li cited a mass protest in Shishou, Hubei  province, in June in which thousands clashed with police following the apparent suicide of a chef. He said this mirrored similar protests the previous year in Wengan  county, Guizhou  province, following the drowning of a 17-year-old girl. 
'The similarity with the Wengan case is that, at the time everyone was discussing the death, the government had classified it as an abnormal death,' he said. 'But people spread the news over the internet and other media saying it was a suicide or murder. 
'When the government eventually announced the autopsy results and found it was a suicide, the family would not believe it, resulting in an attempt to protect the body, which went on for some 30 hours.'
These incidents could be classified as 'non-class-related' or 'non-self-beneficial', he said, meaning that the participants came from all walks of life and had no direct personal involvement with the root cause of the disturbance. 
These were on the rise in some areas with weak financial foundations, as economic restructuring and rapid development exposed problems caused by 'historic contradictions' and accentuated long-standing grievances.




Social, not personal, grievances causing mass unrest, report says