Chinese institute online calls for protests and police respond "roughing up" western joiurnalists blaming them for instigating dissent. (At least it's not Al Qaeda this time)

There are an estimatd100, 000 protests in China each year

As we mentioned previously, the Chinese bureaucracy, so terrified of its own people, blocked the word “Egypt” from internet search engines for fear that the popular uprising that ousted Mubarak might catch on over there.

Despite the censorship, the events in the Middle East and North Africa have had their effect in Asia, notably in Stalinist Vietnam and China. A Vietnamese reformer was arrested by the government after calling for revolutionary change and the Chinese security forces have responded to calls for protests in numerous locations in China with increased repression.

Western, Hong Kong and Taiwanese journalists turning up at the locations were roughed up and beaten by police according to Radio Free Asia. The Chinese government is blaming foreign media for the scuffles because if they didn’t turn up to cover the protests the police wouldn’t have to remove them. Interesting logic.

The rallies are inspired by the uprisings in the Middle East, Asia radio says and the authorities had warned foreign journalists not to turn up at the designated locations.  Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu: “Foreign journalists should respect and abide by China's laws and regulations... Beijing is a very big city with a large population. It is important to maintain normal order,"

There is always talk from various ruling classes or caste’s about the need for order. The capitalist class always talks of the need for the “rule of law.” The issue is who makes the laws of course. Laws are made by people and they are made to protect the economic interests of those that rule society.

Still, online calls for protests in major cities across China as the National People’s Congress meets on March 6th have continued despite threats and a heavy police presence. The Chinese bureaucracy has not forgotten Tiananmen Square and the protests, started by students and eventually including workers and peasants. The military also faced serious internal divisions at that time.

Since then there have been major strikes in the huge textile and auto factories that have arisen since Tiananmen. Workers at recent strikes in Honda plants were successful in increasing wages; some strikes have increased wages by as much as 20%. These struggles were independent of the Communist Party controlled Unions and independent Unions are a major issue for Chinese workers.There have also been numerous suicides at the electronic maker Foxconn’s massive plant. Read more about these developments here and here.

There are thousands of protests in China every day concerning work, unemployment, corruption and land grabs. The potential for similar developments to those in the Arab world is great and the Chinese bureaucracy is acutely aware of the situation which is whey they are so terrified of any political activity, open demonstrations and dissent.

The global ruling classes, from Wall Street to Beijing have seen the effect of globalization on mass consciousness and are not pleased. They see what happens when the masses move. Every “expert” every academic in the field of international relations had they been asked in early 1989 how long the Soviet Union would have lasted would have answered “many, many years”. They certainly wouldn’t have said 8 months. And who would have dreamed three months ago that the Arab world would rise up and throw off some of their most oppressive US/western backed dictators.

Part of our lack of understanding is that media is very controlled. There were numerous strikes and protests over the past few years in Egypt for example, eventually suppressed. But the anger only remains suppressed temporarily, people re-group, wait for the time, and eventually the struggle breaks out in to the open again.

China will explode in the not so distant future