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by James Reynolds (BBC News)Youwon't find it written down anywhere. The government would deny that itexists. But it's one of the first things that you learn about when youget to China. Everyone here understands it. And it helps to explain whythe Communist Party has been able to stay in power.
It's The Deal - sometimes known as The Bargain or the Pact.
The Deal is an unspoken agreement between the Chinese government andits people. It was reached in the aftermath of the crushing of theTiananmen Square student protests in 1989. It goes like this: thepeople leave the politics to the government; in return the governmentmakes the people rich.
A crude way of looking at it is that the Communist Party has simplybought off its people with money and jobs. But there's more to it thanthat. For more than a century, until the late 1970s, China lived inalmost constant chaos: a collapsing empire, foreign invasion andoccupation, civil war, famine (any Chinese person over 35 can stillremember some of those years). Many people here want a break from theanarchy they once knew. So, a more accurate way of seeing The Deal isthis: everyone has agreed to leave behind years of chaos by focusingall of their efforts on the economy. Getting rich feels better thanbeing hungry and anarchic.
For years, The Deal has governed how life works in China. Today'sstudents haven't protested like their predecessors a generation agopartly because there have always been enough jobs for them when theygraduate (and partly because they know that demonstrations end badly).Workers and farmers haven't risen up in mass revolt because the Party'sgiven them the chance to escape from poverty. In other words, if youkeep quiet and put your faith in the system, you can get a good life.
In recent years, there have been thousands of small-scale protests.But these demonstrations (or "incidents" as the government calls them)have been about localised issues (eg officials in a certain villagehave stolen money, or migrant workers on a specific project haven'tbeen paid). Until now, there's been no one single issue for people toprotest about.
But now, the world's financial crisis has hit China. As I wrote last week,many Chinese companies which export goods to the West have had to shutdown. Migrant workers who left their villages to get jobs are nowhaving to go back home to nothing. We've been getting word of more andmore protests in different parts of the country. The government admitsthat the unemployment situation is "grim."
If hundreds of millions of farmers and migrant workers no longerfeel that the government can give them a better life, the governmentruns into trouble.
Here's the thought that may keep China's leaders awake at night: No Jobs, No Deal. |
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发表于 25-11-2008 22:58:49
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