How does some poor Chinese peasant who's dedicated his whole life to communism feel when some party executive's son is barreling past him in a late-model BMW convertible. Pretty stupid, I expect. And maybe a little more than revolutionary...
China on the verge of unemployment explosion
By John Chan
15 December 2008
Four years ago, the former World Bank President James Wolfensohn warned Chinese leaders that they had to address the widening social gulf between rich and poor. "That way," he said, "unlike the French [aristocrats], you will not be taken to the guillotine on July 14." The idea that the French Revolution could occur in contemporary China may have seemed farfetched at the time when the economy was experiencing an unprecedented boom—expanding at more than 10 percent each year.
Wolfensohn's warning can no longer be considered an exaggeration. After 30 years as a giant cheap labour platform for the world's major corporations, China cannot avoid being dragged into the greatest financial crisis since the 1930s. With the economy slowing rapidly, unemployment is set to skyrocket and social discontent will explode.
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