China's Double-Fisted Handful

The reality is China cannot afford to follow in the financial footsteps of America and the Western world it leads. Furthermore, there is no domestic support for such action. China has been adversely affected by the Wall Street meltdown and needs to spend its reserves domestically to support its economy and create new jobs to replace the millions of factory jobs lost because of the global recession and loss of export orders.

China has to find 24 million jobs in 2009 to ensure social order. Jobless university graduates, unemployed migrant workers and disgruntled retired military personnel, of which there will be more than three million with their families in 2009, protesting government policies is a lethal political social cocktail. Especially in the major cities where most of the unemployed homeless migrant workers make up the multi-million floating population. With more than 60 percent of China’s population moving to cities by 2030 ─ that’s 900 million urban dwellers ─ economic stability and prosperity are essential for the Communist Party to retain public order and power.

When confronted with about 100 retired army nuclear engineers, representing over 60,000 suffering from radiation exposure while working on China’s atomic weapons program, staging public protests over their pensions which they are not receiving, while grain and pig farmers ─ who have made or broke Chinese Dynasties, including the Communist Party ─ unable to make a living on the farm, have created a food crisis that threatens to bring down the communist dynasty. Famines have been one of the primary causes that toppled Chinese dynasties. As the global prices for key grains ─ rice, wheat, corn and soya beans ─ have risen steadily since 2005 because of pressure from farmers who would rather plant crops for bio-fuels than food. China has seven percent of the world’s arable land to feed 22 percent of the world’s population.