96 per cent of people in China now feel resentful towards the wealthy

[HellAngel]

SHANGHAI: AMID a widening wealth gap between rich and poor, a survey has found that a startling 96 per cent of people in China now feel resentful towards the wealthy, a result that could portend trouble for the ruling Communist Party's modernising strategy.

News reports have found that the bulk of those at the higher echelons of the new rich are scions of party stalwarts.

The survey, released by the Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences, detected not only the burgeoning resentment, but also found that 70 per cent of the 1,159 respondents felt there was now "a big gap" between the rich and poor in China now.

Worse, over half of those surveyed further believe that the gap will become even bigger.

The survey, launched in the first half of the year, was based on questionnaires handed out to representatives of 10 social groups, including public servants, entrepreneurs and farmers. Its results span the gamut of Chinese society and need to be taken especially seriously.

"I believe that the wealth gap is a much more serious problem nationwide (than hitherto believed)," said Mr Qiu Liping, a professor of social stratification at Shanghai University.

"Our society is in dire need of a platform for dialogue between the rich and the poor," he added. Such a platform, he said, will minimise resentment against the rich.

"People do not always hate the rich. People hate those who are immorally rich," he said.

Rising anger has seen people lash out, at times in petty ways.

Ms Cherry Chang, an editor of a luxury magazine in Shanghai, said that her car - a red Porsche - has been vandalised three times in two weeks.

Her friend's Lamborghini had fared no better.

"I think there are many people in this city who harbour a deep resentment against the rich," she said.

The wrath aimed at the wealthy has been a hot-button issue recently, and has, in some cases, gone past vandalism to kidnapping and even murder.

A recent commentary in People's Daily brought up a widely-cited report that there are 3,220 people on the Chinese mainland whose wealth exceeded 100 million yuan (S$20.38 million) and that 2,932 - or 91 per cent of them - are children of top officials.

"This is an out-and-out falsehood," the commentary had gone on to claim.

Yet, part of the problem would seem to be that there has never been specific data on how large the gaps are between different social strata.

The public is concerned over reports of rich people's income because it resents the fact that a Shanxi coal-mine boss bought 100 million yuan worth of villas in Beijing while a blue-collar worker must save for 90 years to buy a second-hand 70-sq m flat.

For now, the survey respondents do not openly blame the party. Mr Yi Zhao, a civil servant from Guangdong province, admitted that he dislikes the rich, then added: "Most of them collect wealth at the expense of the poor. Take those real- estate manipulators. They control the property market, aiming for a higher price, and profit.

"On the other hand, I simply can't accept the skyrocketing prices. Isn?t it unfair to the majority who are unable to afford an apartment, even if we squeeze together the savings of three generations?"

Few are like Ms Xiao Xiaowei, a self-employed 24-year- old from Wuhan, who said she actually respected the rich, especially billionaires.

"It's true that some of them get rich illegally or at the expense of the poor, but getting rich surely requires some other qualities, such as excellent interpersonal skills ," Ms Xiao said.

Ms Chang said she had worked hard to be able to buy an apartment and a car.

"If those people have the time to hate us and envy us, why don't they spend the time working, using diligence and intelligence?" she asked rhetorically.

But Mr Zhang Qi, a 28-year-old professional in Beijing, speaks for many when insisting that getting rich and making money are not just about working hard.

"I haven't thought much about making a lot of money. Life is hard for me and I am privileged to have a decent job," he said.

"For those who are less privileged, life must be even harder," he added.

- China Daily/Asia News Network

 

[cooleo]

>>"It's true that some of them get rich illegally or at the expense of the poor, but getting rich surely requires some other qualities, such as excellent interpersonal skills ," Ms Xiao said.<<

So naive. Is she like 8 years old?

 

[GoFlyKiteNow]

>>"It's true that some of them get rich illegally or at the expense of the poor, but getting rich surely requires some other qualities, such as excellent interpersonal skills ," Ms Xiao said.<<

So naive. Is she like 8 years old?

The commies are always paranoid about maintaining "social stability"..and will enforce this artificial stability by force, oppression and propaganda..because instability is the worst fear they have in their lives.
Only goes to show how fragile is the commies and their control apparatus.

 

[hahaho]

Zhao Ziyang Memoir Reveals Chinese Communist Party Secrets, Inner Workings
Party will not let go of power under any cost or condition.

The 306-page "Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang" was crafted over four years from tapes recorded in secret by Zhao, who lived under tightly monitored house arrest for 15 years before dying in 2005.

It chronicles the events that led up to the 1989 protests and details how party leaders grappled with the situation. It also describes for the first time the loneliness the snowy-haired, bespectacled Zhao _ who loved golf and Western suits _ felt while in exile. "The entrance to my home is a cold, desolate place," Zhao says.

While the book covers the same ground others before have explored, the first-person account and intimate details of political bickering and machinations are new.

A protege of the then-supreme leader Deng Xiaoping, Zhao helped launch China's economic boom in the 1980s through bold reform that brought new prosperity to an economy stagnated by the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.

But because he clashed with other party factions over the Tiananmen protests _ centered around calls for more political freedom and an end to corruption _ and was sympathetic to the demonstrators, he was accused of "splitting the party" and purged on June 24, 1989.

Zhao was last seen in public on May 19, 1989, the day before martial law was declared in Beijing, when he made a tearful visit to Tiananmen Square to talk to student hunger strikers. He famously apologized to them, saying "I have come too late."

Two weeks later, on June 3-4, the military crushed the dissent, killing hundreds and possibly thousands of people.

"It's said that the goal of this event was to overturn the Communist Party," he says of the protests. "Where's the evidence for that?"

In the last chapter, Zhao praises the western system of parliamentary democracy and says it is the only way China can solve its problems of corruption and a growing gap between the rich and poor.

"We must establish that the final goal of political reform is the realization of this advanced political system. If we don't move towards this goal, it will be impossible to resolve the abnormal conditions in China's market economy," he says.

In another key chapter Zhao describes the chaos and political tussle surrounding the party's decision to impose martial law to quash the Tiananmen protests. Zhao says he told Deng in a May 17 meeting that "if we take a confrontational stance with the masses, a dangerous situation could ensue in which we lose complete control."

Even so, Deng decided on his own to start a military crackdown. Zhao says he left the meeting "extremely upset."

"I told myself that no matter what, I refused to become the General Secretary who mobilized the military to crack down on students," Zhao says.

On the night of June 3, when tanks rumbled down the Avenue of Eternal Peace and the shooting began, Zhao was sitting in his courtyard with his family and the significance sank in.

 

[numero uno]

Zhao Ziyang Memoir Reveals Chinese Communist Party Secrets, Inner Workings
Party will not let go of power under any cost or condition.

The 306-page "Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang" was crafted over four years from tapes recorded in secret by Zhao, who lived under tightly monitored house arrest for 15 years before dying in 2005.

It chronicles the events that led up to the 1989 protests and details how party leaders grappled with the situation. It also describes for the first time the loneliness the snowy-haired, bespectacled Zhao _ who loved golf and Western suits _ felt while in exile. "The entrance to my home is a cold, desolate place," Zhao says.

While the book covers the same ground others before have explored, the first-person account and intimate details of political bickering and machinations are new.

A protege of the then-supreme leader Deng Xiaoping, Zhao helped launch China's economic boom in the 1980s through bold reform that brought new prosperity to an economy stagnated by the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.

But because he clashed with other party factions over the Tiananmen protests _ centered around calls for more political freedom and an end to corruption _ and was sympathetic to the demonstrators, he was accused of "splitting the party" and purged on June 24, 1989.

Zhao was last seen in public on May 19, 1989, the day before martial law was declared in Beijing, when he made a tearful visit to Tiananmen Square to talk to student hunger strikers. He famously apologized to them, saying "I have come too late."

Two weeks later, on June 3-4, the military crushed the dissent, killing hundreds and possibly thousands of people.

"It's said that the goal of this event was to overturn the Communist Party," he says of the protests. "Where's the evidence for that?"

In the last chapter, Zhao praises the western system of parliamentary democracy and says it is the only way China can solve its problems of corruption and a growing gap between the rich and poor.

"We must establish that the final goal of political reform is the realization of this advanced political system. If we don't move towards this goal, it will be impossible to resolve the abnormal conditions in China's market economy," he says.

In another key chapter Zhao describes the chaos and political tussle surrounding the party's decision to impose martial law to quash the Tiananmen protests. Zhao says he told Deng in a May 17 meeting that "if we take a confrontational stance with the masses, a dangerous situation could ensue in which we lose complete control."

Even so, Deng decided on his own to start a military crackdown. Zhao says he left the meeting "extremely upset."

"I told myself that no matter what, I refused to become the General Secretary who mobilized the military to crack down on students," Zhao says.

On the night of June 3, when tanks rumbled down the Avenue of Eternal Peace and the shooting began, Zhao was sitting in his courtyard with his family and the significance sank in.

Mainland China people are hypocrites!!!! sure 96% are resentful because they are the poor ones. the 4% who are not resentful are actually the rich ones themselves!!!!