China’s Security Chief warns of “more social unrest”/ENG

DHARAMSHALA, December 6: China’s top security chief has warned provincial officials to be prepared for unrest if financial conditions continue to deteriorate in China.

According to a report in the state-run Legal Daily, Zhou Yongkang, a member of China’s nine-person Politburo Standing Committee said in a speech Friday that the country needed to focus on improving its “social management”, including increasing "community-level" manpower.

"It is an urgent task for us to think how to establish a social management system with Chinese characteristics to suit our socialist market economy," Zhou was quoted as saying.

"Especially when facing negative effects of the market economy."

“Social management” in communist jargon is often used to describe the application of control aimed at stamping out opposition and unrest.

Zhou Yongkang added that the country's economic development was causing imbalances and gaps in wealth between both regions and individuals.

He called for innovative approaches to a large set of policies which could include anything from increased policing to better internet control or better unemployment insurance.

China’s economy has seen its slowest rate of expansion in two years, while national real estate prices declined for the third consecutive month in November. Latest figures show that China's official purchasing manager index, a measure of manufacturing demand, plunged to its lowest point since February 2009. The PMI hit 49, which is significant as any number below 50 indicates a contraction.

The slump in economy and closure of factories have sparked large-scale strikes and labour unrest in recent weeks affecting China's southern manufacturing heartland.

Hundreds of laid-off workers of a Singaporean electronics firm Hi-P International in Shanghai went on strike last week over mass job losses and demanding adequate compensation package.

More than 7,000 workers walked off the job in south China's Guangdong province last month, shutting a factory making New Balance, Adidas and Nike shoes and clashing with police in a protest over layoffs and wage cuts.

Following the market slump and labour unrests, China this year will be spending more on “public security” than the military for the first time. Public security, which covers state surveillance of its people and maintaining China’s paramilitary police, received a boost by nearly 14% to the tune of $95 billion.