China: Rebellion in the rust belt
The Peoples Republic of China (PRC) has joined the WTO (World Trade Organization), not without difficulty and after 15 years of determined effort by a regime which is described as post-Maoist but which is in fact anti-Maoist in its social and economic logic. The next congress of the CCP will be held in the autumn. It is supposed to draw a balance sheet of the Deng Xiaoping years and organize the succession, or the appearance of succession, to the direct heirs of Deng around Jiang Zemin. The congress should also review the economic evolution of a country which is increasingly open to the international market economy (or rather ratify agreements made by the leadership) as well as the progress of privatization. All this in a context of persistent social crisis which, having affected broad sectors of the peasantry, is now hitting workers, particularly those in the state-owned sector of the economy, almost everywhere but most particularly in the old bastions of heavy industry in the north of the country and in the oilfields of Daqing. In Liaoyang, capital of Liaoning, and in Daqing, there has been significant workers' agitation following massive layoffs. *1