Wary China Tells Local Leaders To Manage Unrest

[DeSwiss]

Source: AP

Wary China tells local leaders to manage unrest

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jul 16, 10:49 AM ET

BEIJING - Responding to a fresh wave of unrest as China gears up to host the Olympics next month, the communist leadership has told local leaders to be on alert to public grievances and find ways to resolve them. The order is the most recent in a series of calls reflecting the government's apparent concern over rising social inequality, rampant corruption and the weak legal system.

Communist Party secretaries at the county level have been told to "keep track of key public complaint cases until they are solved," the English-language China Daily newspaper said Wednesday, citing earlier reports in Chinese state media. "The unprecedented move ... shows the central leadership is paying more attention to public complaints," the state-run paper said under the front page headline "Officials 'must treat public woes.'"

As Beijing enters the final stretch before the Aug. 8-24 Olympics, the government is trying to limit complaints and demonstrations across the country that could tarnish the image of an orderly, modern nation it's been striving to achieve. Mostly, Beijing has relied on heavy-handed tactics to suppress unrest: Petitioners bringing grievances to Beijing have been rounded up and officials have been told to thwart attempts by thousands of laid-off teachers to publicly demand pensions and other benefits.

A repressive crackdown also followed deadly anti-government rioting in Tibet and the traditionally Turkic Muslim Xinjiang region in the west. The latest order to resolve conflicts made no mention of specific instructions on how to do so — and appeared to follow an all too common trend whereby the government strives to appear responsive without exposing the party to direct criticism or making officials more accountable to the public.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080716/ap_on_re_as/china_protests

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- Maybe the Commies should ask the IOC to make rioting for human rights an Olympic event....
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DeSwiss


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