20110222 China calls for unrest to be defused

China calls for unrest to be defused

FLEETING:Academics say that partly because of the nations’ stellar economic growth, few people were ready to take up the mantle of the so-called ‘Jasmine Revolution’

Reuters, BEIJING

China must find new ways to defuse unrest, the domestic security chief said, underscoring Beijing’s anxiety about control after police quashed calls for gatherings inspired by uprisings in the Middle East.

A Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs official separately blamed the political violence sweeping the Middle East on too-slow growth and stunted efforts at reform.

Zhou Yongkang (周永康), the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) top law-and-order official, told cadres they had to “adapt to new trends and imperatives in economic and social development,” official newspapers reported yesterday.

“Strive to defuse conflicts and disputes while they are still embryonic,” he told an official meeting on Sunday, the China Police Daily and other papers reported.

Over the weekend, Chinese police and censors showed the CCP has little to fear from protesters hoping to emulate the unrest that unseated Egypt’s long-time president, Hosni Mubarak, and now threatens Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi.

Police dispersed dozens of people who gathered in central Beijing and Shanghai on Sunday after calls spread on overseas Chinese Web sites urging “Jasmine Revolution” gatherings. The police and foreign reporters outnumbered aspiring participants and curious passers-by caught up in the crowd.

There were no signs of protests in Beijing yesterday.

“I don’t think this was ever a serious plan. It was more like a performance or a stunt,” said Cui Weiping (崔衛平), a Beijing-based academic who said she was not allowed outside by authorities on Sunday. “In fact, I’d never even had any involvement. They seem to have just confined anyone they could think of.”

The senior foreign ministry -policy planning official said the Middle Eastern turmoil arose from the failure of countries to grow and adapt quickly enough.

“Three feet of ice doesn’t freeze over in one day, as we say. This has deep social, economic and historical background,” said the official, speaking to a small group of reporters on condition that his name was not cited.

“I think these countries may have not been able to keep up with the times in their social and economic system,” he said. “Some countries have had relatively slow economic development. Their rate of economic growth hasn’t been fast enough.”

That is hardly a worry for China, whose economy expanded by 10.3 percent last year, but a flurry of speeches and statements since last week show leaders are nonetheless worried about longer-term challenges to their rule.

China’s fast economic growth has undercut discontent that could challenge the government. It has also enabled sharply higher funding for domestic security forces, which bristle with surveillance equipment and intimidating hardware.