China's economic reform causing social unrest and crime - report

	2004-06-09 14:42 BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) - More than 3 mln people were engaged in some 58,500 incidents of social unrest in China last year, with disputes on the rise as the economy steams ahead and market forces are unleashed, the state-run Outlook Weekly reported. The rise in civil disputes and mass protests are linked to the nation's burgeoning private economy, which remains largely unregulated and difficult to control, the weekly periodical said in its current edition. It is also because of the transformation and reform of state-owned industries. Social dissatisfaction is also leading to an alarming rise in juvenile delinquency, while a huge "floating population" of rural workers account for up to 80 pct of urban crime, it added. "Mass incidents, or social unrest" increased by 14.4 pct over 2002, with the numbers of people involved rising by 6.6 pct, the report said, citing statistics from the politics and law commission of the ruling Communist Party. "The number of mass incidents stemming from contradictions among the people has already become a prominent problem influencing social stability," Xi Jinping, the party secretary of Zhejiang province, was quoted as saying. "These kinds of incidents are often issues left over from history that are merging with new problems." Reasonable disputes over salaries, social benefits, land taxes, compensation for demolishing homes and relocating residents and other such issues are also turning into criminal activity due to society's failure to deal with them in the early stages, the report said. In some localities, up to 70 pct of murder cases stem from local disputes, it said. "The rational demands of the people and the criminal form that their reactions are taking are intertwined, making it very difficult to resolve the issues," Xi said. Other civil disputes stem from state enterprise reform, institutional reform, mergers, bankruptcies, investment schemes, stocks, corruption, bureaucratic red tape, environmental pollution and dissatisfaction over government policy, it said. Meanwhile, China's courts are overwhelmed with civil cases, with the numbers rising from several tens of thousands in the 1980s to over 4.8 mln in 2003, it said. "In some regions, new contradictions continue to erupt because of bureaucratic corruption, one sided implementation of policy and tense relations between officials and people," the report added. sai/mp/rcw/wpf