May 19, 2005
China's danger lies within
Domestic troubles may thwart Beijing's quest to become the ascendant Asia Pacific power. Adam Power reports for The Standard, China's Business Newspaper.
[...] The recent string of protests directed at Japan demonstrated Beijing's ability to control (and manipulate) mass crowds in China for foreign policy goals.
However, those protests have also exposed some of Beijing's weaknesses on this front. SMS messaging and e-mail were used to organize complicated protests.
It is estimated that there were 60,000 protests in 2003, a number that has increased 17 percent annually over the past decade; in some inland areas, protests are becoming a daily occurrence. This could be viewed as an opening of China's political system if it were not for the harsh measures that Beijing has employed to squash dissent in recent years."
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