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Mainstream, Vol XLVIII, No 30, July 17, 2010

Wave of Crime and Labour Strikes in China

Thursday 22 July 2010, by Rakesh Gupta

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It is time and again that scribes write of the international crime syndicate as during the Cold War people wrote of the international terror network. Now they talk about regional centres. The bursting of the Russian spy ring in the US involving Ms Chapman accompanied by Clinton visiting Georgia, Abkhazia and Kiev is catching headlines. The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) is being blamed for criminal activities in the Middle East involving bank robberies, corruption and illicit business for these have links with terror. In India those who remember terror in Punjab politics would recall that much before terror it was ordinary crime which smoked havoc. This was the beginning of another story of another ISI then linked with the creation of the problem of the Afghan war and now the Canadians are apologising for their hand in that politics then. Nobody talks about the Chinese hand in the insurgency in the North-East in the 1960s though the rising crime graph in the US then showed the growth of terror politics in the Western democracies. A country of masks, gun powder and excellent miniature painting on pottery and paper, its scientific genius discovered by Joseph Needham, Confucian harmony and Tsun Ze’s strategic thought now publishes its own record in the sharing of the Satanic fruit of crime and labour unrest within the quest for harmony. The list is unbelievably long to include every bit of events in the last two months. A sampling has been done here for its covert politics. To which we shall return at the end.

On June 30, 2010 Liu Yajung, the chief of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, Central South Asia Regional Administration of China, blew the lid off corruption in three state owned aviation companies. One of the companies was benefiting by practices of bribery to extend its business to the north. Those involved in bribery were not caught but out of desperation Liu committed suicide. The investigation team has not been able to report on his direct linkage to the corruption cases. The bribery practices have been linked with the construction of a new terminal at the Beijing Capital International Airport. Before his death, three other deaths had been removed from the same office owing to their alleged involvement in corruption. At the core of this exposé was the conflict between the American and Chinese airlines. The Americans had refused to avail of some early morning time slots at the Beijing airport, where better time slots went to the Chinese airlines willing to pay the better slots. Interesting example this is for the inter-imperialist rivalry that the Communist Party mask cannot hide.

ON June 28 the Italian Police launched ‘Operation Great China’ across northern Italy with the goal of apprehending Chinese and Italian organised crime in Europe resulting in 17 and seven arrests of the Chinese and Italians who have been connected with prostitution, illegal immigration, tax evasion and money laundering. It further led to the confiscation of 100 million Euros (about $ 122 million) worth of property and cars. The laundered money went back to China through the activities of Cai family living in Milan since an unknown period. The family had purchased their shares in the name of their maid. This family is involved in illegal migrant labour smuggling, operating multiple brothels disguised as saloons and massage parlours. This appears to be the Chinese version of the Indian hawala money used for a variety of political purposes inside and outside the country.

Drunk drivers beat up a cop in Handon, Helsei province. At the site of illegal mining workers smashed windows and doors fighting with the police with stones. A German killed a Venezuelian woman and a man of unknown origin. The attacker stabbed himself but did not die. An eleven-year-old boy kidnapped in the TESCO parking lot in Wuxi, Jiangsu province. A man detonated a handmade grenade in a restaurant in Guiyang, Guizong province. Four individuals were charged with counterfeiting more than 200 million Yuan ($ 30 million) in Guangzhou in Guangdong. Three Chinese were killed by the Korean forces for illegal crossing of the border. A man attacked schoolchildren in Ningde, Fujian province. In another case three judges were shot at by the e-security director using sulphuric acid. Another weapon that people generally use in such attacks is the knife. A couple threw sulphuric acid on the face of a judge for deciding to get their house forcefully vacated. These random events show the turmoil in the society and these do positively have signs of anti-state features.

By the end of May the strike in Honda’s Hoshan plant led to wage increase and workers made more demands in other centres. Some strikes have been very violent. At the Taiwanese-owned auto parts supplier in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, about thirty kilometres from Shanghai, workers, after reaching the factory, refused to work. In the subsequent events the police injured a pregnant woman, and there were bloody clashes between riot police and 2000 workers. More riot police was called to seal off the area. In 1966 this was the site of a major clash between Red Guards and the citizens who had staged a work stoppage. Kunshan is a major factory centre, one of the wealthiest of its size of population (650,000). Social tensions are worrisome here.

Some features need to be underlined. One the State agencies are involved in malpractices. Individuals and the entertainment industry are equally involved in criminal activities; trans-border crime involves the Chinese economy. Revolts against the judges and police show how things are in turmoil even if they have yet to reach the boiling point. Revolts against the Japanese and Taiwanese factories are highlighted by the media for its political mileage. Events inconvenient to the regime are not played up in the media. Generally the regime is alarmed that the wave may move in the northern direction. People use sulphuric acid and knives since these are easily available. Now the authorities have imposed some restrictions on the sale of knives.

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