Rebecca Choong Wilkins of Bloomberg reports that protests in China are on the rise amid the housing crisis and a slowing economy. Wilkins writes:
Protests in China are on the rise as the effects of a slowing economy rattle citizens and Beijing refrains from taking bolder steps to shore up growth.
Cases of dissent increased 18% in the second quarter compared to the same period last year in figures documented by the China Dissent Monitor at Freedom House, a US advocacy group. The majority of events linked to economic issues, according to a report published Wednesday.
Of those events, 44% related to labor and 21% involved aggrieved homeowners, the report noted. […]
A slowing economy presents a governance challenge to the central government even as protests typically don’t present an existential risk and local officials are responsible for dealing with such events, according to Liqian Ren, director of Modern Alpha at WisdomTree Inc., a New York-based asset management firm.
“More protests mean central government policies can’t be effectively carried out,” she said. “Its strategic long-term goals can’t be achieved when short-term needs are now more on people’s minds.”
Read more here.
Also, read Chinese Youth Unemployment Spiking.
