Sinoblogging
More labor unrest in China:
It started as a pay dispute at a southern Chinese toy factory. But it quickly turned into a riot as laid-off workers tapped into a network of friends and unemployed laborers who flipped over a police car, stormed into the plant and smashed office computers.
The latest violent protest to rock China’s export machine was still simmering Wednesday at the massive plant, which makes Nerf toys for the U.S. company Hasbro Inc. The volatility underscored the urgency of China’s efforts to keep stoking an economy weakened by the global financial crisis.
To protect jobs and social stability, the central government recently signed off on a multibillion-dollar stimulus plan. Officials have also been urging factories to avoid large layoffs and to try retraining employees to keep them off the streets.
Look for more of this kind of thing in the coming months. If you see too much of it, stop looking for deals on toys or consumer electronics or Home Depot power tools or much of anything else stamped “Made in China.”
With all of the damage people in China have taken between this and the melamine scandals, I am starting to wonder if the Chinese Government is actively trying to discredit capitalism to the point where the people start asking for Maoism.
Oddly the term “Nerf Riot” sounds fairly innocuous. If I were a musician it would make a nice b-side title.
Jeez, Gamer, don’t go all paranoid on us.
The men in charge over there grasped what killed the Soviet Union, and decided to avoid that trap, which is why they started converting to capitalistic methods nearly 20 years ago.
The trick is to convert your economy while avoiding unrest. If you recall, that’s a traditional Chinese concern.
They’re not really communist anymore, but they’re not yet truly capitalist either, and problems like this one underline the issue.
Now that I think about it, I recall hearing complaints for years that China has deliberately over-valued the yen. Perhaps this is aggravating the liquidity crisis.