International news agencies have seized on the death of a senior steel plant manager in northeastern China at the hands of angry workers, and the mass brawl at a Shaoguan toy factory between Uighur and Han employees that prompted the violence in Urumchi.
While welcoming the media spotlight on China’s neglected labor issues, the China Labour Bulletin, a grantee of the National Endowment for Democracy, notes that “the reality is that workers are far more likely to be the victims of violence, harassment, intimidation and abuse than the perpetrators of it.”
The violence in Urumchi has strengthened the hand of China’s hardliners, argues Charles Grant. The country’s internal political system is becoming more authoritarian, he writes, noting that the Communist party has “promulgated a new doctrine known as the ‘six whys,’ stressing Marxist thought, the state’s role in the economy, party leadership, and the need to avoid both multiparty democracy and the separation of powers.”
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