They Still Believe

During my daily (or oftener) visit to the Netscape blog I came across this article on rioting in China.

Several people were injured as up to 20,000 people clashed with 1,000 police in Hunan province on Friday, a local official told Reuters news agency.

The Boxun Chinese news website said the clash was sparked by rising public transport costs. A witness told the BBC sporadic incidents continued on Monday.

Rural regions of China have seen mounting unrest in recent years.

Thousands of protests were held last year amid growing discontent over the widening gap between rich and poor and corruption among officials at local level and above.

Good thing some people still think that governments can control prices without respect to costs. This is going to roil China for decades as Communist ideology comes up against capitalist reality.

The Chinese government has introduced a series of measures to try to address the sources of discontent in rural communities.

They include pumping billions of dollars into the rural economy in the form of farm subsidies, as well as reining in the seizures of farmland for development and tackling government corruption.

Eminent domain abuse and farm subsidies. Where have I heard that story before?