From Chinese Press

China is definitely not Middle East

(People.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-03-14 09:17

The U.S. "Time" magazine reported on March 7: "But there is a crucial difference -- and this is why expectations of a so-called 'Beijing Spring' are premature. In the Middle East and North Africa, even in countries with decent economic growth, governments are seen as the problem. In China... the 'regime' is regarded by its people as the engineer of the most spectacular economic expansion the world has even seen. Even the rest of the globe suffered during the financial crisis, China kept chugging along. Why throw the bums out when the bums keep delivering? Few Chinese, schooled as they are in the perils of revolution, would want to risk Arab-style chaos."

China has already abolished the life-long tenure of leading officials as a matter of course, and the change of leadership has become a conventional practice. There is no such phenomena that China is led by a leader entrenched for a decade, two decades, three decades or even four decades... In the meanwhile, China has set up a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics and keeps consummating its socialist democracy system.

Furthermore, people in China enjoy freedom of participating in the practice of governance and deliberating over government affairs under the existing legal framework and democratic system. Under no circumstances should China allow "street corner politics" to incite unrest to attain the political objectives.

Chinese leaders have always complied with public will and are bent on tackling social problems emerged in the course of reform by means of development and reform. For instance, one college student used to be selected among some 100 college-aged people and, to date, the college recruit to college aged people ratio has come to 1:4. Consequently, there are some problems facing college graduates, including unemployment. And there are also issues regarding high house prices, a rise in food and other commodities prices and a gap between the rich and the poor.

In deliberating the targets of the draft 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) and the government work report, NPC deputies and members of the CPPCC National Committee have been mulling ways toward resolving problems emerged during their panel discussions. Only development and reform is the only correct way to solve problems.

Of course, when the existing problems are resolved, new ones will come to the fore, and society keep advancing in the process of overcoming problems. But "street corner politics" can only result in social chaos, make a mess of things, and could only stagnate Chinese society in steady advance.

In a nutshell, China is definitely not the Middle East, and any vain scheme to diver Middle East turmoil to China is doomed to fail.

By People's Daily Online and its author is PD desk-editor Jiang Shangyu