Large Scale Protests Expose the True Meaning of Jiang Zemin's Claim That "Stability Takes Priority over Everything Else"

For the past 13 years, Jiang has almost lost his voice shouting over and over again, "Stability takes priority over everything else." However, the "stability" to which Jiang refers is not that of Chinese society nor is it stability in the lives of the Chinese populace. Instead, what he wants is to maintain the stability of his personal control of the Party, the Government, and the Army. For the sake of this "stability," Jiang does not even care whether the growing number of protests and demonstrations could lead to the overthrow of the Party.

In early June of 2002, Wei Jianxing, a member of the Standing Committee of the Politics Bureau (a small group of the Party's top leaders), wrote a letter to the Politics Bureau and Jiang Zemin, its General Secretary, requesting a special meeting of the Central Party Committee to discuss the most important social problem facing China: 60 million unemployed. However, Jiang did not acknowledge the suggestion, emphasizing instead, "Among thousands of jobs that need to be done, the most important issue is to unify everyone's views in order to have the 16th National Congress of the Party be successful." Thus, Wei's special meeting proposal aiming at relieving people from hardship was laid aside.

What views does Jiang want people to "unify"? Instead of letting the unemployed and the poor farmers have food on their tables, Jiang wants them to unify their views on the issue of renewing his term in office as the Party General Secretary. Nothing, neither the country nor the people, is as important to Jiang as his staying in office.

On Beijing's Tiananmen Square, Falun Gong practitioners continue to be brutally treated. At least five hundred were arrested on New Year's Day in Tiananmen Square.

One hundred thousand workers from Beijing Capital Iron and Steel Corporation walked onto the streets with big protest banners, asking management to resume benefits that had been taken away.

About 10 thousand coal miners and their family members lay on the railways in Jilin Province. This has been the largest railway-blocking protest demonstration ever organized by workers in China.

About a thousand farmers in Shunde County, Guangdong Province, battled with over 400 policemen during protests.

Some 200 employees of a hotel in Shenzhen City demonstrated in front of the City's Labour Bureau and City Government, protesting the fact that management delayed paying their wages without any explanation.

About 10,000 villagers protested against the local governments of Jiangxi Province for over-taxing them and collecting excess fees. More than 600 armed-policemen went to crack down on the protesters and opened fire on the crowd. Two people were killed and eighteen people were wounded.

Five hundred workers in Zibo City, Shandong Province went to the City Government to protest because of the bankruptcy of the company they had worked for. Meanwhile, five hundred employees of the Steel Factory of Shanxi Province blocked the streets to protest the non-payment of their wages for as long as one-and-one-half years.

An enormous banner-waving protest rally was held for three consecutive days in front of Xi'an City Government, Shaanxi Province.

Three hundred villagers from Lantian County and Zhouzi County, Shaanxi Province, held a protest rally, blocking the Xi'an City Government Gate.

In Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, about 5000 taxi drivers organized a protest march toward the Provincial Government building. In addition, several thousand people scuffled with three hundred public security policemen and armed policemen sent out by the government outside of the Provincial Government building.

More than 500 residents held large-scale demonstrations for over two consecutive weeks in front of the Qingdao City Government buildings, having repeated conflicts with public security policemen.

To thwart protests in Chongqing City organized by laid-off workers, the city government sent out riot police. Several workers were wounded and two workers died in the incident.

Several hundred retired government administrators gathered together and held a protest demonstration in front of the entrance to the Sichuan Province Government in the business district of Chendu City.

About 1000 relatives of the elementary school students who died in the Fanglin Elementary school explosion were joined by other villagers in Wanzai County, Jiangxi Province, in a gathering to ask the government to thoroughly investigate the cause of the school explosion.

The majority of the faculty and students of Beijing University protested after plain-clothes policemen from the Security Bureau secretly kidnapped Yang Zili.

More than 3000 policemen and soldiers in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province surrounded Sichuan University, Geology College and several other universities in Chengdu City, preventing student protests.

Faculty and students of more than 50 colleges and universities in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Wuhan, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Shenyang, Xi'an, Chongqing etc. have requested to have demonstrations in the streets, but their requests have been rejected.

About 2000 miners in Northern city Datong (in Shanxi Province) blocked the roads to protest and had many conflicts with the police.

Five hundred workers in Henan Province blocked the streets at the gate of a county government office, protesting against the government delaying their wages, because they could not survive any more. Two hundred workers in Henan Province staged a demonstration outside of a court, protesting that a leader of the workers' movement had been falsely charged.

In Yueyang City, Hunan Province, Yueyang Petrochemical Plant under Baling Petrochemical General Company of China's Petrochemical Corporation has more than 30,000 employees. A planned large-scale performance aimed at celebrating the Party's eighty-year anniversary turned into an employees' protest rally.

In Jingzhou City, Hubei Province, 1500 taxi drivers gathered at City Government Square for three consecutive days, protesting against the imposition of a fee of 30,000 Chinese Yuan (about $3750) for each business permit.

A large-scale taxi driver's group-appeal occurred for two consecutive days in Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, to protest the local government unexpectedly confiscating more than 2000 private cabs in the city and then selling them at auction.

In Guiyang Cotton Mill, Guizhou Province, close to 1000 workers demonstrated at the gate of the factory after it had been closed down. The local government sent out 200 riot policemen to crack down on the protesters. As a result, ten people were wounded, one severely.

In Shulan City, Jilin Province, about 10,000 workers from Shulan Mining became frustrated by the Mine Management Bureau's delays in paying their wages. They and their family members marched to the major railway line from Jilin City to Harbin City and laid down on the railway to protest, causing railway traffic to be totally stopped for five hours.

In Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province, several thousand workers camped out in front of the City Government. They shouted, "We want to survive" and similar other slogans, asking the government to solve their food problems!

The events listed above are just a few of the protests, which occurred all over the country in 2001. These are just a tiny fraction of the total.

Under this kind of pressure, how long will "stability" last? Ongoing protests, from Beijing to the coastal regions and from the northeast to the northwest, answer this question.