Harmonious society

Question 1

Formation of harmonious society

Answer 1

• introduced at 2005 NPC by Hu-Wen administration
• aims to establish harmonious society by 2020
• central goal of any communist country

Question 2

Issues with harmonious society

Answer 2

Welfare

• education spending 2% of GDP; 4.1% in most developed countries
• healthcare is 4.6% of GDP but prohibitative for most
• not enough mental healthcare: April-May 2010, 4 attacks with 18 people killed, mostly in schools, toddlers beat with hammers

Land seizure

• up 17% in 2006
• 43% of villagers claim to be victims
• yearly, 4 million citizens’ land is appropriated
• between mid 1990s and mid 2000s, 40 million

“Stability at all costs” used to justify repression

Question 3

Outcomes for harmonious society

Answer 3

• 80 - 100,000 mass incidents yearly
• only 0.2% of petitions are sucessfuly resolved
• suicide attack in Tiananmen Square on October 28, 2013, 8 killed after SUV (containting knives, iron rods, gasoline and flags with religious slogans) plowed through crowd, 5 Uighurs arrested
• November 6, explosions outside Communist Party Headquarters, one killed, rumoured to be linked to inequality
• three terrorist attacks in 2013 alone - June, Xiamen bus self-immolation killed 47, man attemped to set off bomb in Airport