Earlier this week I wrote about one of the major problems in China today and for the past few years: the taking of farmland for industrial purposes and the uproar this has caused in the countryside. Yesterday, the Chinese press reported that Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao, was quite concerned about the problem saying, "We absolutely cannot commit a historic error over land problems". He called the land seizures illegal and acknowledged that it "is still a key source of instability in rural areas and even the whole society".
The problem seems to lie with the national government's inability to control local officials in this matter as the legal system is run by the local Communist party. The leaders realize the time bomb inherent in the widening wage gap between rural and city workers coupled with soaring costs for education and health care. The issue affects almost two-thirds of China's population. They know that the problem has to be resolved. The question is how.
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