China Politics: The Price of Security or Safety: More Repression

In the name of public security and safety, the Chinese government has waged an implicit war against her constituency.

Photos from Wall Street Journal

From the Wall Street Journal

Already difficult commutes in China’s capital became even more punishing this week, as Beijing beefed up subway security checks in the wake of deadly attacks targeting civilians.

Hundreds of unhappy commuters stood in long lines across the city Wednesday morning to undergo enhanced security screenings, which now include body checks as well as bag screenings in several stations. At stations in the city’s north, subway staff said passengers had to wait between 20-30 minutes to get through the security line, up from about 10-15 minutes prior to the new screening requirements.

Why is this? (bold mine)

Security measures have stiffened across China in recent weeks, following a series of violent attacks since the start of the year. In the most recent incident, 31 people were killed last week in an attack at a market in northwest Urumqi. In March, dozens were killed in an assault by knife-wielding assailants at a train station in southwest Kunming. Authorities have labeled such episodes terrorist attacks and attributed them to separatists in northwestern Xinjiang.

Additional security measures in Beijing now include helicopter patrols, while cities across the country have been further arming their police forces, as well.

So treating the average citizenry as suspects have been responses to the growing internal political troubles plaguing the alarmed Chinese government.

Yet if the Chinese government can’t respect her own people what more the neighbors? 

And as her asset bubbles deflate which should mean an acceleration in economic downturn, more incidences of social upheavals is to be expected which will be met by even more political 'tyrannical' repression.

The above seem as more signs that the Chinese government has been preparing for the worst.

So the next thing that Chinese government will be exporting will hardly be goods and services but social turmoil.

All these reminds me of Benjamin Franklin who once said,

They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

But don't worry be happy. Stocks will always go up.