CHINA has unveiled an ambitious economic reforms blueprint aimed at narrowing the growing divide between the country’s rich and poor. The five year plan that emerged at a special meeting of the Communist party, the dispensation which has been in power for the past half a century or so, on Tuesday ostensibly seeks to achieve ‘social fairness’, and dividing the fruits of recent unprecedented economic growth in the country more judiciously. Which is rather odd considering the fact the Maoist revolution was supposed to have been aimed at ‘social fairness’ and the Communist party has always claimed to champion more equal distribution of wealth.
Nevertheless, it is good that the Chinese leadership has albeit belatedly woken up to the growing social and political unrest in the country. Even as China takes giant strides forward on the world stage and has left the whole world mesmerised by its phenomenal economic growth, the country’s huge peasant population and lower income classes in its vast rural areas remain hopelessly poor and dangerously restive. China has for years posted the highest economic growth rates of any major country. The economy grew by 9.4 per cent in the first nine months of this year, and forecasts growth for the full year at 9.2 per cent. Yet, the fruits of China’s unprecedented economic prosperity and growth in every sector have failed to reach these sections.
Of late, there have been numerous reports of unprecedented violent protests across the country, mostly in the countryside. Most of these protests were spontaneous and involved peasants, low-wage labourers and the jobless. While the recent economic growth at a break-neck speed has liberated millions and millions of people from the clutches of poverty, a vast majority still lives below the so-called poverty line. Half of all income goes to the top one-fifth of the population, while the bottom one-fifth receives just 4.7 per cent. Obviously, there exist two Chinas. The more visible China is a new world power which is successfully challenging traditional Western dominance of the world economy. It is rich, powerful and very confident of itself. Then there is this other China that is little known, little seen and is hopelessly poor. This China is acutely unhappy and angry as it has yet to get its share of the economic pie. And there exists an increasingly explosive disconnect between the two Chinas.
The five-year plan unveiled on Tuesday seeks to address this disconnect. Indeed, China’s leaders can neglect the fast developing social discontent at their own peril. While the Communist leadership has decidedly and rightly gone against the Maoist-socialist ideals and doctrine of controlled economy in its single-minded pursuit of economic growth and liberalisation, it cannot afford to ignore its original constituency. It will have to strike a balance between economic reforms and social responsibilities of the state.

Suicide in Syria

THE death of Ghazi Kanaan, Syria’s former security supremo in Lebanon and then his country’s interior minister, raises many disturbing questions. The Syrian authorities say they believe that the death was suicide. However the sheer timing of Kanaan’s demise, just days before the release of a UN report into the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri must raise doubts. Though Kanaan was reportedly relaxed at this week’s Cabinet meeting, in his final hours he seems to have behaved very strangely. He allegedly telephoned a local radio station to give what he described as his “last message”. This was to the effect that he was proud of what Syrian intervention in Lebanon had achieved for that strife-torn country. A few hours later it appears that he returned to his office, put a silenced pistol in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
There will be those tempted to believe that the silencer was symbolic. Kanaan’s death silences a man who has long been a pillar of the regime and ran security in Lebanon for 20 years. Until the UN report is published, it will not be possible to know whether or not, as is being alleged, Kanaan told investigators about corruption within the Syrian regime. If true, then the prime witness to these allegations is now dead. It is of course possible that when he recently had a meeting in Damascus with a member of the UN inquiry team, he was given a preview of the conclusions and felt fatally compromised. Yet those who knew the urbane and assured former security chief would not have imagined that he would have been so fazed by what could easily be characterized as a highly partial report driven by Washington.
Syrian President Bashar Assad, speaking yesterday to CNN before Kanaan’s death was announced, denied any involvement by his country in Hariri’s assassination. He then added that if the UN had credible evidence that any Syrians were in fact involved, then his government would take action against them. If it turns out the chief suspect died yesterday, then the task of Syrian investigators has just become immeasurably more difficult. Conspiracy theories are certain to abound. If Kanaan was indeed responsible for Hariri’s slaying, then this action destroyed overnight the influence that Syria had worked so long and so hard to establish in Lebanon. If the UN report established his guilt, then maybe Kanaan was only trying to cheat a would-be executioner. Syria now readies itself for the findings of the UN report. The government is clearly anxious to preserve stability. There is talk of damage limitation preparations to head off any anger from the Americans and a tightening of economic and political sanctions. Maybe one such preparation was the serving up of Ghazi Kanaan as the scapegoat. In such circumstances the old Syrian intelligence chief decided to outfox his enemies and silence himself with a silenced pistol.

—Arab News