About 600,000 migrant workers left south China's industrial heartland last year as the economic crisis caused exports to shrink and forced factories to close, a senior official said Thursday. The number of migrants departing Guangdong province, one of the world's top makers of toys and electronic appliances, accelerated through 2008 as the global situation worsened, said provincial deputy governor Huang Longyun. "This year the situation is more serious than at any other time since the start of the decade, indeed since the Asian financial crisis," he told a briefing in Beijing, referring to regional turmoil that broke out in 1997. By the middle of last year, when the economic crisis was still in its embryonic stage, only 143,100 workers had left Guangdong, but the number reached half a million at the end of October and has now hit 600,000, he said.
The number of migrants departing Guangdong province, one of the world's top makers of toys and electronic appliances, accelerated through 2008 as the global situation worsened, said provincial deputy governor Huang Longyun.
"This year the situation is more serious than at any other time since the start of the decade, indeed since the Asian financial crisis," he told a briefing in Beijing, referring to regional turmoil that broke out in 1997.
By the middle of last year, when the economic crisis was still in its embryonic stage, only 143,100 workers had left Guangdong, but the number reached half a million at the end of October and has now hit 600,000, he said.
Much of the $586 billion stimulus package proposed by the Jintao is directed at tackling inequality and poverty. This having be said, one of the untold stories of the package is that the CCP dropped the burden on municipalities and provinces. So the amount coming from Beijing is relatively small. Second, China is dependent on resource imports, and these must be purchased with hard cash from abroad. This means that while the US-China balance of trade may remain favorable to China, the China-world balance is likely to tip in favor of the world. So the Chinese are going to be forced to finance essential imports with money from their dollar savings.
Second, China has to maintain 8%+ growth to avoid social unrest. Must likely the Chinese economy is going to shrink in 2009, which is going to create a revolutionary situation akin to what happened during Tianamen.
If the CCP can't control this with economic and social policy, then the PLA will, with brute force. And once the back of any resistance to the regime is broken, with the PLA in power, the country is likely to turn to nationalism. And that means running roughshod over neighbors and in Africa.
We are being set up for a situation in which global war is a strong possibility. It's the same damn thing that happened at the start of the 20th century, and it's happening again. And the death toll is unlikely to be so low this time around. And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg
