Three hidden perils

The following analyses structural linkages between problem areas that seem disconnected on the face of it: rural land, the stock market and urban housing.

Zhang Yizhen, “Three hidden perils in contemporary China’s social crisis”

"Contemporary China’s economic development is rapid, its GDP growth is considerable, but we should not be dazzled by a superficial show of prosperity, China is now in fact facing a “once in a millennium” transformation; if such a great country slips up even slightly it could make for quite a bitter pill. As Premier Wen remarked, even a small problem in China, multiplied by a population of 1.3 billion, can become huge; in other words, a single slip may well lead to irredeemable losses.

I argue that China currently faces three major hidden perils threatening social crisis which cannot be overlooked, the problems namely of peasants who have lost their land, of the stock market and of the real estate market. I argue in fact that far from being disconnected they are interlinked: the problem of peasants losing land is one of people whose livelihood has been affected by “land enclosures”; that of the stock market is mainly one of people affected by “money enclosures”; while that of the real estate market touches in fact on concerns common to peasants and citydwellers."

— Wuyou zhi xiang [Desolation County], 5 June 2005