Globalisation

The WTO and "Social Stability"

Despite promises of new wealth and prosperity after China's accession to the WTO, the political elite are now preparing for increased social unrest. The rules and disciplines of the WTO regime will bring greater poverty and unemployment, especially in rural areas. This concern is reflected in a report prepared by Zeng Qinghong, director of the Communist Party's Organizational Department and a close adviser of President Jiang Zemin, called Investigation Report of China 2000-2001: Study of the People's Internal Contradictions Under a New Situation published in June 2001:

"Our accession to the WTO may bring more risks and pressures, and it is expected that more mass actions may erupt and seriously affect social stability, or even affect the peaceful implementation of Reform and Open Door policy."

Rather than focusing on the real causes of social unrest and recognizing the legitimacy of these protests by workers in urban and rural areas, the emphasis is instead on more repression of these rights for the sake of "social stability." This stability is seen as necessary for preserving the authoritarian Communist regime and creating the best conditions for foreign capital. As such the Open Door policy means that the door is thrown open for rights of foreign capital to flourish, and is slammed shut on the right of workers and small farmers to question the direction of economic and social change under the WTO.