Officials to get lessons on mass disturbances

• Source: Global Times
• [02:41 January 14 2010]
• Comments

Mass incidents have become a commonly used term in China, referring to mass demonstrations or protests.

No exact number is available on the nubmer of mass incidents over the years but the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said that roughly 60,000 mass incidents happened in 2003 compared with 10,000 in 1993, and participants increased from 730,000 to over 3 million in 2003.

The increase is a cause for concern by the government.

Wang Qinghua, associate professor at China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times that the introduction of such training shows that the government is paying attention to the problem but not enough to fundamentally solve it.

"In a long run, structural reform is needed in which officials abide by the rules as most of these incidents have stemmed from the disparities when government distributes public resources like expropriation of land," Wang said.

In February, the Ministry of Public Security brought more than 3,000 police department heads from various counties to Beijing for training. Many insiders say that the training, which lasted 6 months, also touched on mass incidents.