China anticipates ‘explosion’ over anything  by Frank Ching
“They feel they are sitting on a volcano,” said a prominent
Chinese academic when explaining the government’s crackdown on
its critics.  “Even though China is very different from Egypt or
Tunisia,” the Chinese government realizes that “there are so
many people who are unhappy over so many different issues,
including seizure of land by officials, corruption and housing,
that they are fearful that any one issue may provide the fuse
that sets off a huge explosion in the country.”  The latest
Gallup global well-being survey, compiled between 2005 and 2009,
provides a glimpse into the mood of the Chinese people. It found
that despite robust economic growth, only 12 percent of Chinese
people thought of themselves as “thriving,” while 71 percent
said they were struggling and 17 percent said they were
suffering. This is clearly linked to a poor or nonexistent
social safety net.  (The happiest countries incidentally were
found to be in Scandinavia, where peo