China's riot town: 'No one else is listening'

[poiuytrewq0987]

Xintang, China (CNN) -- The authorities here are obviously nervous. My crew and I are sitting in a local government building being questioned by six propaganda officials.

One of them is scribbling down our credentials in a worn pocket-sized notebook. My producer, Steven Jiang, is talking non-stop to one officer who looks especially nonplussed.

We traveled to the manufacturing town of Xintang to investigate why thousands of migrant workers suddenly took to the streets just a week ago.

We knew the unrest was triggered by what appeared to be a minor event -- a pregnant migrant worker and her husband got in a scuffle with city officials and she ended up falling on the ground.

However, the ferocity by which this dispute exploded in a massive conflagration, pitting thousands of enraged workers against hundreds of riot police, took many by surprise.

The unrest seems to belie the image of China as a bustling economy going from strength to strength, enriching the lives of millions across the country, especially in the industrial south. But the problem is many people feel they are not getting their fair share of the rapid growth.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/06/17/china.riot.town.yoon/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

[Joe McCarthy]

In discussing the French Revolution Ernest Renan applied what we know as relative deprivation to explain the cause of the conflagration. Essentially as France developed a rising middle class it acquired the means to effectively protest the wealth and status inequalities held by the upper classes, whereas poor peasants lacked such means. It's dangerous and unpredictable to apply Western history to China, but its expansion of wealth, coupled with how it is being spread unevenly, could lead to a similar tidal wave.