Why anyone thought this would be any different never made sense. The Beijing government created an impressive jobs system that solved many problems such as employment and the chance to make money but like the US housing market or other bubbles it has been based on the numbers increasing. The jobs growth went a long way to shut down protests but now that it's declining, this is a problem that won't go away. (It's also why the government was so fast in rolling out an internal rescue plan that involved infrastructure development.)
China has the most impressive history in the world but it also has a long history of difficult and often violent transitions. Beijing has surprised the world on many occasions with clever politics so maybe they will do it again.
As a global recession takes hold and China's economy continues to slow, growing legions of unemployed workers are becoming increasingly bold in expressing their unhappiness -- expanding a debate over how to protect the Chinese economy into long-fought disputes over other issues such as freedom of expression and equality before the law.
During most of the past two decades, concerns about China's human rights record have been overshadowed by the speed of its economic development and growing political influence in the world.
But as the economic crisis has grown, so, too, have challenges -- both small and large -- to the state's power.
In late November, two men whose village was involved in a dispute over a land deal took ink-filled eggs and desecrated Communist Party and national flags in Chongqing, the largest of China's four provincial-level municipalities, in a protest that copied the infamous defacing of Mao Zedong's portrait in the capital in 1989.
In December, 300 academics and other intellectuals signed a declaration of human rights known as Charter '08 that circulated on the Internet, sending Chinese authorities on a nationwide manhunt for its author.
Labor rights activist Li Qiang said China's economic problems have put the spotlight on social issues that have long existed -- such as the growing gap between the urban rich and the rural poor and the fight for worker rights -- but were played down by the government during the recent boom.
