1 Millions to be moved in China anti-poverty drive (Tom
Phillips in The Guardian) Over the next three years China’s Xi Jinping’s
anti-poverty crusade - which the Communist party leader has declared one of the
key themes of his second five-year term - will see millions of marginalised
rural dwellers resettled in new, government-subsidised homes.
Some are being moved to distant urban housing
estates, others just to slightly less remote or unforgiving rural locations.
Other poverty-fighting tactics – including loans, promoting tourism and
“pairing” impoverished families with local officials whose careers are tied to
their plight – are also being used.
By 2020, Beijing hopes to have helped 30 million
people rise above its official poverty line of about 70p a day while
simultaneously reinforcing the already considerable authority of Xi, now seen
as China’s most powerful ruler since Mao Zedong.
China’s breathtaking economic ascent has helped
hundreds of millions lift themselves from poverty since the 1980s but in 2016
at least 5.7% of its rural population still lived in poverty, according to a
recent UN report, with that number rising to as much as 10% in some western
regions and 12% among some ethnic minorities.
A recent propaganda report claimed hitting the 2020
target would represent “a step against poverty unprecedented in human history”.
In his annual New Year address to the nation last week Xi made a “solemn
pledge” to win his war on want. “Once made, a promise is as weighty as a
thousand ounces of gold,” he said. The current wave of anti-poverty relocations
- a total 9.81 million people are set to be moved between 2016 and 2020 - are
taking place across virtually the whole country, in 22 provinces.
2 Saudi princes held for anti-austerity protest
(BBC) Saudi authorities have arrested 11 princes for holding a protest at a
royal palace in the capital Riyadh. The group were angered by the government's
decision to stop paying the water and energy bills of royals. Those involved
have not been named.
The government is currently attempting a major
economic overhaul to reduce its dependence on oil revenues. Public spending has
been targeted, including the lifting of some government subsidies. The kingdom
has roughly doubled domestic petrol prices and introduced a 5% tax on most
goods and services, including food and utility bills.
News of the sit-in was first reported on the Saudi
website Sadq. The princes also said they wanted compensation after one of their
cousins was handed the death sentence for an unspecified crime, according to
Sabq. Last year dozens of princes, as well as sitting ministers and
ex-ministers, were arrested as part of an anti-corruption drive.
3 Stressed Iran working class fuels protests (San
Francisco Chronicle) The Iranian town of Doroud should be a prosperous place —
nestled in a valley at the junction of two rivers in the Zagros Mountains, it's
in an area rich in metals to be mined and stone to be quarried.
Yet local officials have been pleading for months for
the government to rescue its stagnant economy. Unemployment is around 30
percent, far above the official national rate of more than 12 percent. Young
people graduate and find no work. The local steel and cement factories stopped
production long ago and their workers haven't been paid for months.
That's a major reason Doroud has been a front line
in the protests that have flared across Iran over the past week. Several
thousand residents have been shown in online videos marching down Doroud's main
street, shouting, "Death to the dictator!"
Anger and frustration over the economy have been the
main fuel for the eruption of protests that began on Dec. 28. President Hassan
Rouhani, a relative moderate, had promised that lifting most international
sanctions under Iran's landmark 2015 nuclear deal with the West would revive
Iran's long-suffering economy.
But while the end of sanctions did open up a new
influx of cash from increased oil exports, little has trickled down to the
wider population. At the same time, Rouhani has enforced austerity policies
that hit households hard. Demonstrations have broken out mainly in dozens of
smaller cities and towns like Doroud, where unemployment has been most painful
and where many in the working class feel ignored.
The initial spark for the protests was a sudden jump
in food prices. It is believed that hard-line opponents of Rouhani instigated
the first demonstrations in the conservative city of Mashhad in eastern Iran,
trying to direct public anger at the president. But as protests spread from
town to town, the backlash turned against the entire ruling class.
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