A senior Chinese official has called on the country’s leadership to prepare for social unrest as economic growth continues to slow, the Financial Times reported. Zhou Yongkang, a member of the country’s Politburo, told provincial officials that “[i]t is an urgent task for us to think how to establish a social management system with Chinese characteristics to suit our socialist economy,” adding that the country has yet to form a “complete mechanism for social management” to deal with the ill effects of a market economy. Zhou’s comments, which were published in state media, indicate that the country’s senior leadership is concerned that a slowdown in the economy could directly trigger unrest. Strikes and protests regarding job layoffs seem to have increased over the past two months as the economy has cooled, with 10,000 workers in China’s southern Guangdong province striking against overtime cuts and workers in Shanghai protesting last week over an electronics supplier’s decision to relocate and layoff local workers.
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