Trailblazing coverage of growing discontent in China

Reuters has been on top of the growing challenge that unrest poses to the Chinese Communist Party as economic growth slows. Migrant workers are losing their jobs in once-booming coastal towns while new graduates are facing the prospect of rapidly shrinking white collar job opportunities. Reuters has been ahead of the pack in spotting the trends. On Jan 6 Reuters spotted an unusually frank article in the Xinhua news agency’s Outlook magazine that warned China faced surging protests and riots in 2009 (“China faces wave of unrest in 2009 – official report”). This was developed into an insightful story examining why the Chinese leadership has become more open about the threats to one party rule. Virtually all major media missed the Outlook article. Bloomberg caught up next day while the Financial Times carried a column a few days later. A day later Reuters told the story of a high-profile Chinese lawyer who has publicly demanded that the government open its secretive budget to public scrutiny given its promised plans to boost spending to ward off the global financial crisis (“China lawyer makes bold demand for open government”). It was a very unusual display of legal activism and illustrated how the crisis is stoking discontent in China.