Simon has been corresponding with Pundita, and has been keeping track of the conversation here. Today, she looks at the (what I trust to be State Department’s view) on the rise of rural protests in China:

What we’re seeing today in China is a growing rebellion among the rural
peoples. This could spell bad news for the ruling party and foreign
companies using China as a plantation.
Beijing hasn’t released
figures since 2003 on the number of yearly riots and with good reason;
riots are breaking out all over the country. The 2003 figure was
58,000. That figure is surely a drop in the bucket next to what’s going
on today, which is a ruthless land grab that the peasants are
increasingly fighting.
The story in China would be familiar to
students of America’s Robber Baron history phase. Corporations that
want to build a plant and officials who want to clear land for
government projects are using thuggery to eject the people from the
land. The cops are paid not to intervene. So the people have no choice
but to pick up arms. There’s a lot of sympathy building in China for
the ones who fight back, so Beijing is increasingly reluctant to punish
the peasants who skirmish.