Social Discontent

In the past seven days, Chinese fellow citizens in Mainland China have emptied their banks with an amount of 300 billion yuan or US$38 billion, a year-on-year rise of 14.5 percent and each contributed a per capita holiday spending of 250 yuan to celebrate the country's 57th anniversary.

The 7-day May and October holiday initiative triggered by then Premier Zhu about 10 years ago has proven a simple principle right - the total is much bigger than its arithmetic sum. The central rulers must now be happy as a bird. Curding bank loans to discourage such capital investment projects as real estate and infrastructure has to be compensated by an expansion of domestic consumption. Otherwise Premier Wen might not be able to deliver a soft touchdown report of the economy next year.