Down on the Manor Farm

Associated Press reports that Wal-Mart is to allow its workers to unionize…
…in China, as long as the workers join the “official Communist Party-controlled union.” In other words, China will soon be renamed “Manor Farm.”
Christian Science Monitor discusses rising discontent in China. Ethnic clashes between Han Chinese (the country’s majority ethnic group) and minorities are more and more frequent; a clash involving thousands in central China’s Henan province killed at least seven, and possibly 148. Fights between the rich and poor have grown increasingly intense; CSM details some of the more important ones, including a situation wherein a BMW driver (the article doesn’t mention it, but she got her license through her husband’s connections, not for passing a driving test) ran over an onion seller and got off with a fine. The Monitor says there have been at least eight “major incidents of violence and rioting” over the past few weeks, but says that these are spontaneous incidents arising without central direction or leadership.
Chinese President Hu Jintao, continuing his now three-week-long tour of Latin America, met with Fidel Castro Monday, AP reports.