Around 20 million migrant workers have returned to the Chinese countryside after failing to find work in the cities because of the economic downturn, a senior official said today.
The figure - greater than the population of Australia - is double a previous official estimate and will heighten the concerns of the Chinese authorities about maintaining stability.
China sees tens of thousands of "mass incidents" each year and the authorities have issued a string of warnings to officials about the risks of the economic downturn exacerbating problems.
Mao Shoulong, a professor of public administration at Renmin University, said unrest often developed because there were not clear channels for expressing grievances and disadvantaged groups had no way to protect their rights and interests.
China has around 750 million rural residents; more than the combined populations of the United States and European Union. But growth in the countryside has lagged far behind the cities, with the rural-urban income gap expanding rapidly over the last two decades.
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