China's leaders should feel uneasy right now. The reason comes down to the economics of food.
The price of pork jumped recently in the communist country, up 7.1% in January, according to a report from Reuters. While that may not seem like a reason to worry, those Chinese party officials who understand what was really behind the 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising will likely start shifting in their seats nervously.
The uprising, which happened nearly 30 years ago, was sparked in large part by a massive increase in the price of food. Most notably, "inflation for non-staples such as pork, eggs, vegetables, and sugar was 30-60% in state-run stores and even higher in the free market," according to The Power of Tiananmen: State-Society Relations and the 1989 Beijing Student Movement by Dingxin Zhao. Ultimately, the student-led rebellion was quickly crushed.
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