To keep the factory workers and peasants happy, China must mobilise labour on a grand scale.

ECONOMIST: The Chinese fear inflation; the Japanese long for it

The workers and peasants who stand in its way are being sent packing.

BBC: Beijing homes make way for history

Orthodox Marxists believe that the party's vanguard must always be workers and peasants.

CNN: Jiang On a Roll

Among the 3, 000 delegates of the 2013 National People's Congress, the percentage of blue-collar workers and peasants has risen to 13% from 8% in 2012.

WSJ: An Unhappy Middle in the Middle Kingdom

Meanwhile, its few thousand remaining guerrillas hide in the hinterlands and, in effect, do nothing to further the creation of a democratic socialist state fit for workers and peasants.

ECONOMIST: The Philippines

Juchitan, a city known for its dominant women, has a tradition of indigenous intellectualism and in 1981 elected the Coalition of Workers, Peasants and Students to its city government.

BBC: Oaxaca festival in Mexico highlights indigenous pride

The rebels say they are fighting for the rights of poor peasants and landless workers.

BBC: Maoist rebels seize Indian train

This concept, first unveiled two years ago, suggests that the party represents not only its traditional clientele of workers, peasants, intellectuals, soldiers and officials but also new social forces such as private enterprise.

ECONOMIST: Behind China's closed doors

As farmland ceases to support the nation's peasants and bankrupt state-owned enterprises lay off millions of workers, whole villages are moving to start anew in China's teeming cities.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | The Numbers Game