China's modern cure for
instability By Breffni O'Rourke
Copyright (c) 2005, RFE/RL Inc.
Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty,
1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington DC 20036
The Chinese leadership spent years
preoccupied with developing the country's
industrial and technological base. But more
recently, it has realized that it is facing a
potential social upheaval from a rural population
that has been left behind, often in poverty.
Incidents of unrest are rising. Attention
has focused on the riots by villagers in Zhejiang
province in January, but figures released
by
the Public Security Ministry show there were
87,000 riots, demonstrations and protests in the
country last year. That's almost 7% more than the
previous year.
Long-term social
unrest The official Xinhua news agency
quoted an unnamed Public Security Ministry
official as saying China faced long-term social
unrest and that the authorities planned to strike
hard in this "complex struggle against enemies".
Prime Minister Wen Jiaboa has called for a
new emphasis on social justice, saying his
government must strive to lessen the hardships of
many Chinese. The National People's Congress has
set a session on this theme for early March.
China expert Jean-Philippe Beja, of the
Center for International Studies and Research in
Paris, said the trouble was there had been more
talk than action. country last year. That's almost
7% more than the previous year.
Social
justice "There has been a lot of discourse
about social justice," Beja said. "They have been
talking, but they have not done much, because the
roots of the problem lie in the type of regime,
the system that exists. [It's one in which] local
cadres have absolute power."
Because these
strong local party structures are the bedrock of
the Communist Party's control, Wen so far has not
shown any willingness to change this pattern.
"It's a question of reforming the system,
reforming the regime, installing a little
democracy, and this is very dangerous," Beja
added. "[The government] is very scared of having
autonomous organizations in Chinese society, and
especially in the countryside; and [the central
leaders] are very dependent on the local levels of
the party and government to stay in power. So it's
very difficult for them to touch it."
Parallel strategies However,
analyst Rana Mitter of Britain's Oxford University
cautions against seeing the picture in too bleak
terms. "In absolute terms, if you look at
situations around the world, there are many
societies - and I would name somewhere like
Colombia as being an obvious example - where it's
clear that the relationship between the state and
rural society is in terminal freefall," Mitter
said. "China is a very long way from being in that
state, partly because the government itself is
much stronger."
In addition, Mitter said,
Beijing had at least two parallel strategies to
try to deal with the problem. One is to crack down
on dissent seen as anti-state; the other is to
restore - at least in part - the social-security
network that existed before the emphasis switched
to entrepreneurial economic growth.
"The
main problem being of course that in a country as
large as China, this is an extremely expensive
undertaking, so they have set themselves a very
big task," Mitter said.
A safety net
for 1.3 billion For inspiration, Chinese
leaders were not looking backward to Marxist
ideology, but instead at modern social democracy
as practiced for instance in Singapore, where the
population had high living standards but
restricted political freedoms, Mitter said.
Beja is not convinced the Chinese
authorities have the capacity to create a safety
net stretching across some 1.3 billion people.
"The state is not ready to commit in reality the
amount of resources which would be able to
recreate or develop a real social net, in the
cities and especially in the countryside; this is
one of the worst dangers that the country is
confronted with, but they have not taken any real
steps which could solve this problem."
The
result is that health care - as with education -
is becoming more and more elitist: money will buy
good hospitalization and schooling, but those who
don't have it are excluded.
Two problems
that were of key importance in the Chinese
countryside were alienation of the land and
pollution, Beja said.
Corruption In the first
category, local party secretaries are often in
league with real-estate agents. The officials sell
land to the agents, but give only a very small sum
to the farmer for his land, which of course leads
to outrage.
The second key factor is that
local party officials are judged on what economic
activities they can install in their area,
regardless of what these activities are or how
polluting they are. For this reason, enormous
damage has been caused to the environment and to
the health of villagers.
The January riots
at Huashui in the coastal Zheijiang province
started because authorities at all levels ignored
complaints that newly built chemical plants were
polluting the local land and water. The
disturbances grew from a small roadblock to
reportedly involve thousands of protesters - who
won the closure of the chemical factories.
Similarly, villagers in Huangniqiao, in
the same region, managed to have a pharmaceutical
plant closed down after they stormed the factory
in the face of police resistance.
Copyright (c) 2005, RFE/RL Inc.
Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty,
1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington DC
20036
