China Digital Times

CHINA NEWS SECTION: The Great Divide

• Yunnan Province Plan Asks Farmers to Read One Book a Year on Average

  

  In order to build up cultural services for its farmers, Yunnan Province has publicized a regulation that “on average each farmer [should read] one book annually, [watch] one drama per quarter and [participate] in one cultural activity twice a month by 2010.” The provincial government plans to hand out small 0.5 yuan subsidies for the cultural plan. From Chen Chenchen of the Global Times:

  The Yunnan provincial government recently publicized a regulation to invest 18 million yuan ($2.6 million) to improve a public cultural service system in rural areas. Specifically, the money is to ensure that on average each farmer reads one book annually, watches one drama per quarter and participates in one cultural activity twice a month by 2010.

  People in metropolitan areas may be hard pressed to imagine what a poor cultural life people have in rural places. Critics who understand rural China have lampooned the goal of “one book per capita per year” as another “Great Leap Forward Movement,” since even this moderate goal is too great a luxury for people there and can hardly be realized.

  Ninety percent of China’s illiterate population lives in rural areas, making up one fifth of the rural population. Even those who have had some education rarely read. Men play cards, women get together to chat, and kids eagerly scribble in their textbooks. Simply providing them books will not guarantee them reading.

  By one writer’s calculations, the addition of the province’s 0.5 yuan cultural subsidy would, at optimum conditions, bring the total amount of cultural subsidies for farmers up to 10 yuan per person. Wang Yuchu writes his opinion piece in People.com.cn:

  On May 2nd, I went into a Xinhua Bookstore and glanced at the books on the shelves. Few books were under 10 yuan. Therefore, it will be difficult for farmers to realize the one book a year average estimate with this 10 yuan dependence. Seeing this, how can we speak of other cultural activities? Of course, in the course of this plan, some are thinking about “using one constituent to represent the whole” (“以点带面”) and using the collective funds to make one “big event.” The entire year’s funds would go towards a few test site villages. Therefore, it would seem possible for farmers to read a book in a year, see an opera every quarter year, and participate in cultural activities bimonthly. However, this kind of thing only fulfills the cultural needs of a minority of farmers. It doesn’t even begin to speak to the basic cultural rights and privileges that farmers as a group should enjoy.

  5月2日，笔者到新华书店，翻看书架上的书，10元以下的图书还真是不多。所以，靠这 10块钱，农民群众人均每年看上一本书估计都难实现。 如此一来，何谈其他文化活动呢？当然，现实的操作过程中，有些人想到了“以点带面”，即集中资金来办“大事”，把一年中的全部资金用在几个试点乡村上。于是，农民一年看一本书、每季度看一场戏、半月参加一次文化活动似乎也能办到。 但这样做仅仅满足了少数农民的文化生活需求，根本谈不上全体农民充分享受基本文化权益。

  In a separate opinion piece, Liu Yongtao (刘永涛) criticizes the applicability of the regulation. From rednet.com.cn, via sina.com.cn:

  The reasoning is not all that complicated. For example, let farmers read one book a year on average — [but the issues of] what book, how to read, and what is the application are not questions that can be controlled. Many farmers have not received education and can only recognize a limited amount of characters. How they will read will likely be a problem. Further, there are those who have received a high school education. However, after starting agricultural production, they’ve likely put aside their books and may find it difficult to pick up particular interest in them. [...] In China’s villages, most young people have left to find work, leaving behind the elderly and children. Don’t expect them to show huge results.

  道理并不复杂。比如让农民人均每年看上一本书，看什么书，怎么看，作用如何，都不是可设计可控制的。许多农民朋友没受过什么教育，识字有限，如何读书恐怕都成问题。另有些人虽受过初高中教育，但从事农业生产后，估计就丢了书本，难有特别的兴趣。[...] 而当下中国的农村，年轻人大多出远门工作了，留下的多是老人和孩子，让他们读书，别奢望有多少效果。

  » Read more
  • May 6, 2009 10:19 PM

• China Health Care Reform Aims To Help Rural Areas

  

  From USA Today:

  Li Xiufen, whose family tills rice fields high in the terraced-carved hills of southwest China, had to borrow $730 from other villagers when she needed stomach surgery two years ago — a debt that remains unpaid.

  When her husband, Zhang Wenkai, 54, contracted meningitis last year, she begged him to go to the hospital, but he refused.

  “We didn’t have enough money for the hospital fees,” says Li, 56. “So he died at home.”

  Li’s loss highlights how China’s market-oriented system in the past few decades has priced health care beyond the budget of many Chinese in rural areas. That is about to change.

  The Chinese government announced a $124 billion, three-year overhaul of its health care system that calls for building a clinic in each of the country’s 700,000 villages, expanding medical insurance and capping the cost of hundreds of prescription drugs.

  » Read more
  • May 6, 2009 8:37 PM

• China’s Silenced Citizens

  

  Many Chinese with grievances often have nowhere to turn aside from the Offices of Letters and Visits, which are found at every government level. Their experiences are at the center of this piece from the Financial Times:

  Many petitioners bring relatively minor business disputes that local officials are unable or unwilling to resolve. At the other end of the spectrum are accusations of murder, torture and rape inflicted at the hands of government and police officials. Many profess their devotion to the leaders of the Communist party and say that if only they can get their story heard, the benevolent modern-day emperor will punish their oppressors.

  “I trust in the party and the central government to bring justice to us ordinary people, otherwise I wouldn’t be here,” says Zhao Guang­jun, 43, a villager from Hebei province who is there to complain about local officials whom he claims took peasant farmers’ land and divided it among themselves, then hired gangsters to beat up the farmers when they complained.

  But very few will find any kind of resolution at the petition offices and most will have their lives made much worse. As many as 12.7m petitions were filed in 2005, according to latest government figures, but “some official surveys show that less than 1 per cent of petitioners achieve satisfaction”, says Jerome Cohen, a professor at New York University and expert in Chinese law. “It increases the grievance and frustration because people go from pillar to post without a remedy; everybody tries to transfer responsibility, if they are a government official, from their agency to another.”

  A supplement to this article includes three videos: “The Desperate Discover a System in Crisis,” “Parents Struggle for Justice in Beijing,” and “Personal Stories from Across China.”

  This 2007 France24 video briefly covers the role of the Internet in Chinese petitioning:
  

  » Read more
  • March 7, 2009 1:45 PM

• Villagers Beat Official Over Quake Relief

  

  A village chief was beaten after five villagers stated that they did not receive earthquake relief subsidies. From the Associated Press:

  Farmers in earthquake-devastated southwest China beat a village chief and clashed with police this week after they claimed they were cheated out of quake relief subsidies, state media said.

  Wednesday’s clash in Anxian county — one of the hardest-hit areas from last May’s quake — left an unspecified number of farmers and police injured and calm was restored after 100 police were brought in, the official Xinhua News Agency said late Friday.

  Xinhua reported that tensions flared after five villagers said they were denied subsidies and beat the head of Yongquan village. After some of the farmers were detained for the beating, 20 more villagers then surrounded the local police station.

  Xinhua details more of the circumstances surrounding the incident.

  In the quarrel, five villagers, led by Yi Jianqiong and her husband Wang Daisen, claimed that they did not receive the quake-relief subsidies. But Zhou Lujin said he had handed the money to Yi’s father. The five then beat the village chief, the official said.

  He said Zhou Lujin suffered multiple injuries.

  “Nobody died in the incident on Wednesday,” he noted. “The death of Wang Changyuan, father of Wang Qiongfang, one of the detainees, had nothing to do with the incident,” Zhou Baoquan [Anxian County publicity official] said.

  » Read more
  • February 21, 2009 11:37 AM

• China Police Take Away Citizens Airing Grievances

  

  Audra Ang of the Associated Press reports on the detention of citizens protesting against local corruption.

  Police in China’s capital took away at least eight people trying to air grievances in front a government building Friday, days ahead of a key review of the country’s human rights record by the United Nations.

  The eight were part of a loosely organized group of about 30 people from all around the country who had come to Beijing in hopes the central government would help them with a variety of problems, mostly centered around local corruption.

  They gathered in front of the Cabinet’s information office Friday morning as more than a dozen officers and several squad cars stood by. Some carried banners but did not unfurl them. One said “Safeguard human rights. I love China,” while another was painted with the Chinese character for “injustice.”

  » Read more
  • February 6, 2009 1:04 AM

• Photos: Newspaper Peddlers on the Streets of Changsha

  

  Below are photos of school-aged children peddling newspapers on the streets of Changsha, capital city of Hunan Province. The photos were taken from rednet.cn, which also supplied the captions and commentary, translated by CDT.

  
  Before buying a paper, a kind-hearted auntie asks about the papergirl’s situation.

  
  The papergirl rushes up as soon as she sees the man show an interest in buying.

  
  Just ahead of an old street performer, a young boy peddles newspapers.

  
  The papergirl protests the paperboy’s invasion of her “business territory.”

  
  The “invading paperboy” dodges her left and right, smiling the whole while.

  
  The “business territory invasion incident” finally ends with the paperboy getting knocked over by the papergirl.

  Before the 2009 Spring Festival, passersby at a Changsha plaza could see a number of school-aged kids peddling newspapers in the cold, amidst crowds of people. Some of the passersby showed disdain for the children, complaining that they obstructed traffic. Others took pity on the kids and said that they deserved sympathy and an outstretched hand. Still others wanted to look more deeply into the matter before deciding whether or not to help.

  According to this reporter, these kids may look unkempt, but they haven’t lost a bit of their innocence. Just as they can be competitors amongst each other, they can also be one another’s playmates!

  Hecaitou, one of China’s most prominent bloggers, posted these pictures on his blog. The pictures and commentary elicited a number of reactions from his readers, selectively translated by CDT:

  东东 Says:

  这是真的吗？
  Is this real?

  Allan An Says:

  感动
  moving

  111 Says:

  祖国繁荣昌盛，人民幸福安康，哦也～
  O glorious motherland! How our people are blessed and in good health!

  themoss Says:

  天哪，她好小
  God, she’s so young …

  kapa Says:

  如果他们手中的是《环球屎爆》…..
  If they’re holding a 《Global Shit Explosion》 [this is a pun on the name "Global Times," whose Chinese name 环球时报 huan2qiu2shi2bao4 sounds like 环球屎爆 huan2qiu2shi3bao4] …..

  lilii Says:

  童工，小孩子真可怜，有钱人的小孩在家被呵护着，他们却这么小就要招人白眼，唉
  Child labor. I really pity these kids. While well-off kids are being nurtured at home, these kids invite the evil glares of others.

  mute Says:

  挺和谐的，祖国的花朵~~
  Ah, quite harmonious, flowers of the homeland~~

  闲看云起 Says:

  无语
  No words.

  gravity0 Says:

  鉴定为真，但可能不是卖报。在地铁里有免费报纸发放，每天上班时间看地铁出口总有几个穿着很不讲究的中年妇女收乘客看完的报纸，有的还背着孩子。
  再过几年等她们怀里或背上的孩子长这么大了，大概每天也干同样的事。这叫做“贫困世袭化”（顺口溜中“四化”之一）
  This needs verification. Maybe they’re not selling papers. In the subway stations, there are free newspaper giveouts, and everyday during work hours, I always see middle-aged women in shabby clothes collecting papers that passengers have finished reading. Some of these women are carrying children on their backs. After a few years, maybe those children grow to be about this age, and then they probably have to do the same thing as their moms everyday. This is “the process by which poverty is inherited” (sounds like one of the Four Modernizations).

  est Says:

  都几乎可以作为教科书图片描写万恶的、赤裸裸的旧社会了。
  These are all pretty much textbook examples of extreme evil, laying bare our old society.

  躺着读书 Says:

  @gravity0
  我的天哪。你还说是鉴定……你以为中国处处是上海啊。处处是北京啊。这么牛逼。
  长沙有地铁？？？？ 你以为是北京啊。
  看来现在的国人已经到了“何不食肉粥”的地步了。
  Oh my gosh. You’re saying you want proof …. you think everywhere in China is like Shanghai? That everywhere is like Beijing? How awesome.
  Changsha has subways???? And you thought it was like Beijing.
  Seems like Chinese people have already gotten to the level of “let them eat meat porridge” [similar to the saying "let them eat cake"].

  name_is_just_code Says:

  长沙是我老家
  在黄兴路（最繁华的步行街，看图片也像是那）确实有这些小孩子在卖报
  一般是潇湘晨报 五毛钱一份
  Changsha is my hometown.
  On Huangxing Road (the busiest road, the street in the photo is similar to it), there are indeed young kids selling papers.
  Typically, it’s Xiaoxiang Morning Post on sale for 5 mao a piece.

  zergling Says:

  不管怎么说，报道很温馨。
  还有那个小男孩的笑容，感谢记者记录了下来，在他还纯真的时候。
  However you see it, this report was heartwarming.
  That young boy is still smiling. Thanks to the reporter who recorded this boy’s pure innocence.

  nidadai Says:

  背后由人控制的，可悲。
  一个翻版的贫民窟百万富翁
  Behind, there’s someone controlling them. How pitiable.
  A slum millionaire in the background.

  减肥食谱 Says:

  这种情况一般还是存在的，估计幕后有父母暗箱操作的吧～～
  This kind of situation still exists. I reckon that the parents are orchestrating this behind-the-scenes.

  里八神 Says:

  你看看那个记者的口吻
  好像这是多欢欣鼓舞的事情一样
  偶擦
  Look at what the journalist is saying.
  He’s writing as if this is some great occasion for joy.

  picnic Says:

  这个记者的评论果然强大，“一起玩乐的小伙伴”。他（她）舍得让自己的孩子来跟报童们那样玩乐吗？
  This reporter’s commentary is really something, “be one another’s playmates.” Would he (she?) be willing to let his own kids play with the ones selling papers?

  » Read more
  • February 5, 2009 9:32 PM

• Violent Unrest Rocks China as Crisis Hits

  

  While the increasing incidents of protests and unrest have been written about repeatedly in the foreign media, this report from The Times gives a more dire picture, though the report isn’t quite as dramatic as the headline suggests:

  The American economist Nouriel Roubini said growth figures of 6.8% in the fourth quarter of 2008 masked the reality that China was already in recession – a view privately shared by many Chinese financial analysts who dare not say so in public.

  Even security guards and teachers have staged protests as disorder sweeps through the industrial zones that were built on cheap manufacturing for multinational companies. Worker dormitory suburbs already resemble ghost towns.

  In the southern province of Guangdong, three jobless men detonated a bomb in a business travellers’ hotel in the commercial city of Foshan to extort money from the management.

  » Read more
  • February 3, 2009 10:13 PM

• Migrant Workers Struggle as China’s Factories Slow

  

  The migrant worker class is among those hardest hit by the global financial crisis in China. Carol Huang from The Christian Science Monitor writes on their plight, as well as the government’s new infrastructure plans that may possibly help their situation.

  The central government would like to launch green projects that move China toward a more energy-efficient economy, such as improving the electrical grid and investing in mass-transit systems, Lieberthal says.

  But with local governments pressed to create jobs fast, they may resort to quick projects that may be ill-conceived.

  Meanwhile, migrants are looking for jobs available now, even ones paying half their previous salaries.

  Ms. Ma, who just lost her job as a cashier, says she’s going back to Henan Province indefinitely. “I will ask my friends there about work,” says the young woman, who left home just a year ago.

  » Read more
  • January 27, 2009 11:00 PM

• China Rural-urban Wage Gap Widens

  

  As food prices declined last year, incomes in rural areas of China fell even further behind those of city dwellers, according to official statistics. The BBC reports:

  The latest statistics from China’s Agriculture Ministry suggest that on average, city dwellers earned 3.36 times more than those in the country.

  Equality was one of the demands that helped the Chinese communist party to power nearly 60 years ago.

  Now as the world’s third largest economy, China’s rural population are seeing their incomes fall further behind than ever before.

  The average wealth gap has now reached 11,100 yuan or $1,620 (£1,100), $200 more than it was in 2007.

  For more on this and related topics, see CDT’s News Focus section The Great Divide.

  » Read more
  • January 16, 2009 12:00 PM

• China Raises Poverty Standards, 28 Mln Rural Residents To Benefit

  

  From Xinhua:

  The Chinese government said Saturday it would expand coverage of its anti-poverty program in rural areas next year to include an additional 28.41 million residents.

  Fan Xiaojian, director of the Office for Poverty Alleviation and Development under the State Council, said rural residents with an annual per capita income of less than 1067 yuan (156 U.S. dollars) would begin to be covered in the country’s poverty-relief program next year.

  Currently, the program only benefited rural residents with an annual per capita income of less than 786 yuan.

  China defined an annual income of less than 786 yuan as absolute poverty and an annual income of between 786 and 1067 yuan as low income.

  » Read more
  • December 28, 2008 6:39 AM

• A More Flexible Pension Scheme for Migrant Workers

  

  From Economic Observer Online:

  A draft to reform the social security scheme in allowing Chinese migrant workers to transfer their pension accounts and contributions nationwide has been finalized, sources revealed to the Economic Observer.

  China has some 200 million rural farmers turned migrant workers, who move from city to city or province to province in search of jobs; but the current social security scheme forbids cross-province transfers of accounts.

  As a result, migrant workers have to close their old accounts, withdraw their contributions and open new ones whenever they moved bases. In the process, they would lose part of their savings, as the higher contributions made by their previous employers would remain with respective local governments.

  The EO learned that the reform draft, which aimed to resolve the above problem and better protect the workers’ right, would be made public early next year.

  » Read more
  • December 27, 2008 4:30 AM

• Tania Branigan: China’s Momentous 2008

  

  Tania Branigan recounts extraordinary events from the last 12 months in China and introduces video highlights of the year. Click here to see the videos on the Guardian blog:

  This autumn, the chill winds of the world’s economic crisis reached Chinese shores, leaving millions jobless. As the year ends, celebrations of the 30th anniversary of its economic reforms – which have lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty – are muted by the outlook for 2009. The country will enter this new year with rather more trepidation than the last.

  » Read more
  • December 25, 2008 1:44 PM

• Survey: 47 Million Rural Women Sexually Deprived

  

  The follow excerpt is from a news article in Beijing News (via netease.com) on December 2, translated by CDT’s Lucy Lin:

  At the moment, there are 87 million “remain villagers” (Liushou Renkou: meaning those villagers stayed in the rural areas while their family members went to work in the cities.) nationwide. A study conducted by the China Agriculture University on the population that stays behind in villages showed that among the 87 million “remaining villagers”, 20 million are children, 47 million are women, and approximately 20 million are seniors.

  At yesterday’s news conference regarding this issue, the vice president of the College of Human and Social Development at the China Agriculture University Ye Jingzhong said that through its survey, the research team discovered that the women who stay behind in rural villages have secretly voiced the problem of sex repression: “For long periods of time, they are sexually repressed, bringing a chain of negative sentiments.” The investigation showed that 69.8% of these women frequently felt restless, 50.6% of them frequently felt anxious, and 39.0% of them frequently felt repressed.

  Blogger Hong Qiaojun (洪巧俊 ) commented on this news on his blog on ifeng.com: “Who have the 47 million ‘institutional widows’ embarrassed?” (excerpt translated by Lucy Lin)

  I call these 47 million women who stay behind in rural villages “widows” because their sex life is the same as that of a widow’s. However, I’ve put quotations around the term because they’re not really widows, and they all actually have husbands. Not long ago, there was a report that said 90% of the wives of corrupt officials were living a widowed life and called these women “rich widows.” Of course, the “widows” from the rural villages and the “widows” from families of corrupt officials are different in nature. The “widows” of the rural villages are constrained by the pressures of home life as their husbands labor outside the village for long periods of time while they have to stay at home to look after the children as well as cultivating the fields; the “widows” from families of corrupt officials are “widows” because the corrupt officials are always out engaging in debauchery and not coming home all night. One is well-fed and clothed but wants lust, and one is poor but wants to be well-fed and clothed. These are two completely different living circumstances.

  Who let these 47 million women become “widows” not just in name, but in reality, too? Without a doubt, it is the legal, institutional divide between residents in the city and the countryside, and so calling them “institutionalized widows” is more appropriate.

  » Read more
  • December 6, 2008 10:55 PM

• “Mercy Killing” Mother Spared Jail

  

  State media have recently reported that Li Daohong of Jiangsu province has been spared jail for the killing of her 20-year-old mentally handicapped daughter. Court officials have deemed it a “mercy killing,” and have suspended her 3-year jail sentence. Reuters reports:

  Li Daohong, 47, told a Beijing court she had spent all her money over 20 years taking her daughter, Xiao Fei, who could not even go to the toilet by herself, across the country for treatment for “brain paralysis,” Xinhua news agency said.

  In despair, she took her Xiao Fei to a Beijing hotel where she fed her more than 200 sleeping pills and smothered her with towels and a quilt once she was asleep.

  

  A photo of Zhang Fei and her parents (Source: news.nen.com.cn)

  Xinhua also details the economic background and plight of the mother.

  The main income of the family is the wage of Li’s husband, who looks after bicycles in the town.

  “I’m afraid I will no longer be able to look after my daughter as I’m getting old,” Li, 47, cried when she was questioned on the court.

  [...] Li’s neighbors in her village sent a joint letter to the court, asking for mercy on the kind mother who could not afford a lawyer to defend herself.

  The case has been talked about since news came out on the killing, which occurred in January. Most netizens have come to the side of the mother. In a June Sohu posting, two questions were posed. First, “Should the mother who killed her daughter by smothering receive a light punishment?” 265 voted yes, 6 no. The second question, “Can one excuse the mother who killed her mentally-handicapped daughter by sleeping pills and smothering?” received 573 yes votes, 27 no votes.

  Netizens also responded in a separate June Sohu posting. The following are some comments, translated by CDT:

  One Li Daohong is a tragedy. By starting with our institution and our laws, we should prevent the occurrence of a second, or a third Li Daohong.

  Let me think … if I were a mother …
  She already tried her best here in the society we have today. This is her sorrow, and moreover, modern China’s sorrow.
  She’s innocent; she’s a victim. She has her own life too …
  Society, please forgive her. Everybody, please understand her. Law, please release her.

  This is a great, helpless, and selfless mother. She devoted all of her efforts in raising her daughter for 20 years. This was an incurable disease, and she had no other choice. She was afraid that after she died, her child wouldn’t have a caretaker; she was being unselfish.
  We have no right to criticize her — her regret and her helplessness makes that clear!

  » Read more
  • October 31, 2008 5:08 PM

• China Liberalizes Farmers’ Land Use Right to Boost Rural Development

  

  China on Sunday finally issued the full text of the land reform plan approved on October 12. Xinhua reports:

  The Communist Party of China (CPC) issued a landmark policy document on Sunday to allow farmers to “lease their contracted farmland or transfer their land use right” to boost the scale of operation for farm production and provide funds for them to start new businesses.

  The Decision on Major Issues Concerning the Advancement of Rural Reform and Development was approved by the CPC Central Committee on Oct. 12 at a plenary session.

  According to the full text of the document, markets for the lease of contracted farmland and transfer of farmland use rights shall be set up and improved to allow farmers to sub-contract, lease, exchange and swap their land use rights, or joined share-holding entities with their farmland.

  From International Herald Tribune:

  Economists say the reform could allow farms to better meet the demands of the evolving economy while maintaining the country’s self-sufficiency.

  The text did not say whether farmers must first obtain permission from their villages, but said such transactions of land-use rights must be voluntary and that farmers must receive adequate payment for their land.

  The purpose of the land use also may not be changed in the process, the document said.

  Such restrictions appear to address concerns regarding illegal land seizures to build factories, shopping malls and other projects that have caused anger and protests around the country, especially among farmers.

  Also see a story by Reuters and the Washington Post.

  » Read more
  • October 19, 2008 7:56 PM

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