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China Warns Locals to Settle Migrant Pay Disputes
The central government has warned local officials that they need to settle disputes with migrant workers over unpaid wages before the Lunar New Year holiday, which starts on February 14. From AP:
The rare urgent warning from the State Council comes as tens of millions of migrant workers return to their home villages from China’s booming cities to celebrate the Lunar New Year, which starts next weekend. The workers expect to collect pay, especially back pay, before returning home to families often expecting their financial support.
“Recently in a few places there have been mass incidents over migrant worker pay, especially in the area of construction,” said the warning, posted on the State Council’s Web site. It said officials found responsible for mass protests would be punished.
China’s Communist Party leaders fear mass protests as a major source of social instability, and government payments to prevent unrest are not uncommon.
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The order tells officials to step in and pay migrant workers for government projects, and even for private construction projects, where most disputes over back pay occur.
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- February 5, 2010 9:56 PM
OECD: Inequality in China Leveling Off
A new report from the OECD on China says the inequality gap in China is not quite as bad as previously thought, the Wall Street Journal reports:
The OECD, in its economic survey of China published Tuesday, said more welfare spending in rural areas and increased migration to cities helped arrest a widening of the income gap. The Paris-based organization urged China to lower what is still a fairly high level of inequality by further boosting social programs and eliminating discrimination against rural residents.
The report is the OECD’s second major study of China, which isn’t a member of the organization. China’s economy is on pace to surpass Japan this year as the world’s second-biggest after the U.S. The OECD urged China to take a range of measures to liberalize its economy, such as freeing up interest rates to encourage banks to lend more to small companies, and privatizing state-owned enterprises. It also said that allowing the currency to appreciate would help the government manage the economy better.
China’s breakneck economic growth of the past three decades has pulled hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. But the incomes of people at the top have risen much faster than the rest, creating new divisions in a once-egalitarian society. Tensions between property developers and dispossessed farmers, and between factory bosses and their rural work force, are often a flashpoint for social conflict. That has pushed China’s government to narrow the gap, and officials have repeatedly said they will do more to boost incomes of the worst-off.
Read the full OECD report here.
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- February 2, 2010 9:26 PM
Migrant Workers Surround Boss’s BMW for Unpaid Wages
A group of migrant workers in Zhengzhou surrounded the construction project manager’s BMW to demand their wages, which they have not received for six months. ChinaHush translates an article from Zhengzhou Evening News:
Not paying salaries? Then don’t think about leaving. On January 25, construction migrant workers in Zhengzhou surrounded the project leader’s BMW, not letting him to leave. However the project leader called for another car and forcibly left the scene. For this matter, the director of debt settlement office of the City Construction Commission Zhang Shunhai said, the City Construction Commission starting from today suspended this construction company and labor company’s rights to undertake any project in Zhengzhou, until the matter is investigated then precede further actions.
On January 25, at 2:20 PM, the reporter learned that a group of migrant workers due to long term delays of their unpaid salaries and after once again being denied, surrounded the labor contractor’s BMW on the street in front of the City Construction Commission east gate.
The reporter went on the scene and saw the BMW X5 with the license plate No. 浙A8771B parked there, the car window was half open. 8 migrant workers all over their 50s were sitting around and surrounding the car. According to the migrant workers, the project leader already called for another car and “forcibly left”.
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- January 30, 2010 9:33 PM
New Rules Seek to Ease China Property Disputes
Disputes over forced evictions as land gets sold for redevelopment have resulted in violent protests in recent years throughout China. New rules may give homeowners more rights and help ease tensions, Reuters reports:
With China’s feverish real estate market stoking developer appetite for land, existing guidelines allowing local governments to confiscate homes and claim land have drawn demands for change, which could eventually slow demolitions.
Property disputes in a country where the government legally controls all land can lead to rowdy protests, fights with police, imprisonment and even suicide.
According to a set of State Council Legislative Affairs rules pending review through February 12, anyone losing land should be paid market value, while demolition disputes should go to court and lawsuits should settle contract violations.
Chinese facing removal have long complained that the amount of compensation offered is far below the real value of their homes. Some allege that officials collude with developers to demand land in the name of public needs, such as roads, then turn it over to commercial investors who can reap big profits.
Strong-arm tactics should also be forbidden, they say.
Read more about forced evictions and land rights via CDT.
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- January 29, 2010 1:10 PM
China’s Super-rich Look for Love Online
China’s wealthy men are going all out to find the woman of their dreams, paying up to $44,000 to join an exclusive online dating site, CNN reports:
The Web site states in Chinese the qualifications for joining: a personal or family wealth of at least 2 million yuan ($292,000); a background that is extremely superior, wealthy and aristocratic; very good personal qualities or young, talented and beautiful.
The article goes on to discuss the social forces at work behind the phenomenon:
Behind Golden Bachelor’s extravagance is a telling trend of what the future of finding love in China could look like. In a society where 24 million Chinese men will find themselves lacking wives by 2020 because of the country’s gender imbalance, according to a recent study by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, it could get highly competitive.
“Men at the bottom of the social hierarchy are going to have very few chances to meet women,” said James Farrer, author of “Opening Up: Youth Sex Culture and Market Reform in Shanghai.”
“This is going to be very apparent in the future as poor men with few economic resources just won’t find women,” Farrer said. “Women won’t benefit from this imbalance either. These are the women who are highly educated and have high career ambitions. They will be competing for men at the top of the social hierarchy.”
Rapid urbanization is eroding more traditional ways of finding partners through relatives and friends and is pressing young people to seek out new avenues for romance. In a society that is increasingly living life on the Internet, online services are poised to capitalize on the looming scarcity of love matches.
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- January 25, 2010 9:40 PM
Workers Riot in Suzhou
Today in Suzhou, workers at the Taiwan-owned United Win (China) Technology Ltd. Co. (联建科技) held a strike, which later turned into a riot, according to reports circulating online. Posts and photos on the topic are being deleted so few details are known or confirmed, but various reports claim workers were protesting poor working and health conditions due to chemical pollution. Local officials have said the protests were over unpaid wages and quickly put out a press release saying 2,000 workers participated. Xinhua reports:
Employees of a Taiwan enterprise smashed vehicles and blocked a road Friday to protest against poor company management in east Jiangsu Province. No casualties were reported.
Rumors saying that the company planned to cancel the year-end bonus evoked more than 2,000 workers to gather in the United Win (China) Technology Ltd. Co. Friday morning in the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP).
Some began to smash facilities and vehicles of the company at about 8:45 a.m. despite explanations of the management and local government officials. The workers also blocked a road and threw stones to the police.
The disputes aroused because employees had long been dissatisfied with the management, payment and food provided by the company, according to the SIP administrative committee.

See more photos here.
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- January 15, 2010 10:43 AM
China’s Number One Beggar Village
ChinaHush has translated an article from China Youth Daily about China’s infamous “beggar village” and includes photos from Netease which show propaganda slogans throughout the village urging residents to live with dignity:
Xiaozhai Village in Min County, Gansu Province is well-known throughout the country because media call it “China’s number one beggar village”. According to the numerous media coverage over the years, most of the farmers in this village are like migratory birds, migrating and begging through the developed coastal cities like Jinan, Qingdao, Shenyang, Nanjing etc. “going north in the summer and south in the winter”. Today this village strives to change its embarrassing image; among the 12 communities in Xiaozhai village, only two of them are still living with the old ways. However the bad reputation does not just go away in one day. Xiaozhai village has a long way to go to in order to clear its bad name. Recently China Youth Daily reporter visited the village to see how much it has changed; and whether this infamous village still carries on its humiliating tradition.
December 26, 2009, on the entrance of the village, a slogan printed on the wall “Stand up and live with dignity!”
“Stop kneeling! stand up!”
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- January 12, 2010 11:30 AM
Christopher Hayes: The Great Leap
From the Nation:
There is no formal social contract that regulates the relationship between members of this ruling class and the people they rule, but there does seem to be an implicit one. It is roughly this: we (the government) provide you (the citizens) with 8 to10 percent annual GDP growth, 24 million new jobs a year and the chance to win the capitalist lottery of sending your son or daughter off to a prestigious school with the promise of a life of industrialized luxury. In exchange: you don’t question the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party.
This is not the easiest contract for the government to uphold, and it has already shown some signs of fraying. As recently as 2007, there were 80,000 protests a year in China, and the Internet has given a platform to increasingly rambunctious critics of government policies. The most potent issue is corruption, which captured wide public attention in the wake of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, when many blamed corruption for the fact that school buildings that collapsed had dodged building codes. Several Chinese officials told us corruption was the biggest threat the party faces, the “threat from within,” as one put it. Despite high-profile “crackdowns” (such as a trial currently under way in Chongqing involving 9,000 suspects), a recent China News Agency poll shows that corruption remains the number-one issue on the minds of Chinese citizens.
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- December 24, 2009 8:48 AM
Social Unrest ‘On The Rise’ In China
From BBC News:
Social unrest is on the rise in China, according to an analysis by a Chinese think-tank.
The country is grappling with more acute social problems than ever before, according to a report from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Crime is also up, despite a nationwide campaign to shore up social stability.
Although continued economic growth has provided a greater number of jobs, China has seen more social conflict in 2009 than before.
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- December 21, 2009 8:33 PM
China Focuses on Boosting Rural Demand
The Financial Times reports:
China will take steps next year to boost rural demand while trying to curb overcapacity in numerous industrial sectors, the government said on Monday at the end of its annual closed-door gathering to discuss economic policy.
Beijing promised to bolster rural demand by raising agricultural subsidies, increasing the minimum purchase prices for grain crops, investing more in infrastructure and improving public services to outlying areas.
The nation’s leaders also vowed to maintain ultra-loose monetary and “proactive” fiscal policies, while improving the quality of economic growth through “structural adjustment” that will involve restrictions on industries deemed to be suffering from overcapacity. But the government warned it would maintain a balance between “fast and stable” economic growth and dealing with predicted inflation next year.
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- December 7, 2009 6:27 PM
Shanxi Coal Mine Bosses, Extravagant Lifestyles
chinaSMACK translates netizens’ reactions to news that Shanxi plans to reorganize the coal mining industry, potentially eliminating the corrupt and indulgent lifestyles of many coal mine bosses:
Speaking of Shanxi coal bosses, people cannot help but think of their throwing money around, being extremely wealthy, driving Hummers, buying groups of buildings/houses, keeping mistresses…as “coal boss” and “money” has seemingly become synonymous.
An even more important reason they are in the public eye like this, aside from having money, are coal mine accidents, their short-sightedness and greed having also brought to society many negative effects, and causing the title of “coal boss” to be associated with heartless and bloody. “Seeking personal wealth, ignoring safety” because their most negative image.
Now that coal bosses will soon exit history’s stage, if only coal mine accidents can also never reappear.
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- December 3, 2009 1:58 PM
A Few More Facts about China’s “Fake News” Purge
For China Media Project, Qian Gang reports on the purge of four newspapers for publishing allegedly “fake” news about the concentration of wealth in the hands of the children of China’s political elite:
The reports in question were branded as “false” on the basis of two sentences in particular.
The first was this one: “According to information in a joint research report by the Research Office of the State Council, the Research Office of the Central Party School, the Research Office of the Central Propaganda Department, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and other government offices, as of the end of March 2006 27,310 people [in China] had assets in excess of 50 million yuan, and 3,220 people had assets in excess of 100 million yuan. Among those with assets in excess of 100 million yuan, 2,932 were the sons and daughters of senior officials. They accounted for 91 percent of those with assets over 100 million, with assets totaling 2.04 trillion yuan.”
And the second: “A report by government authorities in China reveals that .4 percent of the population hold 70 percent of wealth, with concentration of wealth even higher than in the United States.”
The concentration of wealth in China has long been an issue that has concerned ordinary citizens. According to government authorities that have yet to be specified, these four media issued fake news reports. But what exactly is the truth here?
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- November 30, 2009 10:16 PM
China’s Battle with Organised Crime
Al Jazeera reports on the crackdown on corruption and organized crime in Chongqing:
The area, which is home to some 30 million residents, has been in the clutches of the mafia-style gangs for years.
Recent trials have exposed the unseemly relationships between gangsters, police officers and several high-profile public officials.
But as Al Jazeera’s Melissa Chan reports, for some of the gangs’ victims, the increased focus by law enforcement is too little too late.
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- November 23, 2009 10:30 PM
Official: China Mine that Exploded was Too Crowded
AP reports that more than 500 miners were underground when the mine in Heilongjiang exploded, killing 104, and a government official told Xinhua that the mine’s structure was “far too complicated for its current ventilation system to work effectively”:
The coal mine that exploded in northern China, killing 104, had too many workers underground in an effort to increase output, a government official said Monday, exposing the risks often taken to meet the country’s insatiable energy demands.
The weekend gas explosion — China’s worst mining accident in two years — was a blow to the government’s recent efforts to improve safety standards in the industry, the deadliest in the world.
Grieving relatives, who wailed at the gate of the Xinxing mining office Monday morning, were shocked that the such a blast could occur at one of China’s state-run mines, which the government has promoted as being safer that smaller, privately run concerns.
“We thought the state mines were safe. Why did he die?” Liu Shujiu asked a reporter who was allowed into the mining complex. Liu’s 38-year-old husband Zhang Shulai was among the victims. The couple have a 9-year-old daughter. “How do I tell her that her father is not coming home?”
But even as officials hustled to calm the families, miners idled near the shafts in their battered work clothes, waiting for word that their shifts might start again.
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- November 23, 2009 2:15 PM
Beijing’s Poor Visit Illegal Clinics
The BBC reports on illegal medical clinics set up on the outskirts of Beijing set up to serve migrant workers and the poor:
The clinic we visited, in the village of Jinzhan, had been open only for 10 days, according to the man in charge, who declined to give his name.
After initially admitting that he treated patients, he then backtracked and said he was simply running a pharmacy.
But the sign outside and the medical equipment on show inside – including a stethoscope – suggest otherwise.
Migrant worker Yang Shengping, who lives near the clinic with his wife, said he would never go there because it was not hygienic.
But the 36-year-old, who comes from Jiangxi Province in southern China, is lucky – he has medical insurance based in his hometown.
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- November 18, 2009 10:01 PM