INTRODUCTION
1. Uncertainty, hard to know about China
variability (urban rural,
rich-poor, han-national minority)
secrecy
manipulation in statistics
2. History
Qinshi Huangdi
civil service
state control of land and
water, dikes
unify roads, weights, measures,
currency, language, ideology
Confucianism + Legalism
Expansion to west: conquer and absorb the perimeters,
Manchuria to SW
Interaction with the West -- Opium War and aftermath
Rise of communism
May 4, Mao, Deng, June 4
1. EAT BITTERNESS
Poverty described in Southwest mountain area:
a. diet: sweet potatoes,
maize, beans
1/2 children malnourished,
90% have parasites, 10% infant mortality, widespread goiter
income: 400 yuan/year, +
off farm labor, sell bamboo, animal husbandry/pigs
b. NW mountains, grasslands,
herdsmen
c. Loess plateau
Rural, away from marketing systems, poor soil
Reasons:
a. ag policies: force grain,
dazhai, now improved by contract responsibility system, specialization
b. disrespect national minorities
and their agricultural needs
c. environmental policy
rural industry pollution, drought, water crisis
2. LOCAL DESPOTS AND PEASANT REBELS
agricultural policies after 1980, collective ag. dissolved, household responsibility system
when commune collapsed, local taxes were needed for
local projects.
Taxes were assessed and collected, often very high,
with lots of "rip off" built in
peasants protested, suicide,
demonstrations, police violence
Local government goes into business to generate
money:
"social club" owned by police,
brothels owned by party committee.
Market instability, ups and downs of pork prices.
grain procurement, marketing:
long tradition of government control of grain, back
to Qin
Great Leap Forward: famine 30 million died,
linked to excessive procurement of grain
Cultural revolution: outlaw private enterprise,
religion, superstition, card playing; educated youth to countryside
1976, Mao died, household responsibility sytem (1981)
Peasants couldn't invest in land, 15 year leases
so they invested in housing instead; great housing boom
Issues of the 1980s
how important is grain? conservatives want to expand land and production
of grain
procurement: what price? how much subsidies? allow inflation?
Peasants not paid, get angry
ownership system? Are large-scale farms better?
rural administration: 1988 start to allow village democracy
1990s
procurement problems, peasants not paid, raised prices, how to move grain
around?.
Local officials use grain money for buildings, hotels, cars,. mobile phones,
stock speculation
Gradually allow private marketing of grain
leases extend 5-10 years on top of old, allow 30 year leases
more privatization of grain market
outstanding issues:
how to employ rural population?
continued improvements in farm technology
investments in irrigation, instrastructure to expand area
corruption-rebellion cycle
3. GETTING RICH
Rich peasant house in Zhejiang, very elaborate, gold
water taps, jacuzzi, several children and women...
Expansion of rural industry - Township-Village enterprises.
Ag processing, mfg, building
materials (bricks, cement slabs),
Zhejiang
-- buttons, markets
Lu Guanqui--autoparts, livestock, fish farm, 2,000 workers
Bu Xinsheng--shirt factory, 800 workers, high salaries, hard work, fire
people
why? State enterprises weak, fear Taiwan invasion
relatives abroad, entrepreneurial tradition, smuggling
Guangdong
-- protected by Ye Jianying, Ye Xuanping
Dongguan - industrial back yard of Hong Kong, 1.5 million migrant workers,
clothing, leather, sport shoes
rural export industry hurt by Asian financial crisis
Shunde -- convert collective enterprises into joint stock companies
household electrical appliances, water heaters
Yangtze delta, factories bought by party secretary, p. 82 ways of rip-off of state assets.
tactics:
privatize profitable parts, leave unproductive parts to state
falsely register as foreign joint venture to get tax advantages
secretly create competitor to challenge joint venture
party take over land, sell to developers at great profit, peasants don't
get the windfall
problems
pollution, kill fish, ruin crops, affect drinking water,
health and safety issues
abusive managers
corruption
can't absorb all the potential labor
4. BEHIND WALLS, URBAN CHINA
Pingyao Shanxi, old banking center
Shanghai,
CP closed nown services,
ration coupons
hukou system hereditary on mother's side
street committee (like old baojia)
Mao deeply anti-urban, moved people out of cities, prevented cities from growing.
Deng reversed Mao's policy, 1978
extensive urban construction
allow peasants to come to cities
relax hukou
Cities now growing, will they compare with Mexico City?
5. INSIDE THE ZONES
History of treaty ports
investment from HK (old Shanghai families) and Taiwan
labor exploitation (safety, discipline, long hours)
dual family life
boom and bust in stock market - Shenzhen
Hainan boom and bust, including sex industry, Thai transvestites
Guangdong coast:
smuggling along the coast, helped by navy
corruption, auctioning off of lucrative jobs
gangs, violence, smuggling illegal emigrants
Singapore project by Suzhou collapsed due to corruption
Pudong growing vigorously
6. IRON RICE BOWL (industrial system)
History of early capitalism:
Shanghai textile industry, Japanese owners
Layoffs:
Shanghai: about 1 million of 3.6 million lost jobs
nationally: about 30 million of 100 million laid
off
Industry aging:
technology is old (textile)
products losing markets (bicycles)
factories have more retirees than workers, pensions
not being paid
labor costs high compared to rural labor or cheap
imports
Rust belt centers: Shenyang, Liaoning, Heilongjiang
in SEZ, triangular debts, non-performing loans
7. THE PIG THAT FEARS TO BECOME FAT
Strong bias against private property
-emperor controlled all property
-Marxism Maoism also against private property
- 1950s-1980s -- no private ownership (of means
of production )
private consumption was allowed - clothing, rural housing.
1999 - constitutional amendment that private property is important,
its legal interests and rights are protected.
The new rich:
- peasants with sideline businesses,
-urban petty bourgeoisie (restaurants, peddlers,
traders)
-semi corrupt party officials
-xia hai workers, officials --jump into the sea
(of business)
vegetable trading become
transport company, stores
-briefcase companies
guan dao - official corruption,
esp. children of officials, often linked up with overseas Chinese
business success stories:
small restaurant, franchises
into many restaurants (hot pots)
flowers
clothing, selling surplus
production becomes a store
examples
speculating in land, stocks,
bonds, commodities, foreign exchange
Hainan Chen - real estate
Tobacco king -- Chu family
tragedy
Note constant theft of intellectual
property
pattern boom, bust, grow, corrupt, vulnerable to prosecution, many people end up jailed.
Still many people now own property.
8. THE GOD OF WEALTH
Summary: big change in standard of living, especially in urban China
China now open to foreign products, culture
(contrast old distinctions
at Friendship Store, Foreign Exchange Certificates)
revival of family life, children, grand children, celebration, personal
life
people have foot, eating is fashionable
telephone service now widespread in cities
rural housing has flourished
urban street lights, television very widespread, also refrigerators
disco dance, fast food, McD, KFC, coffee, beer,
grape wine, ice cream, pizza, chocolate, instant noodles, toiletries, cosmetics
WalMart Ikea, Metro, Carrefour, Sogo, etc.,
Vertical shopping malls
Chinese multinationals go abroad (Haier air conditioners)
Improved transportation infrastructure, highways, trains, airlines, bus routes, taxis
income figures urban US $ 2,500 per household/yr rural only $240 (??) growth rate 5-10% / yr
NOTE data from China Statistical Yearbook 2000, p. 312
rural income per capita urban income per capita
1978 Y 133.6 (100)
Y 343.4
(100)
1999 Y 2,210.3 (473)
Y 5,854
(361)
urban families have telephones, cell phones, pagers, VTR DVD, internet
widespread
foreign films, music, (pirate editions) Disneyland
in HK, children films books, stores
rural areas remain poor, fragile substance economies.
9. GUTTERING CANDLES - EDUCATION
Rural education never solved, a failure. China 119 of 130 countries
in terms of per capita spending, 2.3% GDP
Commune teachers, (min ban) are now substitutes, paid by country gov't,
irregularly, very low wages
State teachers (guo ban) are also way behind on wages
families pay tuition (Y50) and books (Y100)
1949-61, 1967-77, schools very weak or closed, a generation got no education
1980s plans for improved education, buy not enough funding
Schools have business enterprises for more income (note bottled water
at Fudan)
Also, charity contributions, international aid, private schools (recall
the talent school in PuDong)
Note some children left out of public schools: children exceeding 1
child limit, rural migrants in urban areas
universities now charge tuition, don't place students. Few scholarships. College for wealthy
10. BAREFOOT DOCTORS, WITCH DOCTORS
Rural health in shambles
-western medicine poorly funded, expensive, people
avoid it --
trip to rural hospital costs Y1,500-3,000, bankrupts family
drugs used recklessly, incorrectly
- shamans, traditional medicine still popular (note:
traditional medicine is often very effective)
Qigong also coming back because it is cheap
TB, hepatitis, dysentery, parasites, encephalitis, leprosy, cholera, typhoid, shisto coming back because of poor public health and public sanitation
high birth defects, often linked to mineral deficiencies, goiter
psychiatric problems not treated well, very high suicide rate
urban health system is quite good, well funded
HIV/AIDS becoming a very big problem, possibly catastrophe
11. STINKING NINTH
Intellectual tradition -- serve the state
Anti Rightist persecution of intellectuals, rich peasants, rightists
may have affected 200 million people (1/4 of population)
GLF - 30 million deaths
CR - 20 million
Labor camp system - China's Gulag
ru wai nei fa (Confucianism on the outside, legalism on the inside)
dissident intellectuals: Liu Xiaobo, Wang Xizhe, Bao Tong, Tai
Huang, Dai Qing, Fang Lizhi
12. SECRET EMPIRE (China's military system)
Vast factories for military supplies, located deep in China's interior
after 1969 (Third Front)
not very productive, very wasteful
tried to switch to civilian production
still virtually bankrupt, workers laid off, far
behind in salaries
Strategy of People's War
Military foreign aid: aid guerilla forces in:
Cambodia, Laos, Thailand,
Malaysia, Burma
Ethiopia, Somalia
Vietnam, during war
PLA in politics during Cultural Revolution
Leaders in revolutionary
committees
Suppress violence, opposition
retired military settlements
in China's perimeter regions
By 1972, CCP tried to control position of military
Mao demoted Lin Biao (from official successor)
Deng controlled military budget growth, enforced
early retirement in military
Tried
to put military under civilian command
Conversion of military factories to civilian production,
allow PLA to make money in civilian economy
PLA expanded early 1990s: hotels disco, Baskin-Robins, finance
1994 - try to terminate military civilian
business
Basically China's military is weak, obsolete (except rockets)
Military remains a Secret Empire
13. TREMBLE AND OBEY
Chinese state today is influenced by:
traditional legalist background of control of people
by law and regulation
PLA traditions of secrecy and discipline
Party has great power in basic units
Party secretary is a "law unto himself," --
a little emperor or local emperor
party files (dang an) track people's class background
and class label
Party secretary has several titles and roles (overlapping
leadership)
Note: government and party
offices are often in same building, but with two sign boards,
party offices sometimes in red
Government controls secondary organizations as "transmission
belts"
including unions, woman's
associations, professional associations
Cultural Revolution
destroyed basic organizational
system of party and state
created merged "revolutionary committees"
May 7 Cadre Schools
officials had to make self-criticisms and biographies, plus manual labor
Party members
many of the early party members were illiterate,
farmers and soldiers
education of party members
has been a big task
Ideal of creating the "new socialist man" symbolized by Lei Feng
This idea is pretty much forgotten now
Political Reforms
get old generation to retire
bring in younger, educated
cadres
professionalize the civil
service
improve quality of representatives
at representative assemblies
intra-party democracy
use and obey laws
separate party from government
village elections
14 RULE OF LAW
Lawyer, son of retired PLA general with excellent connections
studied law, very successful, made lots of money
defended person charged with embezzlement, was seized
and jailed, not allowed to defend himself
(background: He was silenced
and his client blamed so that high Beijing party leader would not be implicated
in corruption)
Many officials immune from legal responsibility
Many ordinary people terribly abused by officials and police
Improvements in law (recent years, not really enforced)
suspects should not be held incommunicado for over
7 days
lawyers can advise clients before police interrogation
assume defendant might be innocent
citizen has right to complain that a state organ
violates the law, can seek compensation
Background factors:
traditional legalism
avoid court, use mediation
Revolution, Leninist model of law to repress counter-revolution
1957 Lao jiao, lao gai --
re-education through labor, no legal processes
Cultural Revolution, cruel arbitrary exercise/abuse
of power
Post 1979, restore law, slow, limited
many people in legal system were demobilized PLA
troops and officers
develop new People's Armed Police (1.8 million by
1998)
neighborhood committees for local security/order
strike hard, anti crime campaigns -- with no rules,
no due process
1980s: lots of evidence of torture, frame-ups, extortion, illegal detentions,
police distortions,
extensive capital punishment
Increase in crime during 1990s, as there is more property to steal, more differentiation, and more freedom.
Increase in civil disputes and litigation; backlog in handling civil cases
major problem in enforcing court verdicts, can lead to "private" enforcement (kidnapping, injure, threaten, blackmail)
More reforms 1998 -- more like ideas than real reforms:
autonomy of courts
use expert juries
Party member still are above the law and control the law.
Rule of law can not occur until the party changes
its nature.
15. BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH
Traditionally (and still), the emperor and ruling elite are the links
between heaven and earth
Chinese government is the descendent of Emperors
Chinese unity is a racial question. (note:
government claims to be multi-ethnic)
West brought humiliation (note: also, technology,
culture)
Party elite separate from masses, images from Beidaihe
Nepotism, party of princelings, kleptocracy
study abroad, come back to rule
EPILOGUE
Peasants still exploited, will they revolt?
History counts:
powerful centralized state bureaucracy continues
legalism and confucianism
tiny elite will remain in power
still a rural country
very slow improvement,
the rich will profit, become much richer
Environmental issues critical
water table falling in the North
air polluted
One Child policy, deeply resented (urbanites seem to accept it)
Can government establish trust of people?
Doesn't this require democracy?
Taiwan as a model for Chinese Democracy