The root of aggravating social problems in China

Jun Xing

The rampant development of capitalism under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party has led to increasingly acute sufferings by the people. During the period of the People’s Congress and the Consultative Committee meetings in spring, many reports about the adverse effects of the current state policies surfaced. The Premier Wen Jiabao also acknowledged that the issues of health, schooling, housing and security, which are the main concerns of the people, are “still to be better resolved”. Indeed, these are the social problems that have shown no signs of alleviation. The primary reason is that health, education and housing are being commodified and have become important means for profit-making.

Health

In a survey, the most profitable business of 2005 was that of the medical system. Hospitals and clinics are reaping huge profits. For example, antibiotics is sold by the pharmaceutical factory at a price of 12 yuan, but sold in the hospital at 170 yuan, with a profit of 13 times. The hospital price is normally tens of times more than market retail prices. Statistics show a high increase in the proportion of medical expenses in household expenses. As reported by Wen Hui Bao, while peasants’ net income since 1980 has increased by about 30 times, and wages of urban workers have increased by about 20 times, the proportion of medical expenses in household expenses have increased by 122 times. Statistics from the Health Ministry indicate that 48.9% of sick people in the country do not see a doctor, as they should do, and 29.6% of the sick who should be hospitalized are not hospitalized. Of the urban poor, 30% fall into the category of the poor due to illness.

The government’s share of medical and health expenses in western developed countries is 80-90%; in the USA is 45.6%; in Thailand is 56.3%. Yet in China, 44.8% of urban population and 79.1% of rural population do not enjoy medical insurance, and most people have to shoulder their own medical expenses.[1]

There are astounding stories of how hospitals reap huge profits. The CCTV reported on 21 Nov 2005 a case of a cancer patient staying in a hospital in Harbin for 67 days, and billed for 5.5 million yuan. In over 70 % of hospitals in China have occurred disputes between patients and the hospitals about the medical costs. The 2005 report of the State Auditing Department has it that of the 10 hospitals under the Health Ministry and in Beijing randomly selected for investigation, in 2003, over 20 million yuan excess of medical fees and drugs fees were charged.[2] It is reported that of the 9 million blind cases in China, 6 million should have been curable, for example, cataract cases. However, the lack of funds and facilities has resulted in the lack of treatment for the patients.

Education

Another serious problem that has come up in recent years is the tuition fees for tertiary education. Before the Reform of 1979, tertiary education was free. 20 years ago, it was increased to 200 yuan. In 1995, it was 800 yuan. In 2005, it was increased to 5,000 yuan. Hence, within 20 years, the increase was 25 times.[3] It is reported that university undergraduates with financial difficulties number about 2.4 million, which is 20% of the student population. Students with serious financial difficulties are around 5-10% of the student population. While the average proportion of education expenses in the GDP in the world was 4.8% in 1998, in China, the proportion has been 2.5%-3.5%. An official from the Education Ministry said that it takes about 400 billion yuan to maintain the normal operation of the tertiary education sector, but state input is only 80 billion yuan. The bank loans to the tertiary education sector have exceeded 100 billion yuan, and the difference has to be made up by tuition fees. Surveys show that university students with rural background have dropped from former 60-70%, to the present 30%.[4] It is also reported that in primary and secondary schools, rural children have a high drop out rate. There is a discrepancy between the official figure and those from surveys. The Party Central School conducted a survey in 2004 in 16 provincial cities. For example, the Jiutai Middle School of Bin Xian, Heilongjiang Province, reported of a 2% attrition rate, yet the survey found out that the rate was 8%.[5]

To keep operation with an inadequate input from the state funds, schools have resorted to extorting money from the students. Since 2000, excessive educational fees have remained at the top of complaint reports. In 2005, over 13,000 cases of such complaints have been investigated into by the authorities.

Housing and livelihood

One of the nine most profitable businesses in 2005 was the property market. Local authorities have been involved in grabbing land from the peasants or the residents, and the property market prices have soared. At the same time, the poverty situation is still serious. The Director of the State Council Poverty Alleviation Department said that the annual grain consumption of poor households was a per capita 75 kgs, which is on the subsistence level. Among 592 key counties for poverty alleviation, 332 suffer from inadequate food, which involves about 130 million people. China’s poor population numbers second in the world, coming after India. There are still 23.65 million people in rural China that have not resolved their food shortage problem, and low income poor population numbers 40.67 million.

While there is still a substantial low income population, with social polarization, the rich in China is also rising. Some statistics show that in 2003, 236,000 people own financial assets of over US$ 1 million. Their total wealth exceeds US$ 969 billion. China’s GDP in 2003 was US$ 1,400 billion.[6] Less than 0.5% of the households own over 60% of the country’s wealth, and about 70% of this 0.5% households hold an asset of over US$ half a million. For comparison, in the USA, 5% of the population owns 59.2% of the country’s wealth.[7]

According to the statistics announced by the State Structural Reform Committee, the lowest 20% of urban population owns only 2.75% of the urban income. It amounts to only 4.6% of the income of the top 20% of the urban population.[8]

Crime

With social polarization, crimes are becoming rampant, and the sense of security of the population has been on the decline. According to the statistics announced by the Beijing Public Security Bureau on 17 Nov 2005, in January to September 2005, crime cases reported to public security bureaus all over the country numbered 47.8 million, a rise of over 20% compared to the previous year. This means a daily number of 170,000 cases. In March 2006, the report by the Supreme People’s Court to the National People’s Congress had it that local criminal courts had completed a total of 683,997 first trial cases, and 844,717 persons were convicted. Completed cases on serious crimes such as explosions, intentional murders, robberies, rapes, kidnaps and mafia numbered 238,738, and criminals convicted numbered 321,395 persons. According to a mafia study specialist from Nanjing University, the mafia in China number at least 1 million.[9]

While there are more crimes, social polarization has also induced more revolts and protests from the population. According to the “Social Blue Paper” published in 2005, the officially named “mass incidents” numbered from 10,000 cases in 1993 to 60,000 cases in 2003, and the number of people that participated in these incidents increased from around 730,000 to 3.07 million. In 2005, mass incidents increased to 87,000 cases.[10] According to the Public Security Bureau, 74,000 mass incidents occurred in 2004, an increase of over 6 times as compared to 10,000 cases in 1994, with 3.76 million people participating. The causes for the incidents were, according to the authorities, capital-labour relations, acquisition of rural land, urban demolitions and removals, enterprise restructuring, and compensation for displaced people.

Apart from mass protests and actions, many people have resorted to the spaces in the internet to voice their grievances and discontent. Before the premier Wen Jiabao was to call a press conference, several official and commercial websites organized cyberspace forums “I have a question for the Premier”. According to some statistics, about half a million web visitors posted their views on issues ranging from corruption, health, education, rural issues and social contradictions.[11]

Thus, though China’s economic growth seems spectacular, with an annual growth rate of 9.5% in the last five years, reaching a per capita GDP of over 13,000 yuan in 2005, a financial revenue of 3,000 billion yuan, and a foreign currency reserve of US dollars 853.7 billion, surpassing Japan to become number one in the world, however, in terms of the daily life of the general population for education, health, housing and livelihood, there is little state input, and the burden weighs on the general population. Without changing the basic line of marketization and some key policies, the minor funding allocations for poverty alleviation or cancellation of rural tariffs cannot be of much help. It can be seen that the primary cause of the difficulties for people’s lives is not only the wrong policies and lines, but also the political regime. The political system has to be radically transformed in a democratic way in order to bring forward a radical resolution of the burdens on the people. Not the “steady, orderly political reform” advocated by Hu Jintao, the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, in his speech on 21 April 2006!

                                                                        1 May 2006