China : "Building socialism: not to starve but for a better life"

 CHINA - “Building Socialism:

Not to Starve but for a Better Life!”

Tikender Singh Panwar

“We are building socialism, not to starve but for a better life!” These were the stark remarks made by Comrade Shen Beili, Director General of the Asian Bureau, International Department of the Communist Party or China (IDCPC). This summarizes the core of the development that is being unleashed by China in the present era. The remarks were made in an interaction with the 10-member delegation of the CPI(M) to China led by Comrade Dr Ashok Dhawale.

There are many interesting and eye-opening aspects of the visit that will be covered in these columns. Different comrades will cover different shades. I will focus on the issue of urbanization; meeting that challenge meticulously and simultaneously delivering services to the people with the social sector at the core.

In a meeting with Dr He Lisheng, who is from the Department of Economics in CELAP, I remember discussing the strategy that the CPC has devised for the present rapid urbanization. Unlike India where urbanization is taking place with real estate in the driver’s seat, in China urbanization is integrally linked to industrialization. It is industry-based urbanization that happens to be the core of strategy in China. To ensure this there is a multi-pronged planning that includes:-

1.      Integrated urbanization

2.      Innovation-driven urbanization and

3.      Service providing urbanization with social sector as the priority.

Integrated Urbanization

The sheer number of people migrating to the cities shows the position of this challenge in itself. Nearly 10 million (1 crore) people migrate every year in China to urban areas. To provide them with basic infrastructure becomes an arduous task. Since it is integrated, it is not that they are being restricted to enter cities. In fact they are being encouraged to migrate to urban areas with the simple logic that the country wants to have an industrial economy. Because of this integration the unemployment rate has also gone down to 4%. Some of the strategists while interacting were discussing that at many times it is seen that the tertiary sector of the economy is facing acute shortage of manpower and thus more migration and urbanization stimulus is required.

The slogan ‘No slums in China’ gives the clear priority that the planners have while planning the township. Here it may be mentioned that in the recent period more than 50 million (5 crore) migrant people were integrated into the cities, but still there is no trace of slums. The three cities that we visited and interacted with the people gives an unambiguous picture of urbanization, where the planners are very clear what they are doing and what they intend to do. To have no slums in the developing countries shows the remarkably different strategy behind urbanization.

The second aspect of urbanization is the interlinkage between planning for housing, transport, laying of basic infrastructure for waste and sewage disposal and the whole concept of high speed connectivity or as we call it, a smart city concept. Not just in the developed cities like Shanghai and Beijing that we visited, but even in the not-so-developed city of Lanzhou this integration was marvelous. And it is not that the integration is only at the city core level; it was also witnessed in the street and the neighbourhood committees, as they term their administrative units. While asking about the micro-level laying of infrastructure for planning and execution of such services like water and sanitation which are so essential in urban areas they did not have much to say. Why? Simply because this was part of the macro-plan of the city where the street level administration had not much to do but just got integrated to the plan. The entire infrastructure for such services was laid down by the provincial and/or the central government.

While explaining the smart city concept in one of the street committees in Lanzhou, the sheer integration of traffic management, service delivery and the index of the houses were startling and would astonish anyone. The demographic profile of every street, building and house could be seen at the click of a mouse. And it was getting updated on a daily basis. The street committee office is also a center for registering online complaints. Another very interesting feature about old age care we saw was that of an instant service to the old people where they have been given an instrument having three buttons and pressing any one of these would place their demand of food, medical care or any other service before the street committee office. Immediately the call will be taken care of.

Innovation driven urbanization

The underlying principle revolves around the question what kind of urbanization is needed to make the country’s economic growth sustainable and its social progress healthy. It would be wrong to interpret that the strategy is for sheer expansion of the size of a city or for creation of new cities, though both remain an important component. In 12 provinces the provincial capitals will each create 4.6 new urban districts on an average and 144 prefecture-level cities (a term they use for medium-sized cities) will each build 1.5 new urban districts on an average. This amply shows the sheer size of growth.

What they call innovation-driven strategy is to channelize the migration from the metropolitan cities to the prefecture level or medium sized cities. The central government is planning heavy investment to create an infrastructure for that. The residential card system which is one of the most demanding features for a migrant is being reformed. In these middle/medium sized cities people having diplomas and degrees can easily have an ID card which is difficult to get in a metropolitan city. When questioned why should the same country have a differential system and targeted migration, they said the sheer volume of migration would put a question mark on the very existence of the urban system, hence they want to guide migration in a planned way.

For example in the coastal development region the migrants have surpassed the old inhabitants. In Guangtong in a population of 8.2 million (82 lakhs), 6.2 million (62 lakhs) i.e. three fourths is migrant population.

Why is such a migration being experienced? Simply because of the highly developed manufacturing and service sectors in these regions. Of the total 220 million (22 crore) migrant workers, 130 million (13 crore) are in processing and manufacturing, 50 million (5 crore) in the service sector and 40 million (4 crore) in construction. Now to face this challenge they are developing county level and prefecture level townships and targeting growth stimulus in these places.

While explaining the innovative features of urban planning, one of the members of CELAP said another driving force also happens to be the desire to have a house in the town and hence the entire land policy is being revised. Land usage policy is being amended so that the farmer is allowed to part with his land in the village in exchange for an urban apartment.

Why could China develop in this way? This also forms one of the important questions of the cardinal features of innovative development:

a.      Large and middle sized towns which are more than 20,000 in number are being planned.

b.      Industrialization is faster than urbanization.

c.      The top priority of a migrant to find a job is being directed to these large and medium sized cities. With easy procedure to get a residential card in smaller cities which is a means to avail of facilities for health, housing etc.

d.      To ensure that the development model is such where no slums are developed.

In these cities low rental and subsidized apartments are being provided to ensure that no slums develop.

The development of the social service sector

Coming to the humane face of urban development and especially where large scale migration takes place, the provision to provide social welfare measures is one of the challenging tasks. The most important feature of urbanization is a decent living as they put in their terminology. Apart from the provision to provide basic infrastructure for water, health, transport, sanitation etc, the provision of housing is one of the important ones. In a visit to one of the housing sites the translator explained the strategy of ID card system to avail of the benefits of low cost housing and low rentals.

In one of our visits to the community service center for the uprooted, rehabilitated and resettled colonies in Pudong area of Shanghai city, we could see the stark differences between China and other third world countries in the housing pattern. We met one old man named Bo who had been uprooted from Shanghai area to this place. Earlier in the main city he had an apartment of 20 square meters, in exchange of which now he has got a replacement free of cost of 70 square meters. And it was not just one but three such apartments that he got – one for each family member. In Shanghai he was not owning the apartment, here he was owning one. I asked him a simple question as to which period he liked the most, since the man was more than 80 years of age and a volunteer in the community service center - whether it is Mao’s period, Deng’s period or the present era. He immediately replied - all the three! That gives an indication of the uniformity of the lines amongst the leaders and the people below.

This community center catered to the entire uprooted population of over 40 thousand. It provided facilities for old age, children, teaching skills, sports and so on. There is a great emphasis on the care for the elderly and the Chinese have a strong bond for their families. I remember a small anecdote during my childhood days as to how rumours were spread in the hilly region of Himachal Pradesh, since it borders China and has had long trade relations with it. Once the Sino-Indian conflict worsened a paramilitary troop called the SSB was engaged in spreading rumours about Communist China and some of these were very funny. One used to be that the Chinese do not care about their aged and once they grow old they throw them out of their houses. How stark was the difference I could see for myself!

While explaining the effects of these policies on urban living, Prof Xiong Weiqiang the deputy director of the Department of Students Affairs at CELAP said that the life expectancy has also increased to 82.5 years. And it is because the government spends a lot on taking care of the elderly.

A vivid picture of the health care system would also show the glaring differences between the workmen working in China and in other neighbouring countries. More than 85% of the health cost remuneration is provided by the state.  For the migrant workers, social insurance and social relief is one of the major areas. Medical and endowment insurance is shared by companies and individuals, whereas maternity insurance is completely provided by the government. In the countryside with an annual premium of 100 yuan there is a complete insurance cover of all the family members. Interestingly the premium is paid to the cooperative companies that have been formed by the people. The policy for health insurance is 100 % coverage. In addition the migrant workers can enjoy 7 of the 17 items of subsidization that the local get.

Future Challenges

The socialist model of economic construction with Chinese characteristics lays emphasis on the development of productive forces. While discussing the evolution of this strategy of development, CELAP Vice President Prof Jiang Haishan who said that he had seen abject poverty and was also one of the protest demonstrators at the infamous Tienanmen Square incident of 1989, stressed that China required rapid development .

While discussing the principal contradiction in the country between the growing demand of the people and the limitation of the state to provide goods and facilities, he said that the younger generation does not realize the importance of having socialism as the core. I think that is the biggest challenge - where the consciousness of the people is driven by a single force i.e. the ambition to live a good life without having an ideological mooring towards the system. The de-ideologisation towards the system and the desire to just have goods and services, is one of the biggest challenges that the CPC will have to face.

Surprisingly, during my interactions with a large number of young people I found that they want to become members of the CPC. Upon further inquiry, the two major goals they intend to achieve are 1. Service to the people and also 2. Good career or position. The CPC is very strict in providing Party membership. Why we should speak about the socialist system while dealing with urbanization is that both are compactly integrated. It is the socialist system that has provided a bulwark for urbanization and if the system is destabilized or becomes unstable the sustainability of urbanization will hardly remain.

Secondly, another major challenge also flows from the high level corruption prevalent in some sections of the CPC. Actually it is the CPC that also is the government. There is a big campaign against corruption that is evident from the statistics. In the recent period 4.2 million (42 lakh) cadres have been punished, 465 ministers at different levels have been put in jail. Liu Zhijin, one of the most important persons in China’s advancement who worked hard for developing the rail network and superfast trains was executed recently. This shows the seriousness of the system towards corruption. But still the challenge remains huge.

The third area of challenge that could be witnessed in our discussions is the declining share of the public sector or the state owned enterprises which earlier used to have more than 50% share in the industrial economy. It has now gone below 30% and a majority of more than 70% comes from the private and foreign companies. These private and foreign companies are responsible for providing employment to 90% of the people.

Fourthly for the urban infrastructure sustenance also is an important feature. Once built the maintenance and running requires huge cost. How that will be done, whether the state will continue to bear the burden or shall pass on the buck to the people needs to be keenly seen. This is especially so as regards the growing number of old people. In another 10-20 years China will have more old people than youth. To take care of these elderly will be a huge task for the state.

All said and done, the path of advancement of productive forces has brought rapid urbanization to the fore with new features that highlight the performance of socialism. How well it will continue is to be seen. All of us wish that the Chinese state with the CPC at the core will advance further to greater goals.