Willowdale Wizard
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 3674
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posted 13 November 2005 06:48 AM
bbc news quote: Plans to end a controversial residency permit system have been welcomed as a positive step towards bridging the social, political and economic gulf between China's countryside and its cities. The hukou system of household registration has for decades discriminated against the nation's 800 million rural inhabitants, by depriving them of most of the rights enjoyed by those born in urban areas. The proposed abolition of the system in 11 of China's 23 provinces, mainly along the developed eastern coast, is expected to promote further growth by encouraging a new influx of labour from poorer western regions. The government also hopes the reforms will help provide stability at a time of simmering protests over the ever-widening wealth gap. Such measures are long overdue, according to Jiang Wenran, acting director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta. He described the hukou system as one of the most strictly enforced "apartheid" social structures in modern world history. "Urban dwellers enjoy a range of social, economic and cultural benefits while peasants, the majority of the Chinese population, are treated as second-class citizens," he told the BBC News website. "Scrapping the system will be helpful in the long term, but it will be hard to eradicate deep-rooted prejudices against those from the countryside" -- Ren Li, Chongqing resident
asia times online quote: In urban China, the ultimate threat, the menace, the dangerous Other, the Alien, is not a foreign terrorist: it's the mingong, the Chinese migrant peasant worker. More than 200 million mingong are roaming China. At least 25% don't get paid by their employers, or their lump payment - before the Chinese Lunar New Year - is delayed. According to Zeng Peiyan, a member of China's State Council, the equivalent of more than $13 billion has not yet been paid to mingong; in some cases debts are more than 10 years old. Sixty percent of mingong have to work more than 10 hours a day. And 97% have no medical benefits whatsoever. Their work clothes, blue or brown, are shabby and covered in dust; they are thinner than most Chinese; and they are also shorter, which leads to widespread discrimination because of their height. Whatever their perceived shortcomings, they are the unknown, heroic protagonists of China's spectacular economic miracle. In the big cities there are now more floating mingong than urban workers. Their armies can be seen in countless construction sites in Shanghai and Beijing, living in shelters more crowded than prison cells, the more skilled among them earning 70 yuan a day for a 12-hour workday, with a 30-minute break, the new arrivals making only 30 yuan a day. They must register with the big city government every two months and have practically no health and education rights. There are more than 3 million in Shanghai alone, erecting at least one office tower a week. If all unregistered mingong are taken into account, Shanghai's population may be exceeding 20 million by now.
[ 13 November 2005: Message edited by: Willowdale Wizard ]
From: england (hometown of toronto) | Registered: Jan 2003
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