Posted on 01/07/2003 4:58:03 PM PST by blam
'Iron ricebowl' is broken
By Richard Spencer in Beijing
(Filed: 08/01/2003)
The "iron ricebowl" - China's guarantee to public servants of jobs and pensions for life - is finally to be scrapped.
Over the next five years, state media reported yesterday, all 30 million employees of China's 1.3 million state institutions, will have life-long tenure replaced by employment contracts.
The announcement, though it only formalises changes already well under way, brings the end of China's cradle-to-the-grave universal welfare state another step closer.
It comes as the new Communist Party chief, Hu Jintao, is touring the country stressing the need to target resources on the poor.
It is part of a package of civil service reforms which also includes open recruitment examinations and an attempt to encourage educated Chinese to return from considerably more lucrative jobs abroad to serve their homeland.
The idea of an "iron ricebowl" to give security to those favoured by China's rulers predates the Communist era but it fitted perfectly the party's ideal social system, with work units giving employees not only an income for life but everything from housing to toothpaste.
For the working class, these privileges have been under assault since the government began serious reform of the state-owned industrial sector, with perhaps 30 million people laid off or going unpaid in the past decade.
Many of these have been at the forefront of recent anti-government demonstrations, which the party leadership is countering with a mixture of repression and soft soap.
Protest organisers have been arrested, and a Hong Kong-based trade union watchdog, China Labour Bulletin, reported yesterday that two workers' leaders from Liaoning province have been charged with subversion and are to be tried later this month. Normally, protesters are held for a few days and released with a warning.
On the other hand Mr Hu has been extensively quoted on the need to provide jobs for laid-off workers and "meet the basic needs of the disadvantaged masses".
Of course, they are angels from heaven.
If they weren't commies they'd stop calling themselves communists and would admit it was a failure.
As it is they still say only they can provide for China and do not allow any opposition or free speech.
The article is also rather disingenuous about history. It fails to note that under the Iron Rice Bowl system, the greatest famine in human history took place.
They've done better than talking. They're well on their way to abolishing the practice of communist economic theory in the country.
That doesn't make them any less evil. They've replaced communism with fascism. But it's silly not to recognize that China has adopted capitalism as their economic theory.
I agree completely. They are National Socialist.
But two comments:
1) Communism is more than purely economic theory. I would argue that the wordview of class war is more important than the economic system. And the Chinese communists have in no way left behind that worldview. There is always the oppressed and oppressor. They of course are always the oppressed victim.
2) China is a huge country and we usually just see a slice or tip of an iceberg. The communist system is still very intact in 75% of the country. Almost all the stuff we hear about is in the smaller part that has been changing a lot.
That's still 300 million people or so, but a minority by far.
The dismantling of communism and socialist economic system is not as braod or deep as is often implied or reported.
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