Poverty in China

Child in Guyiang, China © Tamilla Held

China offers an illuminating example of how inconsistent methods of calculating poverty have hampered assessment of progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). According to the 2005 China Human Development Report produced by a government agency, there were only 26 million Chinese living in extreme poverty at the end of 2004. By contrast a working paper published by the World Bank in 2008 suggests a figure of 287 million at the corresponding date. The discrepancy stems from China's own definition of extreme poverty which is barely one quarter of the international guideline figure of just over $1 per day purchasing power and which is one of the lowest of all national poverty thresholds adopted by developing countries.

Whatever the basis of calculation, it can be said with near certainty that poverty reduction has continued at great pace since 2004 and that China has already achieved the first MDG of halving extreme poverty. An equally certain but less admirable trend is a sharp rise in the Gini coefficient (the measure of income inequality) which has increased by 50% in China in the last 20 years and is now significantly higher than the measure in the US, an embarrassing contradiction for a country which remains under communist party rule.

Tibetan kids at a rural school © Barefoot Images / Tibet Information Network

This degree of inequality has its origins in China’s tradition of separate citizenship rights for city and countryside, a legacy which is accentuated by modern society. Government spending priorities since 1990 have concentrated on the eastern coastal regions of Shanghai, Tianjin, and Guangdong yielding a new urban middle class of 150 million Chinese aspiring to private ownership of property, luxury goods and even stock market assets. By contrast over 750 million struggle in the underdeveloped interior regions, the majority dependent on small scale agriculture. Poverty is most acute in the distant border regions and in those with concentrated ethnic minorities such as Xinjiang and Tibet.

The government seeks to address the potential social tensions springing from extreme inequality through its vision of achieving xiaokang, a “harmonious society”, by 2020 with social objectives which are consistent with the MDGs. China’s 11th 5 year plan (2006-2010) promises significant increases in spending on rural infrastructure together with initiatives such as the abolition of school fees and ending taxes on agriculture. In the meantime the divide has created a new category of poverty in the eastern cities where 150-200 million migrant workers grapple with their second class status in access to housing, health and children’s education, exposing them to poor working conditions and exploitation.

Health in China

Children, Guyiang, China © Tamilla Held

Healthcare in the cities is vital to migrant and local workers alike as the effect of chronic environmental pollution in China is adding pressure on an already inadequate health system. When the World Bank produced a report in 2007 estimating that dangerous air and water quality contributes to 750,000 premature deaths each year, the Chinese government requested that key sections be deleted for fear of social unrest. With almost 50% of sewage being returned untreated to the ecosystem and ineffective controls over factory pollutants dumped in rivers, many people in China endure regular bouts of diarrhoea, intestinal worms and dysentery. The government has promised investment to bring safe drinking water to an additional 160 million people in the period 2006-2010, thereby achieving the MDG target. The position for safe sanitation is less clear.

Economic reforms initiated in the late 1970s provoked the gradual withdrawal of the benefits of free state medical care with the result that illness can bring economic ruin to a poor rural family. The government's response is the Rural Cooperative Medical Care fund which levies insurance contributions on central and regional governments and individuals. Although the scheme should extend to over 700 million beneficiaries in 2008 with government promises to double its contribution, payments from the fund rarely meet the full costs which therefore remain a barrier to seeking treatment.

Although HIV/AIDS prevalence in China is less than 0.1%, the conditions now widely recognised as necessary to avoid stigma and prevent the disease spreading from high risk groups have not yet been established. Government spending on its HIV/AIDS programme has increased dramatically but activist groups are discouraged and there is growing concern over the high levels of sexual ignorance amongst young people.
Food Security in China

Cuisine, Guyiang, China © Tamilla Held

China prides itself on food sufficiency, feeding 20% of the world’s population with 7% of the land, of which only about 10% is cultivable. Enabled by the gradual deregulation of commune-based agriculture in the 1980s, this achievement is now coming under pressure. In the decade to 2005, 21% of arable land was converted to non-agricultural use resulting in the loss of 20 million farmers. Environmental degradation affects the remaining land; for example, in the drought-prone North China plain, the groundwater table is falling by 1.5 metres each year.

The continued 30 year limit on government leases of farmland constrains private ownership and investment so that plots remain very small. Despite a succession of good harvests, the government may be abandoning the dream of self-sufficiency by expressing interest in purchasing agricultural land in Africa and South Asia. Nevertheless for the time being China is not a major importer of its staple food grains, rice, wheat and corn, casting doubt on claims that rising world food prices are attributable to Chinese consumption. The rise in demand for meat is met by importing soyabeans for animal feed. There are however reports that domestic food prices in China rose by 25% in the first quarter of 2008, implying significant pressure on the vast number of households who live below and just above the poverty line.
Climate Change in China

Concerns about food security will be heightened further by the potential impact of climate change. The uncertain effect of drought and floods on crop yields together with the upheaval in freshwater availability caused by melting glaciers have rung alarm bells in government. Adaptation plans feature the repair and improvement of irrigation and sea defence systems, together with the application of biotechnology to improve yields in adverse conditions.

The cost of adaptation may prove a key influence in China’s policy on mitigation. During 2007 China overtook the US as the world's largest contributor of carbon dioxide emissions, years ahead of forecasts. Dozens of new coal-fired power stations are coming on stream and the country accounts for over 40% of global usage of cement. China is also responsible for emissions indirectly through importing more tropical hardwood than the rest of the world combined, much of it sourced from illegal loggers in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Nevertheless, global finger-wagging at Chinese pollution should be tempered by the inherent complicity of rich country markets which are happy to purchase finished timber goods and to outsource manufacturing to China's special economic zones where they benefit from lower environmental and labour regulations than apply at home. Analysis of net exports suggests that about 15% of China's emissions should be attributed to western consumers.

Over-dependent on antiquated technology and coal, China’s energy consumption per unit of GDP is more than five times the European equivalent; this measure continued to rise in 2006 despite the government's goal to reduce it by 20% in the period 2006-2010. China refuses to contemplate specific emissions targets for as long as its per capita carbon footprint remains so much less than that in developed countries (3.5 tons per person pa compared with 20 tons in US in 2004). Equally the US refuses to accept a target without China's participation and the G8 summit in Japan in 2008 failed to resolve this impasse.
Politics in China

President Hu Jintao © Radio Netherlands Wereldomroep

With over 70 million members, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is by far the largest political party in the world and holds an iron grip over government of the country. Key policy direction and leadership selections are resolved at the quinquennial National Party Congress, the most recent held in October 2007. Over 2,200 representatives carefully selected by the CCP elect 200 full members of the central committee which in turn influences selection of 20 members of the Politburo. The real focus of power lies with the final subdivision into the Standing Committee whose nine members include President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, both commencing their second 5-year term in early 2008. These committees which form the government are chosen through behind-the-scenes consensus rather than explicit election.

Chinese citizens protesting © Asia America Initiative

The legislative body, the National People's Congress, consists of an unwieldy 3,000 delegates elected "by the people" in a process largely controlled by the Party. This Congress meets annually to rubber stamp government proposals. The Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau are the only areas of China in which top government officials are elected by popular vote. Since 1988 a system of local democracy has been permitted in which village committees are directly elected by the people. However, as evidence of social disturbance in rural China increases, often in protest at local corruption over land sales, it is far from certain that village democracy is the stepping stone for wider governance reform.

Indeed, the great weakness of China's one-party system is the failure of central government to implement its policies at regional level. Despite increasingly tough anti-graft measures, corruption in China has become pervasive in everyday life and is estimated to cost the equivalent of about 10% of the national budget. The strengths and weaknesses of China’s government machinery were illustrated in the tragic Sichuan earthquake in May 2008 which cost at least 69,000 lives. Whilst the world applauded the capacity of the CCP, allied with the People’s Liberation Army, to marshal such swift and comprehensive humanitarian response to the disaster, the suffering of bereaved families was accentuated by suspicions that corrupt local officials had compromised building standards in schools where thousands of children perished.

The earthquake also uncovered the latent potential for good citizenship amongst the new Chinese middle classes who mobilised unprecedented donations and offers of voluntary support. The emergence of a growing civil society movement has been permitted in modern China, especially in the context of environmental issues, but few groups address governance or human rights, nor are there many which can truly influence government policy. However, the controversial publication of Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party (revealing the truth behind the CCP and its brutal methods) originally published by The Epoch Times is thought to have triggered a mass exodus from the CCP and strengthened dissident movements.
Human Rights in China

In securing the right to hold the 2008 Olympics, China promised the International Olympic Committee in 2001 that there would be an improvement in the country's abysmal human rights record. Human rights groups say that this promise has not been fulfilled, with the exception of a decision to refer all death sentences to the Supreme Court for review, a move which may have halved the number of executions to less than 500 in 2007, according to Amnesty International.

On all other counts observers are more likely to refer to deterioration rather than improvement, denying China's wish to erase its association with the events of June 4th 1989 when between 100 and 3,000 people were massacred in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, during protests sparked by the death of liberal party leader Hu Yaobang. Charges of almost every headline abuse continue to be laid at China's door - prohibition of independent trade unions, suppression of religious freedom, arbitrary detention linked with torture and ill-treatment, and a serious lack of judicial independence and due process. And China's intensive development has led to forced evictions in both urban and rural areas - the controversial Three Gorges dam has already prompted the world's largest displacement programme involving 1.2 million people and latest estimates suggest that 4 million may be displaced by 2020.

Chinese flag at Tibet's Potala Palace © Tibet Information Network

For the Han majority, racial diversity is considered a threat to national integrity and differing interpretations of history underpin tense relations with China's national minorities. The government encourages Han Chinese to migrate to Tibet and to the Uighur province of Xinjiang, hoping that a taste of economic prosperity and modern lifestyles will soften separatist sentiment and merge cultural identities. Demonstrations and racist violence in Tibet in March 2008 reflect the failure of this approach and the harsh crackdown by the Chinese authorities strengthened world sympathy for the Tibetan cause. Although the exiled Dalai Lama advocates non-violence and compromise on independence claims, the Chinese government adopts hostile language towards him and only lukewarm commitment to negotiations. The presence of oil reserves in Xinjiang adds a further sensitive dimension to relations with the Uighurs whose political aspirations are kept in check by accusations of Islamic extremism.

Human rights issues unique to China include the "one child" policy and the persecution of the Falun Gong. The government claims that the longstanding "one child" policy has controlled population growth by “preventing” about 400 million births. Although any form of pre-birth selection is illegal, the inference of violations against female children lies in the distorted national sex ratio of 118 male births for every 100 girls.

As China rapidly deepens its global influence, its low standards of human rights are exported. Massive unconditional investments in Africa, in parallel with arms sales to countries such as Burma and Iran, run counter to the direction of western aid policies, for example raising fears of a new debt crisis. The Olympics factor is believed already to have been influential in persuading China to engage with Sudan on conflict resolution issues, overturning its often-stated policy of non-interference with other countries' internal affairs.
Information and Media in China

Vigorous government censorship controls the output of all media and China remains firmly at the bottom of international press freedom rankings. Journalists are banned from covering fundamental issues such as the process of government, the military or ethnic minority concerns. The presence of foreign journalists is limited to concessionary arrangements such as apply for the Olympics. Past reluctance to disclose the extent of national disasters was however brushed aside for the Sichuan earthquake which received immediate and round-the-clock TV coverage.

Faced with the challenge of new media technologies, vast new government departments have erected the "Great Firewall of China" blocking thousands of local and international websites, probing emails for subversive content and arresting bloggers who incite political opinions. Chinese language versions of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft compromise western concepts of Internet freedom by excluding sensitive material from search results.



The OneWorld China Guide was first published in January 2005 with a text written by Volunteer Editor Tawia Abbam

----------------------

Help us to include all developing countries
Many countries are missing from our range of Country Briefings. OneWorld wants to fill these gaps as part of our efforts to improve understanding of the issues faced by developing countries. We receive no funding for the production of our educational resources. Every small contribution helps!