NY Times March 10, 2000
China's Controls on Rural Workers Stir Some Rarely Seen Heated Opposition
By ERIK ECKHOLM
B EIJING, March 9 -- China's long-entrenched controls over where
people may live and work have become a subject of unusual public
debate here, with critics attacking the stringent efforts by cities
to curb the entrance of rural migrants and bar them from choice
jobs.
The restrictions hold down economic growth, the critics say, worsen
the country's growing disparities in wealth and violate the basic
rights of the rural majority of China's population.
After simmering in academic circles, the debate recently spilled
into popular newspapers, a rarely permitted occurrence for a topic
so politically charged, perhaps indicating that some high officials
also harbor doubts about the controls.
"In a market economy, the right to seek employment is fundamental,"
Mao Yushi, a leading economist here and one of the most outspoken
critics, said in an interview. "If that opportunity is blocked, how
can people earn their bread?"
"This issue goes beyond economics," said Mr. Mao, the 71-year-old
chairman of the Unirule Institute for Economics, a private group.
"It's an issue of human rights."
For decades, China has rigidly registered the residence of every
person, and for most Chinese it remains hard to legally move,
especially from countryside to city.
As the urban need for low-skilled workers has soared, cities have
given out temporary certificates to migrants working in
construction, for example. More villagers have streamed in without
papers to fill bottom-rung jobs -- like garbage sorting, vending
and moving goods by cycle -- where they can earn far more than on
overcrowded farms back home.
By some estimates, more than 50 million rural people are working in
the cities at any one time, where they often face discrimination
and police harassment.
Originally, the registration system was part of Communist social
planning and helped China avoid the growth of huge urban slums. But
many economists now see the controls as costly interference in the
labor market -- punishing more than half the population while
propping up urban wages. That protection of urban workers is, of
course, one strong reason the government clings to its policy,
especially at a time of growing urban unemployment and fears of
worker unrest.
The debate surfaced this winter after Beijing said it planned to
reduce the number of migrants in the city by several hundred
thousand, from more than two and a half million believed to live
here along with 10 million official residents.
It gained energy in December, when the Beijing government published
a list of 103 job categories from which migrants are legally barred
including service jobs in hotels, tourist guiding, accounting and
corporate sales or planning.
Then in February the central government issued an emergency call
for cities to limit the number of migrants moving in.
Mr. Mao and a few other economists attacked the restrictions in
print, while several newspapers have asked probing questions in
editorials and featured personal pleas from migrants.
On Feb. 22, in a typical example, The China Business Times asked in
an editorial whether the limits on rural workers would slow
economic growth. "It is understandable that urban administrators,
facing employment pressures from laid-off workers, will want to
play up local protectionism," the newspaper said. But shouldn't
more senior officials, it asked, consider the national picture?
Days later, The China Youth Daily carried a commentary by a reader
who had returned from years in Japan, saying: "I can't believe what
I'm seeing and hearing. A country that is enthusiastically
demanding to join the World Trade Organization is treating its
precious labor resources as a burden and inhibiting the economic
interests, the very livelihoods, of tens of millions of rural
laborers."
After the Chinese New Year holiday in early February, when many
migrants returned home to see their families, The China Economic
Times noted that residents of Beijing and Shanghai had suddenly
faced inconveniences: Nannies were scarce, milk deliveries were
halted because of the lack of delivery men and coal bricks were
hard to find.
"Put baldly," the paper said, city officials "don't want migrants
stealing local residents' rice bowls." But in fact, it said, many
vacancies in the Beijing labor market had gone unfilled because
"Beijing locals turned up their noses at them."
But without careful administration of the stream of migrants
entering Beijing, one city official said in response, the stability
of the capital could be jeopardized.
"That could be terrifying," he said.
_________________________________________________________________
Home | Site Index | Site Search | Forums | Archives | Marketplace
Quick News | Page One Plus | International | National/N.Y. | Business
| Technology | Science | Sports | Weather | Editorial | Op-Ed | Arts |
Automobiles | Books | Diversions | Job Market | Real Estate | Travel
Help/Feedback | Classifieds | Services | New York Today
Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company
[pixel.gif] [pixel.gif] Free ISP Access
Advertisement
