Lack of social reform endangers China's future
- Source: Global Times
- [21:32 June 01 2010]
- Comments
Lu Xueyi
Editor's Note:
Why is the gap between the poor and the afflluent growing larger? Why do those born into officials' families get a larger share of the pie than the children of farmers? Why is social conflict in China intensifying as the nation gets richer? Is social immobility in China growing? The Guangdong-based Nanfengchuang magazine (NFC) talked with Lu Xueyi (Lu), former director of the Institute of Sociology, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, on these issues.
NFC: Many think that social mobility in China has decreased. What's your opinion?
Lu: Chinese citizens only began to have the chance to move up and down the socioeconomic ladder after the start of reform and opening-up. China's social mobility is not diminishing, but the ways of changing status have altered. Currently, China's social structure includes 10 social classes, which is very diversified compared to the pre-reform period. Thus the ways of moving up the social ladder have also diversified, while in the past people could only change their status by going to university or joining the army.
A typical feature of China's open social structure is the growth of the middle class. Since reform and opening-up started, the number of self-employed people has been increasing by 1.03 million annually. From 1995 to 2007, the number of private business owners has been increasing by 73,000 annually. Many other people are becoming middle class through other means.
In 2007, the middle class population accounted for 23 percent of all employed people, 8 percent higher than 1999. Currently, around 8 million people have become members of the middle class.
This is social mobility. I think the children of the poor today have many chances to join the middle class.
But since the start of this century, two trends in China's social mobility have co-existed. One is the rapid growth of middle class population, and the other is the intensification of social differentiation. The two add uncertainty to China's social mobility.
Moreover, although growing rapidly, China's middle class population is far from sufficient. The lack of a middle class between elites and ordinary people can cause instability in any society, and chaos and friction can easily occur.
China's policies should focus on nurturing the middle class and reducing the numbers of the poor, as well as regulating interests among different classes. In this way, people can freely move up or down the social ladder.
As long as China doesn't change its policies supporting the middle class, all the problems are temporary. Migrant workers' problems will be solved in the end and their children won't always be poor.
NFC: The problems of the "second generation" of people born after reform and opening-up are heatedly discussed. The gulf in living conditions between the children of the rich and those of the poor is immense. Is this a serious problem?
Lu: This problem does exist, but it's a temporary one. However, we should study and judge social phenomenon from a long-term holistic perspective. China is going through a transition phase from a traditional society to a modern society and it's natural and normal that social conflicts sharpen.
Every modern country has endured this phase. In 1900, when the total value of output of manufacturing outgrew that of agriculture, the US faced serious social crises of political corruption, disordered markets, fierce labor-management conflicts, a gulf between the rich and the poor, and social anomie. So did Japan and the Latin American countries during their periods of rapid development.
