Wu Guangqiang

jw368@163.com

    CHINA’S politics is both complicated and simple. It’s complicated because its political structure and operation are unique. Any attempt to define or explain China’s politics has born little fruit. It’s also simple because the major goal is to achieve economic success, consequently improving the people’s living standard.

The absence of opposing parties doesn’t mean that the Communist Party of China (CPC) is free from political pressure. On the contrary, as the only party responsible for the success of the country and the well-being of its people, the CPC has no choice but to exert itself to ensure the continued development of China. Any major lapse in policies may harm the CPC’s credibility.

On May 19, Premier Wen Jiabao delivered a 50-minute ad lib speech at China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), where he studied in his youth. His interpretation of politics was hailed: A State leader knows nothing about politics or economy unless he truly knows about (Chinese) peasant farmers and the poor, who still form the majority of the population.

No one can claim to be an old China hand before he treks deep into vast underdeveloped areas, particularly remote rural ones. There is a stark contrast between downtown areas of coastal cities and the outskirts of those cities, and he will be even more stunned by the difference between glittering first-tier cities and chaotic, sluggish small and medium-sized cities. To say nothing of poverty-stricken areas in the hinterland.

China’s peasants are among the most vulnerable in the world. For thousands of years, most of them had not even owned a small piece of farm land to live on — they had to survive by either working for the landlord as a farmhand or working on a piece of rented land as a tenant farmer. At the mercy of the weather and with a lack of proper tools and skills, Chinese farmers had suffered every misery imaginable.

The founding of the People’s Republic in 1949 liberated farmers by eradicating the feudal land tenure, giving farmers the chance to prosper. But ultra-leftist ideology had stifled peasants’ hopes until the adoption of the policy of reform and opening up in the late 1970s. Since then, for the first time in history, Chinese peasants have enjoyed the freedom to decide what to grow on the land allocated to each household and the freedom to head to urban areas to pursue better lives. Effective Jan. 1, 2006, China rescinded the agricultural tax and taxes on special agricultural products nationwide, ending a tax that had been collected on grain farmers for more than 2,600 years.

Over the past 30 years, China has witnessed the most significant agricultural rehabilitation in human history, producing enough food to feed the largest population, lifting tens of millions of farmers out of poverty and hence setting an excellent example to countries still unable to feed their own people.

Despite numerous better-off rural places across the country including Huaxi Village in Jiangsu Province, whose wealth can match that of a medium city, many of the rural areas, particularly in the central and western regions, are still under the grip of poverty. By the newly set poverty line of 2,300 yuan (US$364) in annual net income for rural residents, China will see a total of 128 million people living under the poverty line this year. But even the new criterion is still below the World Bank’s standard of US$1.25 a day. Worse, the erratic economy and rampant inflation could drag millions back into poverty.

A variety of circumstances make the efforts to reduce poverty extremely difficult. The exodus of robust laborers leaves many rural places falling apart. Local officials and property developers deprive farmers of their means of subsistence by taking away their land by hook or by crook. Unlike urban residents who are covered by social security programs, most peasants have no living guarantee of any form, meaning the loss of land may lead to destitution.

Some stone-hearted local officials, hand and glove with developers, are mercilessly grabbing farmers’ land or housing. They are using their power entrusted by the people to pursue their own ends, often at the expense of the people. What happened at Wukan Village in Lufeng, Guangdong, showed how serious the consequence might be if official corruption and bureaucracy went unchecked.

It will take China at least another three decades to help the majority of its population to live in moderate affluence and dignity. But ignorance or mishandling of the still-grave issue of poverty will produce serious political consequences. That must be what Premier Wen is worried about.

(The author is an English tutor and a freelance writer.)