A Painful Cost for the CCP�s Economic Development
While the CCP constantly brags about its economic advancement, in reality, China�s economy today ranks lower in the world than during the Qianlong�s reign (1711-1799) in the Qing Dynasty. During the Qianlong period, China�s GDP accounted for 51 percent of the world�s total. When Dr. Sun Yat-sen founded the Republic of China (Kuomintang or KMT period) in 1911, China�s GDP accounted for 27 percent of the world�s total. By 1923, the percentage dropped, but still was as high as 12 percent. In 1949, when the CCP took control, the percentage was 5.7, but in 2003, China�s GDP was less than 4 percent of the world�s total. In contrast to the economic decline during the KMT period that was caused by several decades of war, the continuing economic decline during the CCP�s reign occurred during peaceful times.
Today, in order to legitimize its power, the CCP is eager for quick successes and instant benefits. The crippled economic reform that the CCP launched to safeguard its interests has cost the country dearly. The rapid economic growth in the past 20 years is, to a large extent, built on the excessive use or even waste of resources, and has been gained at the cost of environmental destruction. A considerable portion of China�s GDP is achieved by sacrificing the opportunities of future generations. In 2003, China contributed less than four percent to the world economy, but its consumption of steel, cement and other materials amounted to one third of the total global consumption. [3]
From the 1980s to the end of the 1990s, desertification in China increased from a little over 1000 to 2460 square kilometers (386 to 950 square miles). The per capita arable land also decreased from about two mu in 1980 to 1.43 mu in 2003 [4]. The widespread upsurge of land enclosure for development has led China to lose 100 million mu of arable land in just a few years time. However, only 43 percent of the confiscated land is actually used. Currently, the total amount of wastewater discharge is 43.95 billion tons, exceeding the environmental capacity by 82 percent. In the seven major river systems, 40.9 percent of the water is not suitable for drinking by humans or livestock. Seventy-five percent of the lakes are polluted so as to produce various degrees of eutrophication. [5] The conflicts between man and nature in China have never been as intense as they are today. Neither China nor the world can withstand such unhealthy growth. Deluded by the superficial splendor of high-rises and mansions, people are unaware of the impending ecological crisis. Once the time comes for nature to exact its toll on human beings, however, it will bring disastrous consequences to the Chinese nation.
In comparison, since abandoning communism, Russia has carried out economic and political reforms at the same time. After experiencing a short period of agony, it has embarked on a rapid development. From 1999 to 2003, Russia�s GDP increased by a total of 29.9 percent. The living standard of its residents has significantly improved. The Western business circles have begun not only to discuss the �Russian economic phenomenon,� but have also begun to invest in Russia, the new hotspot, on a large scale. Russia�s ranking among the most attractive nations for investment has jumped from 17th in 2002 to 8th in 2003, becoming one of the world�s top ten most popular nations for investment for the first time.
Even India, a country that, to most Chinese, is poverty-stricken and full of ethnic conflicts, has enjoyed a significantly expedited development and has achieved an economic growth rate of seven to eight percent per year since its economic reforms in 1991. India has a relatively complete legal system in a market economy, a healthy financial system, a well-developed democratic system, and a stable public mentality. The international community has recognized India as a country of great development potential.
On the other hand, the CCP only engages in economic reform without political reform. The false appearance of an economy that flourishes in the short run has hindered the natural �evolution of social systems.� It is this incomplete reform that has caused an increasing imbalance in the Chinese society and sharpened social conflicts. The financial gains achieved by the people are not protected by stable social systems. Furthermore, in the process of privatizing the state-owned properties, the CCP�s power-holders have utilized their positions to fill their own pockets.
The CCP Cheats the Peasants Once and Again
CCP relied on peasants to gain power. The rural residents in the CCP-controlled areas in the early stage of its buildup devoted all they had to the CCP. But since the CCP obtained control of the country, peasants have experienced severe discrimination.
After the CCP established the government, it set up a very unfair system � the residential registration system. The system forcefully classifies people into rural and non-rural populations, creating an unreasonable separation and opposition within the country. Peasants have no medical insurance, no unemployment welfare, no retirement pensions, and cannot take loans from banks. Peasants are the most impoverished class in China, but also the class carrying the heaviest tax burden. Peasants need to pay a mandatory provident fund, public welfare fund, administrative management fund, extra education fee, birth control fee, militia organization and training fee, country road construction fee and military service compensation fee. Besides all these fees, they also have to sell part of the grains they produce at a flat rate to the state as a mandatory requirement, and pay agriculture tax, land tax, special local produce tax, and butchery tax in addition to numerous other levies. In contrast, the non-rural population does not pay these fees and taxes.
In the beginning of 2004, China�s Premier Wen Jiabao issued the �No. 1 Document,� stating that rural China was facing the most difficult time since the beginning of the economic reform in 1978. Income for most peasants had stagnated or even declined. They had become poorer, and the income gap between urban and rural residents continued to widen.
In a tree farm in eastern Sichuan province, upper level authorities distributed 500,000 yuan (approximately US$ 60,500) for a reforestation project. The leaders of the tree farm first put 200,000 yuan in their own pockets, and then allocated the remaining 300,000 yuan to tree planting. But as the money was taken away when passing through each level of the government, very little was left in the end for local peasants who did the actual tree planting. The government did not need to worry that the peasants would refuse to work on the project because of inadequate funding. The peasants were so impoverished that they would work for very little money. This is one of the reasons that products made in China are so cheap.
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