A veteran American journalist who was stationed in China used his first-hand observations to publish a book exposing the real situation of migrant workers.
Last year, the Communist Party of China (CPC) announced that it had won the battle against poverty, and in February, General Secretary Xi Jinping held a commendation ceremony, claiming that the “comprehensive victory” in poverty eradication was a so-called “miracle on earth. However, the outside world continues to question the CCP’s claim of victory in poverty eradication. A veteran American journalist based in China has used his first-hand observations to publish a book exposing the real situation of migrant workers.
Dexter Roberts, a veteran U.S. journalist who has been stationed in China for 23 years and was formerly the China president of Bloomberg Businessweek, recently released his new book, “Low-End China”. Through his long-term contacts and observations of migrant workers and Taiwanese businessmen, village committee secretaries, human rights lawyers, corporate managers and senior Communist Party officials, he reveals the real situation of China’s migrant workers under the “hukou system” and other policies.
According to information, China’s hukou system began in 1958, a policy that restricts the movement of people and prevents those from rural areas from moving their hukou to the cities where they work and live, and therefore from accessing local resources such as medical care and education. In the decades after the so-called reform and opening up, a large number of rural laborers moved to the cities, and they have a common name: “migrant workers”.
Luo Gu points out in his book that although the Communist Party has repeatedly declared its intention to improve the situation of peasants, the rigidly planned economic system has mostly distorted the policies, and the hukou system has made migrant workers “second-class citizens of China” and “foreigners in their homeland.
In addition, some migrant workers who go to the cities to earn a living have to send their children to private schools in the cities, which charge high fees but vary in quality, because of the restrictions of the hukou system, but they do not want their children to stay in the countryside and become “left-behind children”.
Luo Gu said that even though migrant workers intend to leave the cities and return to their hometowns, some of them have difficulties in starting their own businesses due to the imperfect infrastructure in their hometowns, while others who have left their hometowns for many years face the dilemma of being disconnected from their hometowns’ interpersonal resources, resulting in a situation where “the countryside can only accommodate a small number of people, and workers do not always have the means to find jobs even when they return to their hometowns.
Luo Gu believes that the Chinese Communist government should loosen its grip on the people, and that if it wants to integrate migrant workers into the middle class, the authorities must abolish the hukou system, allow them to freely choose their residence and occupation, and give them the same rights as local residents in the cities, otherwise it will be difficult to transition to a sustainable, consumption-based economy in the long run, and thus cause social unrest.
In contrast to the first-hand facts revealed by Luo Gu, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), officially announced China’s complete eradication of poverty at a national summing-up and commendation conference in Beijing on Feb. 25, saying that until last year, “the battle against poverty has been a comprehensive victory, with 98.99 million rural poor people having been lifted out of poverty under the current standards.” He even described it as “another human miracle that will go down in history.”
However, the poverty line set by China is lower than the international standard, and the poverty alleviation falsification.
China’s current poverty standard is an annual per capita income of 4,000 yuan, or about 333 yuan per month, which is still about 10 percent different from the UN poverty line of $1.90 per person per day, or 380 yuan per month.
Many skeptical voices, mostly citing Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s public statement at last year’s two sessions that 600 million people in China earn 1,000 yuan a month, believe this is enough to show that the CCP itself is lying.
An article in Deutsche Welle analyzed why Xi Jinping is particularly concerned about eradicating poverty across the board, saying that the authorities’ claim to have accomplished the task of “eradicating poverty across the board” by China’s current standards smacks of the proverbial “swollen face, fat face,” but there is an important meaning behind it.
The article writes that Xi is aware that the overall environment in China has changed, and that if the CCP fails to accelerate the pace of poverty eradication and gain the support of the grassroots, the resulting polarization will be detrimental to the CCP’s rule and will accelerate its erosion of legitimacy, so he has a sense of urgency about poverty eradication. The Communist Party’s official declaration of giving all the credit for poverty eradication to Xi is to build up the deeds, so that others will have nothing to say and obey his leadership and recognize his authority.
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