Is China falling prey to Capitalism
IT
may be recalled that in September 1997, when the 16th Congress of the
communist party of China was in session, President Jiang Zemin brought a bill,
popularly known as Jiang’s Plan that called for wholesale privatization of
public sector enterprises in China. The great Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping
initiated selling Chinese public sector undertakings (PSUs) to private owners in
1978 and the process gained momentum in 1980s. Still in 1997, nearly 300,000
PSUs survived and the said Jiang’s Plan proposed privatization of all the PSUs,
barring only 1000 units having some strategic importance Shri Qiso Shi, the
chief opponent of President Jiang, was expelled from the Congress for opposing
the bill and then the bill was unanimously adopted.
At that time it was told that it would take nearly 5 to 10 ears to
implement the bill and a result 20 to 25 million state workers would lose their
jobs. It was also helped that the private sector, creating new jobs, would be
able to accommodate most of the fired workers. But in practice, it is now seen
that the jobs created in the private sector fall far short of the unemployment
created in the state sector. According to a recent estimate, between 1997 and
2000, nearly 43 million state sector jobs were eliminated and over the same
period private sector could generate only 16.5 million new jobs. This dismal
picture is getting worse day by day as more and more PSUs are being liquidated
or privatized.
In
1997, the total industrial workforce in Chiona was estimated to be 130 million
and hence the above figures indicate that more than 33 per cent of the
workforces were thrown out of jobs in the private sector while 21 per cent of
the workforces have become entirely jobless. But the Beijing-based Development
Research Centre (DRC) and the state controlled media are carrying out deceptive
propaganda and say that the present rate of unemployment in China stands at 8 to
9 per cent. The Chinese Labour Ministry is projecting a still rosy picture and
says that the current rate of unemployment is merely 5.6 per cent. But the
statistical data of the same Labour Ministry says that only in the past one
year, more than 19 million workers were laid off when the outmoded and bankrupt
factories of the Communist era were shut down in a breathtaking pace. It is true
that there are twice as many jobs today in the private sector as it were five
years ago, but it is much below to keep pace with the rate of joblessness
created in the PSUs.
China has dazzled the world with its unprecedented economic growth since
it had adopted the capitalist path in 1978. Its economy has quadruped in size
within past two decades. Coastal cities like Shanghai and Canton have emerged as
nerve-centres of world business and are sparkling with skyscrapers, fivestar
hotels and bustling nightclubs. But unfortunately the country has stepped into
the new century with a heavy burden of tens of millions of jobless workers – a
new generation of have-nots. The government is afraid that in near future these
regiments of urban jobless workers may rise up in the open revolt since signs of
such an outburst are surfacing here and there in the form of mass protests.
This year, the government has faced country’s biggest outbreak of
labour unrest, since the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. Tens of thousands of
workers held demonstrations against state sector lay-offs simultaneously in
various cities. In April this year, more than 30,000 workers, laid off by
China’s biggest oil company PetroChina, held a demonstration in front of the
company headquarters in Heilongjian to get back their lost jobs. A month
earlier, thousands of jobless angry workers launched a demonstration in the
northeastern city of Liacyang. Thousands of jobless workers also held
demonstrations in various other cities like Fushun, Langhou and so on. The
Communist government, on the other hand, is not ready to tolerate an organized
labour movement and at present it is cracking the protests down by arresting
those who take leading roles in organizing these protest rallies. According to
the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions several hundreds of such
leaders had been arrested in the past two months. But demonstrations continue to
flare up. Experts believe that millions of additional workers would join these
demonstrations within a year or two, the situation would go completely out of
control and thus the countrywide labour movement would turn into a destabilizing
political force.
While commenting on these developments, Shri Chen Iluai, a researcher in
DRC, says, “When these people have nowhere to turn, they will defend their
rights- even with violence”. Shri Mo Rong, a spokesman of Ministry of Labour
and Social Security, says. “ If the employment situation does not improve,
there will be a serious impact on social stability”. “China is careening
towards nothing less than a unemployment war, with people fighting for jobs that
simply don’t exit”, says Shri Hu Angang, a professor of Tsinghua University,
Beijing.
So it becomes evident that, through re-introduction of private property
and privatization of PSUs, the Chinese leaders have made the country a burial
ground of Marxism. Or in other words, these leaders have turned China into a
unique country where capitalistic economy is being run by a totalitarism
political institution.
The country does not have a well-organized and uniform national
unemployment benefit scheme today as urban less ness is a recent proportion and
unheard of during that of Mao. So the provincial authorities are tackling the
problems with haphazard and unsystematic meeting, according to their financial
capabilities. People are been provided with unemployment benefits that vary from
$12 to $40 a month, which is much below the subsistence. In addition to that
Beijing planning to force the laid off wars onto the job market as soon as
possible by limiting the said benefits only for two years. It is important to
note here that in a period of crisis like this, the small-scale sector could
play a vital role in employment generation, but such effort has so far been
undertaken by the government.
China’s recent entry into World Trade Organization has deteriorated the
things still further. It has compelled the government to lower the trade
barriers and hence to invite more and more foreign competitors both in the
industrial and agricultural sectors. In fact, cheap imports are now threatening
the domestic steel making, car making, coal mining and other industries. For
example, the Anshan Iron & steel works in Liaoning province with its 250,000
workers is now on the verge of closure. According to experts, the factory can
cut 39 out of 40 workers by installing modern equipment. Similarly, countries
biggest car making company in Jilin, the First Auto Group, with its 245,000
workers is awaiting a closure. According to the estimate of the American
consultancy firm A. T. Kearney an average worker of the company produces 2.5
cars per year, while in the US, an average worker of General Motor produce ten
times as many cars per year. The report of A. T. Kearney says that the company
can cut 7 out of 8 workers.
The lowering of trade barriers has begun to heat China’s agricultural
sector as well. Farmer who were so far producing for the states are now facing
stiff competition with America’s highly mechanized agro-business. They are
being forced of the land and rushing to the coastal cities only to collide with
already lay of millions off factory workers. In fact, the country has
experienced in past two years the largest migration in new man history- more
than 100 millions farmers have merged towards the eastern cities in search of
petty low level jobs. Nearly 30 million have migrated to the Pearl River Delta
alone. It should be mentioned here that the above migrations took place by
violating the extremely rigid Chinese law that tries to keep the confined to
their own places. According to Shri Chen Huai, a senior fellow of DRC, the
situation will turn worse in near future. “Within next ten years, nearly 150
million farmers will move to the cities looking for jobs”, he adds.
In the present context, it should be recalled that, according to the
creed of Marx, private ownership of mills and factories is an extremely bad
thing and the root of all evils. The factory owners or the capitalists utilize
these means of production to exploit the workers, which ultimately lead the
working class to untold sufferings and miseries. According to Marx “the
workers alone infuse value into finished products by way of adding their labour
to the raw materials and hence the benefits a capitalist earns by selling his
commodities should go entirely to the workers. But the capitalists, without
doing any labour, are enjoying the fruits, which the workers create by their
toil and perspiration.
Marxism looks for exploitation less society and hence its fundamental
proposition is to abolish the institution of private property and handing over
the ownership of the means of production to the state. This, according to
Marxism, serves two purposes. Firstly, the capitalists are eliminated as a class
and secondly, the society becomes free of exploitation. So it becomes evident
that, through re-introduction of private property and privatization of PSUs, the
Chinese leaders have made of Marxism. Or in other words, these leaders have
turned China into a unique country where capitalistic economy is being run a
totalitarian political institution.
It should be mentioned here that Communism in Russia fell due to failure
of the Russian PSUs and taking this lesson Deng Xisoping began privatizing the
Chinese PSUs. The developments suggest that the Marxist concept of socialism
based on state – controlled economy is a European concept that can never be
put into practice. Once upon a time our
ex-Prime
Minister Shri Neheru, being influenced by this European concept, opted for basic
industries under sector. But as a natural consequence, the PSUs then setup and
declared to be the temples of modern India have now been turned into Temples of
Doom bleeding wounds of the national exchequer.
However, experts believe that the present crisis in China would take a
serious turn and within a few years it will lead to severe political instability
and ultimately through a violent and bloody uprising, the totalitarian rule of
today will come to an end giving place to a democratic government.
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