We’ve seen how limited interconnectedness and a lack of communication have been causing problems in China’s banks and hospitals. Today I want to bring up a third trend that is critical to understanding how China works.
China’s Government
This might not be a popular view in the West, but China’s National government has created some excellent policies and laws (for the most part, the most oppressive laws are hold-outs from twenty years ago). I believe that they have a clear vision of what they want for China, and they are eager to be in a globally respected position. The problem is their inability to implement many of these plans because of local officials.
I realized this last year when I read “Will the Boat Sink the Water?: The Life of China’s Peasants
I have seen this effect in several news stories this year, and I think it is one of the issues the government is the most concerned with.
One of the most obvious was China’s bold claim that it was going to be in full compliance with the World Health Organizations anti-smoking measures. The agreement was supposed to be in place by January 2011, but even the People’s Daily reported that China’s actions were among the least effective in the World (We can’t even get doctors to stop smoking while treating patients!). This was in large part due to local governments’ unwillingness to put laws in place which might lower their GDP figures.
Another example showed up at the end of 2010 when China was struggling to meet its targets for reducing carbon emissions. In this situation each local government was responsible for lowering their use of coal (which was the measure being used). So they shut down their power plants and patted themselves on the back for being so successful. However companies simply fired up their much less efficient diesel generators and the world saw fuel prices climb.
The final example comes from my personal experience last year in Chengdu. I worked for a group of schools that was accomplishing great things throughout rural Sichuan. Unfortunately I worked in their middle school, which I believe may be the worst school in all of China. The school had daily fighting in the hall, desks broken in class, teachers smoking while they lectured their smoking 15 year-olds, and students who couldn’t be bothered with learning. The heads of the system knew all of these problems (and talked about how the middle school was an embarrassment), but they were unable to replace the middle school principal because of his “connections.”
This inability to overcome the desires of local governments is keeping China from being the superpower it seems destined to become. Once this issue is addressed we could see China grow even faster.
Guanxi is so endemic in China. We recently watched a documentary on Al Jazeera English channel about a young Chinese man teaching in a Middle School in Chengdu. It was remarkably similar to your description. His pupils all seemed to be disaffected male teenagers. He lost weight, seemed to be acting as a “social worker” to them, with no good result. He quit! I know of a Scottish teacher who taught in Shenyang and became very fond of his students until some of them offered him bribes for good exam results. When he refused, some threatened to kill themselves. Sadly, he had to say it was their choice. (Non did!). I also know a Chinese girl who is completing an MA and also completing another for her male friend! I know that I have occasionally benefitted from guanxi myself, when I am in Beijing and have guiltily enjoyed it!
Congratulations Meryl, you spotted tomorrow’s topic! Would it be alright if I quoted you in it?
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[…] Recent articles on People’s Daily relating to guanxi have included gov’t positions being given to family members before they are even half way through college, its an official’s son running a person over, and then daring the police to arrest him. Not that this kind of thing doesn’t happen in other countries, but that this level of entitlement is pervasive at even the lowest level of government (or in schools). […]
[…] Part Three looking at the trends that limit effective govt. […]
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