Chinese Law and Politics Blog

Chinese Authorities "No. 1 Document" For 2007 Emphasizes Agricultural Economy

The Chinese Communist Party Central Committee and State Council issued a joint opinion on January 29, identifying improvement of the agricultural economy as their main policy goal for 2007.   

The opinion, titled "Several Opinions Regarding Actively Developing Modern Agriculture and Firmly Advancing the Construction of the New Socialist Countryside" is the "Number One" document for 2007.  Chinese authorities use these "Number One" documents annually as a means to highlight policies for the coming year.  Each "Number One" document issued since 2004 has focused on rural issues.

The opinion heavily emphasizes agricultural economic development.  Reform measures include: increased agricultural investment, improved market access for agricultural products, encouraging rural technical innovation, and strengthening rural infrastructure

In contrast, the opinion only briefly addresses issues of rural governance reform.  It broadly calls on authorities to clean up the problems of local government debts, better address issues of land seizures, reform the system of agricultural credit, and continue experiments with reforming and trimming local government personnel.   

The opinion contains general language calling for strengthening rural institutions to address social instability.

Strengthen and improve rural social management.  With regard to new developments in the rural economy and society, develop new mechanisms of rural social managment to firmly strengthen the work of upholding rural social stability.  Expand channels for the expression of public opinion in rural society.  Construct and perfect mechanisms for the channeling and resolution of disputes.  Comprehensively use multiple measures and methods to appropriately resolve consistent and latent rural social problems.  Deeply expand "peaceful construction," strengthen the construction of rural police forces, carry out well the comprehensive management of public security in rural society, and ensure that  rural areas are peaceful and orderly.  Broadly carry out legal educational propaganda activities in rural areas and increase the masses' legal understanding.  Guide farmers to express their interests and demands in a legal and reasonable manner, and lawfully exercise their rights and  carry out their duties.  Construct management mechanisms to respond to rural emergencies, and improve abilities to respond to crises.

The emphasis of the 2007 opinion differs from the 2006 "No. 1 Document" , the Opinion on Promoting the Construction of a New Socialist Countryside, which emphasized many specific governance reforms, as noted in analysis provided by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC).  For example, the 2007 opinion contains no explicit call for reforms to the Chinese hukou (household registration) system, nor specific details and timetable for realizing improvements in the provision of rural health and education services, unlike the 2006 opinion. 

The 2007 opinion repeats the emphasis of the 2006 opinion on the need for Party leadership of rural work. The 2007 opinion also strengthens a call made in the 2006 opinion for strengthening professional farmer cooperatives.  Some provincial authorities have experimented with more independent forms of rural professional associations as a means of allowing farmers additional channels to protect their rights, as noted in the CECC analysis.  The 2007 opinion also repeats a call made by central authorities in recent weeks to strengthen the use of financial incentives, as opposed to coercive measures,to ensure citizen compliance with official birth control policies.

The 2007 opinion may reflect a desire to shelve the more difficult issues of rural governance reform in favor of efforts to address technical issues of rural economic reform, particularly in the politically sensitive runup period prior to the 17th Party Congress in the fall.  Chinese authorities themselves have admitted that some official governance reform efforts, such as those aimed at addressing hukou reform, have faltered upon meeting internal bureaucratic opposition.

Central Officials Reaffirm Birth Control Policies, Warn That Gender Imbalance May Lead to Social Instability

The Communist Party Central Committee and State Council issued a joint decision on January 22 reaffirming the importance of China's birth control policies, calling on officials to improve their effectiveness, warning that the imbalanced male-female sex ratio could lead to social instability.

The joint decision states "if the sex imbalance between males and females is too high, and continues for too long, it will certainly lead to social instability."  China had 118 boys born in 2005 for every 100 girls, compared with 110 boys born for every 100 girls in 2000, according to a January 22 Xinhua article.  In some areas, the ratio has reached 130 boys born for every 100 girls.  Average ratios in other countries, both developed and developing, are approximately 105 boys born for every 100 girls.

The decision reaffirms central authorities intent to continue China's birth control policies, with the aim of keeping China's population under 1.36 million by 2010, and under 1.45 million by 2020.  But Zhang Weiqing, director of  the National  Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC), suggested some government flexibility in the policy, stating that "with very poor families, we may reduce part of the social compensation fee [the fine for bearing children over the official limit] or waive the fee, depending on the actual situation" according to a subsequent interview quoted in a January 24 Washington Post article.

The decision calls for local authorities to implement a range of social assistance policies aimed at resolving some of the social pressures that lead to sex-selective abortion.  Policies cited in the decision include financial assistance programs for families who abide by the birth control policies, such as aid to families who have a single child who is injured or killed, or one-time cash payments to elderly parents with one child.  The decision also calls for the strict punishment of those who conduct gender determinations of fetuses or carry out sex-selective abortions.

Zhang estimated that China would require 10 to 15 years to return the sex ratio to normal, according to a January 23 interview transcript posted on the Chinese government's website.  Zhao Baige, deputy director of the NPFPC, said that the joint decision represents a shift away from a simple focus on controlling the numerical population growth through administrative controls, to a more comprehensive focus on a broader range of demographic issues, according to a January 23 Beijing  News article. 

The decision also emphasizes the need to both enhance controls over China's migrants in order to assure that they comply with China's birth control policies, and to respond to migrant needs for social services.  This parallels statements made earlier in January by other central Chinese authorities regarding the importance for stronger management of China's migrant population.

The decision also emphasizes reliance on more traditional Chinese governance techniques in addressing population growth.  It calls on local officials to "perfect management of [birth control] target responsibility systems, evaluating the work performance of Party and government leaders, responsibile bureaus, population and family planning bureaus, employing a "unilateral veto" system."  Chinese authorities use set performance targets, such as birth control quotas, to assess the work performance of individual officials.  Failure to meet the designated targets can result in negative career sanctions, while success is rewarded.

Chinese Property Law Moves Towards Consideration by National Legislature

China's draft Property Law is moving towards consideration and adoption by the National's People's Congress (NPC) at the legislative session which begins on March 5, 2007, according to a January 20 Xinhua article.  The draft law has gone through an unprecedented seven readings by the NPC since first being introduced in 2002.   For a timeline of the bill, provided by the official Chinese Xinhua news agency, see here.

The draft Property law has stirred significant opposition among both Chinese politicians and academics concerned about the ideological implications of legal protections for private property.  In 2006, NPC consideration of the draft law was delayed after a Beijing law professor attacked the bill in a open letter published on the Internet, as noted in a March 10, 2006 Financial Times article.  His assertion that the bill failed to protect state property and undermined the socialist system gathered (or reflected) sufficient attention from central authorities to delay it's consideration until this year.

Subsequent amendments to the draft law made in 2006 appear aimed at responding to some of these concerns, adding clauses providing for the equal protection of state and private property.

CCMPS Officials Discuss Social Stability Goals for 2007

Central Chinese authorities charged with upholding social stability announced their goals for 2007 at a January 16 conference of the Central Committee for the Comprehensive Management of Public Security, according to a transcript of the event.  Minister of Public Security Zhou Yongkang noted that these include 1) resolution of citizen grievances, 2) continued focus on the official “strike hard” campaign against crime, and 3) stronger social management, particularly of China’s migrant population.   

Participants in the meeting offered divergent depictions of Chinese social order. Vice-Minister of Public Security Liu Jinguo announced that the total number of criminal cases filed during 2006 held “basically the same” as in 2005, and that the number of mass incidents declined by 16.5 percent during the same period.  In contrast, Chen noted that “overall problems, it must be observed, such as criminal cases and public order cases, including mass incidents, are still hovering at high levels, and their decrease has been limited.” Liu repeated a warning from a 2006 report issued by the general office of the MPS that stated, “stability has been achieved under increasingly tough security measures, and the foundations of public order are relatively weak.” He also linked need to appropriately handle mass incidents to central efforts to effectively address citizen grievances in 2007.

Vice-Minister Liu set forth several steps that Chinese authorities will pursue to improve both the “management” and the “service” of China’s migrant population. These include:

• Raising the numbers of Chinese migrants who are registered (under China’s system of temporary residence permits for migrants).

• Strongly controlling and tracking the “targeted” population.

• Using systems of “managing people through housing.” Strengthening management and tracking of individuals residing in short-term rental housing. Conducting concentrated cleanup operations of disorderly migrant areas.

• Gradually pursuing reforms to the household registration [hukou] system, unifying rural and urban hukou registration.

Chen Jiping, head of the general office of the CCMPS, noted that peaceful construction (ping’an jianshe) was a primary goal for 2006. Both Chen and other participants emphasized the need to rely on official work performance targets set through responsibility systems as a means to meet social stability goals.

Ministry of Civil Affairs Releases 2006 Statistics

The Ministry of Civil Affairs (MOCA) released comprehensive 2006 statistics on areas such as civil society organizations and numbers of receipents of domestic social security programs, in a January 16 post on their website. 

The official numbers show a steady increase in the numbers of officially registered Chinese civil society organizations, including 186,000 social organizations (SOs), 159,000 non-governmental, non-commercial enterprises (NGNCE's), and 1138 foundations.  A seperate MOCA announcement detailing MOCA accomplishments for 2006 notes the creation of a enforcement and supervision bureau, aimed at "upholding social order by timely and effectively uncovering illegal civil society organizations and violations of the law by civil society organizations."

Below is a comprehensive statistical table of Chinese civil society organizations, compiling information from the 2006 and 2005 MOCA statistical releases, and an earlier table on the website of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

Organization type	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
Registered SOs (in thousands)	137	131	129	133	142	153	168	186
Registered NGNCEs (in thousands)	6	23	82	111	124	135	146	159
Foundations							99	1138

Chinese Authorities Call For Stronger Efforts to Maintain Social Stability

The Central Committee for the Comprehensive Management of Public Security (CCCMPS) has issued an opinion calling for stronger efforts to combat social instability, according to a December 21, 2006 post on the Legal Daily Website.

The CCMPS is a standing body underneath the Central Party Committee and the State Council charged with coordinating official activities in the field of public order and security, according to their website.

The CCMPS Opinion on Deepening and Expanding Peaceful Rural Construction (关于深入开展农村平安建设的若干意见) [Opinion] states:

Presently, the general rural situation is good, but because conflicts caused by land seizures, forced demolitions, and land contracting are relatively pronounced, farmer petititons and rural mass incidents sometimes occur.  In a few areas, there are numerous occurences of theft or destruction of rural electric or water facilities, agricultural production materials, and illegal logging, drugs, gambling, feudal superstitions, cults, and illegal religous organizations are unchecked.  In a few areas, the power of rural triads is rampant, seriously affecting the security of the broader masses in rural areas.   In some areas, the power of rural grassroots political organizations is weak, government management non-existent, police strength insufficient, infrastructure conditions for public order weak,  mass organizations for the management of public order and the accompanying funds are not implemented, institutions for the protection of social and public order such as mediation committees and public order patrol forces are failing to play the role they should, and the rural social instability situation continues to be serious.

The Opinion generally calls for heightened attention to rural social stability, particularly charging county-level CCMPS and Party political-legal committees with coordination and supervision responsibilities.  Specific calls for action include:

• strengthening rural systems of dispute resolution,  with the aim of "resolving the factors of social instability in the germinal phase, and effectively preventing and reducing petitions to higher-level authorities, mass incidents, and 'civil cases that turn into criminal ones'"
• perfecting systems for analyzing the state of public order and implementing "strike hard" measures on a long-term basis
• striking against the "infilitration and sabotage of rural areas by foreign and domestic enemies," "further developing the struggle against Falun Gong forces," and "firmly surpressing illegal religious and feudal supersition activities." 
• requiring Party and government officials to include target goals for "peaceful rural construction" in the responsibility systems used to evaluate the performance of officials.  "Localities and units whose inadequate attention and poor work lead to major criminal cases, public order disasters, and large mass incidents that seriously disturb public order or cause a negative impression shall be severely sanctioned under responsibility systems for the comprehensive management of public order and systems unilaterally cancelling out positive work performance for major failures.

The Opinion notes that it is aimed at implementing two prior central directives, the the Central Party Committee and the State Council's December 31, 2005 Opinion on Promoting the Construction of a New Socialist Countryside, and their October 21, 2005 reissuance of the Central Party's Law and Politics Committee and the CCMPS's Opinion on Deepening Peaceful Construction.  For prior analysis of these two directives by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, see here and here. 

Hukou/Migrant Issues

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Judicial System

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Civil Society

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