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Regulations on Political Qualifications Applicable to Military Academies Enrolling Regular High School Graduates and on the Military Recruiting of Regular College Graduates [1]

(The Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Public Security and the General Political Department of the People’s Liberation Army)

Joint Notice No. 1 [2001] May 31, 2001

To strengthen ideological and political construction among the officers of the armed forces and based on the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Officers in Active Service, Military Service Law of the People’s Republic of China and other relevant laws and regulations, now therefore the regulations on regulations on political qualifications applicable to military academies enrolling regular high school graduates and on the military recruiting of regular college graduates are prescribed as follows:

Love the Chinese Communist Party; love the socialist motherland; love the people; love the people’s army; support the Party’s line, principles and policies; comply with the Constitution and the laws; have a clean history, be politically reliable, upright, politically correct, and of good moral character; serve the people wholeheartedly; willing to be fully dedicated to national defense with the determination to defend the motherland and people to work in peace. No one shall be enrolled and accepted if found to fall into any of the following categories:

1. Those who are dissatisfied, in word or deed, with the Chinese Communist Party and the socialist system.

2. Those who have leaked the Party, State and military’s secrets; maintain close ties with immediate family members who fled abroad or joined in espionage and reactionary organizations in foreign countries, thus being politically suspicious.

3. Those who have organized or participated, inside and outside China, in organizations that endanger national security as well as triads (identified by local public security departments); have organized or supported unlawful assemblies, marches, demonstrations, sit-ins, hunger strikes, students’ strikes and other activities.

4. Those who have a prior history of imprisonment, criminal detention, control or being deprived of political rights; a prior history of re-education through labor in accordance with the law, or administrative detention; have been subject to criminal investigation, prosecution, or trials that have not closed, and crime suspects under investigation and surveillance; have been parties to litigation of civil and economic disputes yet to be resolved.

5. Those who have participated in "Falun Gong" or qigong organizations that the public security departments have identified as harmful to society; have immediate family members or other close relatives who practice Falun Gong or qigong organizations harmful to society and are core members or refuse to change and continue to adhere to the wrong position.

6. Those who have engaged in indecency, theft, robbery, fraud, gambling, smuggling, prostitution, drug addiction, production and distribution of pornographic materials and other illegal activities.

7. Those who believe in religions or have participated in the activities of religious organizations.

8. Those who have bad moral character, poor discipline and have been reprimanded for serious mistakes.

9. Those who wear tattoo designs, words, or points not due to ethnic customs and bear symbols of problematic political issues and criminal gangs.

10. Those who cannot correctly accept that their immediate family members, close relatives or other directly fostered persons were sentenced or disciplined.

11. Those whose background cannot be easily investigated due to various reasons.

It is a joint task of the military and local authorities to do well in investigating political qualifications when military academies enroll regular high school graduates and the armed forces recruit regular college graduates. We must strengthen the leadership. The military cognizant departments shall carry out well-organized implementation.  Local departments of education and public security should actively assist, cooperate closely within their duties, and check carefully to ensure the political quality of the enrollees and those accepted.

Public Announcement of Hainan on Admission Interviews for Military Academies, Public Security Schools, Schools of Riot Police and Judicial and Law Schools [2]

June 29, 2008, Examinations Bureau of Hainan Province

……

The interviewing institutions shall provide candidates who passed interviews with the “Form of Interviews, Physical Tests and Political Qualification of Public Security Higher Educational Institutions.” The candidates shall bring the forms to their high schools (graduates of priors years should go to their village or streets committee offices), local police station and city/county public security bureau for political background approval.  Candidates shall submit the completed form to the education section under the personnel division of the Political Department, the Provincial Public Security Bureau.

The political qualification process covers political behavior, obeying the law and the public morality of the candidates, their immediate family members and major social associations.

Candidates shall be politically disqualified if they committed one of the following:

Have received a criminal sentence, re-education through labor, juvenile disciplinary administration or punishment for disorderly social behavior in the past five years.

Are currently under criminal investigation and surveillance.

Have records of expulsion from school, the Communist Youth League, the Communist Party or have been written up in personnel files or more in the past three years.

Have practiced Falun Gong or other illegal organizations or groups of organized crimes.

Have a history of drug addiction.

Have immediate family members or close relatives that have received the death sentence or were sentenced for endangering State security or are serving terms for other crimes.

Have immediate family members or close relatives that are suspects currently under criminal investigation by the authorities or hard core members of Falun Gong and other illegal organizations who refuse to change their wrong positions; and other situations that are not appropriate for enrollment.

2009 Enrollment Charter for National Defense Students
Dalian Science and Industry University [3]

……

3. Admission criteria

(1) Support the party’s line, loyal to the motherland, love the military, willing to be dedicated to national defense, have not participated in any illegal social groups and organizations, have no connection with Falun Gong, meet the standards in the Regulations on Political Qualifications Applicable to Military Academies Enrolling Regular High School Graduates and Military Recruiting Regular College Graduates (Joint Notice No. 1 [2001]).

Lanzhou University: If You Want To Become a Military Officer [4]
……

4.  What are the admission criteria for candidates?

(1) Meet the standards in the Regulations on Political Qualifications Applicable to Military Academies Enrolling Regular High School Graduates and Military Recruiting Regular College Graduates, willing to be dedicated to national defense and will accept assigned posts upon graduation. The candidate, the guardian and the immediate family members have not participated in any illegal social organizations, particularly Falun Gong.

2009 Beijing Regulations on Admissions at Regular Higher Educational Institutions [5]
……

4. Anyone who falls into one of the following categories shall not be accepted:

a. Have opposed the basic principles of the Constitution or participated in cults [Editor’s Note: as the government has been extensively referring to Falun Gong as a “cult,” in the official’s language in China, “cult” has become synonymous with Falun Gong].

b. Have violated social order regulations, and been disciplined as a result, where the violations were of a serious and egregious nature.
…

2009 Heilongjiang Regulations on Admissions at Regular Higher Educational Institutions [6]
……

9. Anyone that falls into one of the following categories shall fail in the political and moral qualifications. 

a. Have opposed the basic principles of the Constitution or participated in cults.
b. Have violated social order regulations, and been disciplined as a result, where the violations were of a serious and egregious nature.
……

Endnotes:
[1] University of Science and Technology of China
http://hbjg.ustc.edu.cn/index.php?Aid=323
[2] Examinations Bureau of Hainan Province
http://ea.hainan.gov.cn/phtml/2008/06/30/1529.html
[3] Dalian University of Technology
http://recruit.dlut.edu.cn/Display.aspx?NewsID=259
[4] Lanzhou University
http://xpb.lzu.edu.cn/ReadNews.asp?NewsID=550
[5] Beijing Education Examination Authority
http://www.bjeea.cn/218425681439096832/20090402/37700.shtml
[6] Xinhua, May 20, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/edu/2009-05/20/content_11404791.htm

All Relevant units:

In order to build a green, healthy and harmonious Internet environment, to avoid youth being impacted by hazardous information from the Internet, according to provisions in the Government Procurement Law, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Central Civilization Office and the Ministry of Finance hereby jointly announce that the Central government will provide free usage of the Internet filtering software Green Dam Youth Escort (“Green Dam Youth Escort software”) for the nation. The central Treasury has funded the purchase of a one year right to use this software and its related services. Comprehensive tests and pilot applications have proven that such software can effectively filter unhealthy text and image content on the Internet; it is ready for pre-installation by computer manufacturers.

In order to further consolidate the achievement of rectifying against the low and degrading trends on the Internet, to protect the healthy growth of minors via both punishment and prevention, to promote sound and orderly development of the Internet, and to follow the national strategy of protecting against the low and degrading trends on the Internet, the following are the specific requirements for pre-installation of Green Internet filtering software on all computers.

1. All computers produced and sold inside China must pre-install the latest version of Green Dam Youth Escort software before they leave the manufacturer; all imported computers sold in China should pre-install the latest version of Green Dam Youth Escort software before they are sold.

2. Green Dam Youth Escort software must be pre-installed on the computer’s hard drive or the CD that comes with the computer, and also as back up files in the hard drive restoration system and recovery CD.

3. The provider of Green Dam Youth Escort software should take active measures to support computer manufacturers during the pre-installation.

4. All computer manufacturing and sales enterprises should complete all the related testing for Green Dam Youth Escort software pre-installation by the end of June 2009. All computers sold after July 1, 2009 should pre-install the Green Dam Youth Escort software.

5. All computer manufacturers and the Green Dam Youth Escort software provider should submit the sales volume of computers and the filtering software, along with any suggestions, each month to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The total annual sales of pre-installed filtering software for the previous year must be submitted before the end of February 2010.

For the computer manufacturers that do not pre-install the required software in time, do not report sales volume in time, submit false reports and/or refuse to report, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will order them to report and/or make required corrections within a limited time. 

The Education Foundation’s Second Letter [2009] No. 3

All provincial, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government Education Bureau (Board of Education), the Department of Finance (Bureau), the Information Office (Internet Management Office, Internet Publicity Office), all separately planned municipalities’ Department of Education, Financial Bureau, Information Office (Internet Management Office, Internet Publicity Office), the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corp’s Bureau of Education, Finance Bureau, Information Office (Internet Management Office, Internet Publicity Office):

In order to better implement the scientific development concept, to comprehensively promote the quality of education in primary and secondary schools, to create a healthy and positive learning environment on the Internet for primary and secondary school students, and to purify the campus Internet environment, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State Council Information Office (hereinafter referred to as the four departments) decided to provide free Internet filtering software for all primary and secondary school computers. The details of the notice are as follows:

First, the tasks and requirements:

1. All local educational administrative departments and primary and secondary schools must fully recognize the adverse impact of hazard information on the Internet to students, pay great attention to prevent and control adverse information on the campus network, and take effective measures to ensure a safe and healthy campus Internet environment in primary and secondary schools.

2. In order to prevent hazardous information from entering the campus network, the central government financed the purchase of Green Dam Youth Escort software for the free usage by primary and secondary schools to filter adverse information on the Internet. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is responsible for the download and user services of the Green Dam Youth Escort software. 

3. All local educational administrative departments should conscientiously implement the installation of the Internet filtering software, strengthen guidance and management, and designate responsible persons for this work, to ensure that all campus computers connected to the Internet install the Green Dam Youth Escort filtering software before the end of May 2009. 

Second, installation and maintenance:

1. Each school should download and install the Green Dam Youth Escort Internet filtering software through the Internet. See the attached file for download and installation instructions.

2. The Internet filtering Team under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will send upgrade notices through the Internet for the Green Dam Youth Escort software; each school should update the campus computers to ensure the effective operation of the software.

3. Each primary and secondary school should include the maintenance of Green Dam Youth Escort software as part of its daily management. This work should have a high priority and a responsible person must be designated.

Third, inspection and guidance:

Local educational administration departments should periodically and randomly inspect the work of filtering hazardous Internet information on the campus network. After the installation of Green Dam Youth Escort software, the four departments will form a special inspection team to inspect the installation and operation of the software by each primary and secondary school.

Appendix: Green Dam Youth Escort software download and installation instructions

The Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the State Council Information Office

April 1, 2009

Large-scale Pre-installation Is Being Carried Out

According to information disclosed on the Lvhang web page, some personal computer manufacturers have begun the pre-installation. On May 18, the web page announced that “PC manufacturers Green Dam pre-installation training is fully implemented.”

……

Statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information technology indicate that by the end of March this year, there were about 95 websites in China offering free download of the Green Dam Youth Escort software. The software was downloaded about 3,266,800 times; about 2,279 schools installed the software on about 518,300 campus computers; about 6,957 websites installed the software; a total of 1,163,500 computers completed the installation.

According to media reports, including the countryside home appliance market, the total installation of Green Dam software is as much as about 52.7 million units.

■ Background

All primary and secondary schools installed the Green Dam software

Prior to requiring that all computers pre-install the Green Dam software, the Ministry of Education required that all primary and secondary schools nationwide install the software on campus computers connected to the Internet.

Prior to this, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the State Council Information Office jointly studied the campus promotion strategy for Internet filtering software programs. On April 1 of this year, it issued The Notice to Install Internet Filtering Software for All Primary and Secondary School Campus Networks. The Notice states, “to create a healthy and positive learning environment on the Internet for primary and secondary school students,” all local education administration departments should conscientiously implement the installation of the Internet filtering software, “to ensure that all campus computers connected to Internet install the Green Dam Youth Escort filtering software before the end of May 2009.”

The notice requires primary and secondary schools to include the maintenance of Green Dam Youth Escort software as part of daily management, and to designate a specific responsible person. It also requires local education administration departments randomly to inspect the work of filtering hazardous Internet information on the campus network.  In the meantime, the four departments will form a special inspection team to inspect the installation and operation of the software by each primary and secondary school.

Earlier, the software was tested in some primary and secondary schools in Guizhou, Henan and some other provinces and cities. Relevant authorities concluded that the software was effective.

All Computers in the Countryside Home Appliances Program Pre-installed the Green Dam Software

The Green Dam software has been servicing many computers that farmers received in the countryside home appliances programs. It is reported that “all computers sent to the countryside were installed with corresponding information filtering and protection software when conditions permitted. The most popular filtering software installed is called the Green Dam Youth Escort software.”

It is reported that this was mainly to help the “farmers who had limited experience with computers” to avoid computer viruses problems and thus to reduce the burden of after-sales services. “At this moment the importance of information filtering is highlighted.”

News reports in March disclosed all Lenovo computers sent to the countryside were pre-installed with the Green Dam software. Later computers sent by Founder, the Great Wall, the Wave, Tsinghua Tongfang, and Haier will also be installed with the Green Dam software.

Endnotes:
[1] The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, http://www.miit.gov.cn/n11293472/n11293832/n11293952/12398220.html
[2] The Hubei Province Education Information website,
http://xxdt.e21.cn/e21web/content.php?id=469
[3] Nanfang Metropolitan Daily, June 9, 2009, http://www.nanfangdaily.com.cn/nfjx/200906090005.asp

We Want to Work

Half a year ago, Guo Xiaoming and his two friends were coworkers at a Taiwan-joint-venture factory. With the closure of the factory, their fates also changed.

– By reporter Liu Zichao from Dongguan

“Left with Nothing Overnight”

Holding his bike, Guo Xiaoming stands outside the gate of the Tianhua Furniture Factory with sweaty under arms. Here is Humen Town, Dongguan. Under the scorching sun, the green factory building seems spacious but lonely. Many times, when he passed here at dusk, he kept noticing the palm trees close by the gate already withered and cobwebs collecting dust.

“I had worked here for eleven years.” He told the gate guard. Then he lit a cigarette as if he was waiting for the arrival of tomorrow.

Now, Guo Xiaoming, 37, is working in the Xingyi Glass Factory as a quality inspector. His salary is less than half of his previous job. He started working in the Tianhua Furniture Factory in 1997. Before the factory was closed, he was a supervisor at the packaging group, earning more than 3,000 yuan every month.

Guo Xiaoming recalled, last October, when the surrounding shoe factories and electronics factories were closed, the workers at Tianhua felt lucky that their products were for the U.S. Although there were some changes for this big 20-year-old Taiwanese factory, nobody believed that it would collapse suddenly.

One Sunday afternoon, the news of the factory owner’s departure started spreading among more than six hundred workers. When Guo Xiaoming rushed to the factory, he saw the angry suppliers were just about to take away the machines as compensation for the debt. "It came so abruptly, we did not believe it was true." Guo said.

Finally, the Ludong Village Committee in Humen Town took over the Tianhua Factory and paid off workers’ wages. That afternoon, in the factory field, a long row of tables was laid out. The workers lined up by their departments to receive their last salaries. The loud speakers kept telling workers who received their salaries to leave the factory.

The young workers left after receiving the money. But Guo Xiaoming felt sad. At a small restaurant outside the factory, over a dozen veteran workers who had worked there for more than ten years sat down in silence. They looked like fearful youth who did not know where to go.

"After all I had worked here for so many years," Guo Xiaoming said, “It seems that nothing is left overnight.”

Like Guo Xiaoming, Zhou Rongqin began working in Tianhua in the 90’s. He tried to stay in Dongguan but all the jobs he found only paid a few hundred yuan per month which was not enough to support the family. What he worried about the most was his son, who was in his third year (last year) of middle school.

 “I want him to continue with school so that he will not end up like me.” Zhou said, “But that requires a lot of money.”

Zhou Rongqin had to go back to his hometown, Qinzhou City, Guangxi Province. He works on temporary jobs to make a living. His wife was a worker in Tianhua as well. Now she becomes a housewife without any income.

“I have worked so many years. According to the law, one year of work experience would be compensated with a month of salary. I suppose that I could get seventy to eighty thousand yuan severance pay.” Zhou talked to us over the phone from Guangxi, “we have sued Tianhua Factory. But the village committee had taken out over one million from their pocket to pay the workers. Nobody knows how much we can get from the auction of the factory’s property.”

Another worker, Xiao Pingliang, had worked in Tianhua for 18 years. He started to feel the fear of not being connected to the world for so long. Now, the life he used to live became something far away in his memory.

“I worked in the furniture factory for over ten years, almost twenty years. I had almost never left Dongguan during that time,” Xiao Pingliang said, “Now, I am almost 40 and have to leave here. I feel incompetent.”

Life without a Job

In the days without work, Guo Xiaoming would buy a newspaper and sit in the residential square. After reading the newspaper, he went to the factory and circled around there. Sometimes, he would stare at the seal at the factory gate for a long time.

One day, when he was watching international news on TV, he saw a room with furniture just like Tianhua’s products. He jumped excitedly to call his wife to come and see. But then his heart suddenly sunk with the painful realization that Tianhua no longer existed.

For Guo Xiaoming, over ten years of life working in the factory was just like a dream. When he woke up from that long dream, he still faced the pressure of making a living. He likes to recall his life as a young man.

At that time, he and his friends processed fast-food chopsticks for three to four years in Guilin City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The raw chopsticks were shipped from Daxing’anling, Heilongjiang Province, one container after another. They processed them and sold them to local restaurants.

Every day at dusk, he rode his tricycle through many streets in Guiling City. Sometimes when he slept late at night, he would be woken up by phone calls the next morning, urging him to deliver the chopsticks. Though life was hard he didn’t really feel much hardship.

He liked to roller skate. One day, at the ice rink he met a girl who worked in an ice-cream parlor. From then on, hand in hand, their mellow lives flew by. That girl became his wife.

In 1997, since Guo Xiaoming didn’t have the temporary residence permit to live in Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, he had to hide to avoid being caught by the police. The inspector always showed up at late night. When he heard noise, he had to jump out the window. Once when he hid in the bushes by the river, he fell asleep and fell into the river, almost getting himself killed.

His wife felt sorry for him, “Let’s not to live a life in hiding like this anymore. All right?”

Now, these low feelings were vanishing. Without a job, Guo Xiaoming felt the pressure of surviving. When a fellow from his hometown who also lost his job invited him to join a casino business in Shunde City, Guangdong Province, he decided to take the risk.

Guo secretly took out twenty thousand yuan that he saved over years and joined the business. They rented a room at a top-class hotel and provided room and meal for their customers coming for gambling. In return, they collected a portion from the customers’ gambling money. Guo said that their most profitable night was an income of 120,000 yuan. However, they had to spend more than half of their money on the gangsters and police to stay in business.

The two months he spent on this business felt longer than two years. Guo Xiaoming learned how to gamble and run a loan shark business. He slept through the day but woke up horrified by the dream of being caught by the police. He called home a few times but he had a bad temper and shouted at his wife. After he hung up, he blamed himself deeply.

Finally he took his investment and left. After the Chinese New Year, when he was walking in the snow in his hometown in Hunan Province, he decided to come back to Dongguan. “I want to find a normal job as long as it is enough to make a living.” He said, “(I have been here for) eleven years, this is the place I am most familiar with.”

Drifting, Drifting

For the unemployed workers who worked outside their hometown all year round, the hometown is not as warm as it used to be. With the urbanization of their homeland, much of the farmland was lost – this is one of the reasons why Xiao Pingliang decided to continue drifting outside his hometown.

Xiao has been living at the Tianhua factory for more than ten years. He worked all days but one every month and rarely leaves the Road East community in Humen Town. Xiao Pingliang is very accustomed to the world here, but overnight, he found that his position disappeared in the city where he had lived for more than a decade. The financial crisis in a far far away world suddenly threw him out of his track. It is not easy to find another job nearby; it feels like a pebble in his shoe, every step brings pain.

“I don’t dare to work for a small company; I am worried that the company will also go bankrupt,” said Xiao Pingliang. “There is no job security in a small company, it could go belly up tomorrow and no one cares about you.”

In this financial turmoil, the "world factory" was deeply hurt. Many large plants closed overnight, the remaining ones are struggling to survive by cutting staff and costs. According to the statistics released on March 3 by Guangdong Provincial Department of Labor and Social Security, there were 9.46 million migrant workers who came to Guangdong Province after the Chinese New Year, of which 460,000 are unemployed.

"I visited Dongguan job market also," said Xiao Pingliang, "but jobs offered there are mostly for white-collar workers."

"I still would like to work for a furniture factory. I have 10 years of work experience, I feel competent working in this field." However, it is a difficult time for the furniture industry in Dongguan. At Houjie Township of Dongguan city, the so-called "furniture capital of the East," a survey conducted by the local Department of Labor shows that the furniture industry is running only at 60% of its capacity. After failing to find a good job, many people lowered their expectations. Having lost hope of finding a job in Dongguan, Xiao Pingliang went to Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province where his brother is residing.

Guo Xiaoming stayed in Humen. He saw the job announcement of fifteen positions by Xingyi glass factory. By the time Guo Xiaoming got there, there were more than one hundred people already waiting for interview. They filled a large gymnasium. The first step of the interview was to check everyone’s ID, then an exam of general knowledge (including writing the names of the authors of four famous Chinese novels). After that, everyone had to do push-ups – the glass factory jobs involve heavy labor.

Guo fell on the floor at his 26th push-up. The HR person said, “You are older than most others and have a family, I will count four more for you as a present.”

Guo Xiaoming said he always wanted to find a chance to thank that person and show his gratitude. Compared with his coworkers who are still unemployed, Guo said he felt lucky.

“This is a hopeless situation. So many big banks in America went bankrupt. When the big river dried up, little streams would dry up too.” Guo Xiaoming said, “Once I saw on TV that many American people could not afford a lot of things that they used to buy during Christmas time. Comparing their situation and mine, I felt a bit of comfort, yet it still seems not so comfortable.”

Today, Guo Xiaoming is doing everything he can to cut costs. He moved from an apartment that costs 240 yuan per month to one that only cost 180 yuan. He had bought a pair of “Anta” brand sneakers before but he would not buy them anymore. He spends his evening time at community square watching elderly people singing and dancing as entertainment.

Guo could not stop himself from missing the good old days at the bankrupted Tianhua factory. “The boss is nice. He was never late paying us for over ten years. Coworkers are nice to each other too. There was not much stress at work. What else could you want? I thought I would stay there forever.”

In more than ten years, people like Guo Xiaoming stayed at the same place doing the same work. They built the same routine. Today as the world of Tianhua factory collapsed, all of sudden they found themselves in an unclear position. They were pushed forward, but do not know where to go.

At the Guangzhou Train Station, Xiao Pingliang stayed at a corner waiting for his brother. He was tired and nervous, he felt relieved when he saw his brother coming on his bicycle. He went through the crowd and carefully got on the back of his brother’s bike, they disappeared in the crowded and noisy city.

Endnote:
[1] “We Want to Work,” Nanfang People Weekly, April 13, 2009
http://www.nanfangdaily.com.cn/rwzk/20090413/gj/200904240013.asp

What is happening in Dongguan? What will migrant workers do as jobs disappear? [2]
 
Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, the base of China’s export-oriented enterprises, grew to be “the world manufacturing factory,” by undertaking a large number of manufacturing and processing industries transferred from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Due to its close proximity to Hong Kong and blessing of China’s Reform and Opening-up policy, Dongguan has become a microcosm of China during the globalization of the free market economy. To some extent, “made in China” is an alias of “manufactured in Dongguan.”

During a short span of 30 years, Dongguan has grown from a little-known small agricultural county, to a very important city in the south of Guangdong Province. In 2007, Dongguan, with a resident population of only 6.5 million people in the prefecture scale, was nearly as rich as a normal province in China, with a GDP over 300 billion Yuan.
 
However, faced with the financial crisis in the United States starting in the second half of 2008, Dongguan also felt the piercing cold. On many public occasions, China’s Premier Wen Jiabao said what he worried about most was Guangdong province. Since September of last year, newspapers have been reporting that Dongguan was “becoming hollow inside,” with a loss of core industries and production slowing down to screeching halt. Wen Jiabao has visited Guangdong four times within just a few months near the end of last year. Dongguan became more than a local economy, but rather a focal point for him to better understand all of China’s economy.

What is going on in Dongguan? Do those migrant workers who had worked there come back after a short trip home (for Chinese New Year)? Do they find jobs after coming back? What should the second generation migrant workers who grew up in the urban fringe but don’t want to go back to farmland do?

In a sense, observing Dongguan and observing whether those off-farm workers can find jobs is not only a benchmark to explore whether China’s economy has hit the bottom and is ready to rise, but also a critical step to see whether China can achieve its smooth transition (to a balanced, less export-dependent economy) and truly build up a "harmonious society."
 
Let us start from a group of people in Dongguan including factory owners, adult migrant workers, and the young second-generation migrant workers. Perhaps this critical moment in their lives represents a turning point for tens of millions of people in Dongguan.
 
 Chen Jingchi, the Village Chief on the Run to Put out Fires [1]
– By reporter Wang Daqi and intern reporter Li Shaoqing, from Dongguan

At noon, our car was running on the spacious road, with the shops on both sides pulling down their metal gates. A few patrons sat sparsely at the entrances of sporadically opening restaurants. The iron gates of the surrounding factories were locked, and only one or two security guards sat bored in front of the factories, entertaining themselves with their cell phones.

Our car turned onto a small street, going through the gate of a leather processing factory. We went upstairs following the factory manager.

“Originally, there were so many workers crowding the room from wall to wall. The endless orders could not be finished on time so they had to be contracted out to some small workshops. However, now you can see that all stopped. Originally, the number of workers in the factory was 800, but now it diminished to around 100.”

Chen Jingchi, the chief of Jiuxibian village, also the manager of the factory felt somewhat depressed when standing in the once clamorous factory, which now stood empty.

Chen Jingchi, a native of Dongguan, is commonly known as the "landlord" by the media. Dongguan was the great base of “made in China.” Almost all the local residents made money by renting out workshops. Because they were able to make a fortune on the spot, they spent most of their time eating, drinking and enjoying except for regular rent collection times.

Smart people established their own factories. Village chief Chen also has his own leather factory, restaurant and hotel. He could earn 4,000 yuan per month by collecting rent from tenants. The rent of the workshops was even calculated by millions of yuan.

In addition, as the village head, he must bear responsibility for the villagers’ dividends. In the past it was said, “The redder (due to wine-drinking) the village chief’s face is, the more dividends the villagers get.” But now he has to think twice even to eat at his own restaurant. The first reason is that the social activities have decreased, and the second reason is that the villagers’ dividends are big issues this year. So many people are staring at him. As a village chief for seven years, he doesn’t dare to eat there.

From Mr. Chen’s experience, we can find that it is not an easy job to be a village chief in the Pearl River Delta, Guangdong Province. He has multiple roles to play with and had to switch hats when communicating with higher up or lower levels. He often goes to meetings in the morning and then collects the rent at factory in the afternoon. He needs not only to take care of his own business but also to resolve the villagers’ disputes. Since the financial crisis began, he often finds himself in the center of the storm, endlessly entangled with all kinds of contradictions and conflicts.

Because of his position, he has not only firsthand experience but also a much soberer realization of the current situation about global economic crisis’ impact on the local economy than other people.

"I Have to Take Pain-Relievers Every Night"

There are two million permanent residents, and even up to eight million off-farm workers in Dongguan. The factory closure and layoff triggered by the financial tsunami, as well as the exodus of a large number of migrant workers have given rise to a chain reaction of other industries. The recession of the manufacturing industry depresses other industries as well.

“I think the government should, without discrimination, give more support to the small and medium sized enterprises under the current circumstances, not only provide support to the so-called high-tech and leading enterprises.” said Chen Jingchi.

In response to the financial crisis, Dongguan city government stipulates that the enterprises which lay off more than ten people must be registered to the relevant departments. If the enterprises are unable to settle financial disputes with the migrant workers after closure, the village committee where the enterprise is located should pay the money in advance. The villages will be compensated after the auction of the enterprises’ assets.

Chen Jingchi said: “The reality is that most of the factories going through lay-offs are struggling. If the factories don’t lay off workers, they have to shut down themselves eventually. Although the bankrupting factories have some equipment to auction, with so many factories shutting down, who will buy the equipments? They can only be sold as waste products. The price of waste products is so low this year that the scrap metal sells for slightly more than 4 yuan per pound. The money collected by the equipment auction is just a drop in the bucket.”

Mr. Chen told the reporters that he had received a fax from Hong Kong last month, with only two lines on it: “I have to shut down the factory because I was unable to operate it.” The sender was the boss who leased the village’s workshop.

When seeing such words, his mind went blank. Finally, he gathered himself to face the reality. He went to the factory with a megaphone in hand to appease the crowd. Under mounting pressure, he took out 2 million yuan from the village committee as the severance pay for the employees. He estimated that the abandoned factory’s equipments were only worth a few hundred thousands yuan. His village had to eat up the loss.

"The money originally belongs to all the villagers. How do we protect our villagers’ interests when using that money to pay for the workers’ salaries?” Chen Jingchi felt that under these circumstances, "the Government should not rob Peter to pay Paul." “After all, it is not a permanent solution to sacrifice the interests of one group to satisfy the interests of another."

Chen Jingchi also told the reporters: "It is good for Dongguan to advocate the industrial transition (from export-oriented labor intensive industries to balanced intellectual property protected industries), but the reality is that there are more than three hundred thousand processing and manufacturing enterprises in Dongguan with nearly eight million employees and a huge revenue. It is not something that can be easily transitioned as you want. For example, our village had one million rent income from these factories every year in the past. Now the biggest factory was closed and another one owes us 12 months’ rent. Three hundred thousand yuan income disappears for our village. If other factories continue to shut down, the consequences would be unimaginable. "

Seeing the factories shutting down one by one and workshops not being able to rent out, Chen Jingchi’s heart is torn. "I have to take pain-reliever every night" to alleviate the worsening headache. He said, “I have stomach bleeding due to overdoses of medicine.” This year, Chen Jingchi reduced the workshop rent to 8,000 yuan from 12,000 yuan per square meter. The store rent was down to 700 yuan from 1,500 yuan. But there still half not rented out.

Chen’s leather factory also had a large layoff, but he didn’t register with the government. Chen argued: “Layoff is the normal behavior of the enterprise. I am not in arrears with salaries, therefore it is not necessary to register.”

 In Chen Jingchi’s view, the layoff is inevitable, "We all had a comfortable life several years ago, and anyone could open a factory to make money. Factories with dozens of people are everywhere. The orders were flooding and the big enterprises could not fulfill all of them, so they contracted out to these small factories. All factories hired workers crazily.

Now the orders at the large enterprises diminish and the small enterprises don’t have orders at all. They have to make some much lower level products. All of us have excess employees in the past. It now results in the vicious cycle. "

The effect must have its cause. Chen Jingchi doesn’t think that the government should put all the employment pressure on business. “Transition is not a slogan. It needs more practical actions (from the government).”

Now there is only one production line in operation in Chen’s factory. It produces the environmental protection bags, much simpler and more practical than the previous produced high-end hand-made schoolbags and suitcases. Chen Jingchi said the orders are the most important thing, the actual product does not matter, as long as he can pay his people salaries.
 
Finally, he told reporters that the factory would last up to August at most in accordance with the current situation. He would have to shut down his factory if the economic environment doesn’t improve.
 
“The Owners Are Working on Orders”

Jianhua Hardware Ornament factory which has been in arrears with 12 months’ rent mentioned by Chen Jingchi, is located at Jiuxibian village, Dongcheng District, just at the junction of urban and rural areas of Dongguan.

The scale of the privately-owned factory was quite large before, with 500 to 600 workers. The roar of the factory continued to midnight every day. The mold maintenance master Lao You from Guang’an County in Shichuan Province, who has been here for 8 years, told the reporter: “In the past, because of noise, the villagers often went to the village committee to complain about that. The village committee then came to the factory to coordinate whether the working time could be shortened. But now, no one has come to complain about the noise issue any more. What we are thinking about is how we can work more.”
 
By the end of 2008, the factory orders slowed down and the crisis of operation started. Many workers left and only 140 workers are still here. Lao You has nothing to do at work. He was reassigned to be a security guard by the factory this year due to “the excess mold maintenance personnel”.

But he is unwilling to be a security guard: “Although the salaries are similar, I have technical skills and don’t want to lose them. What’s more, security is a really boring job."

During the Chinese New Year this year, he went to Houjie and Chang’an job fairs in Dongguan and found it was still relatively easy to find a job for skilled workers like him. By the end of February, he handed in his resignation letter to the factory. But the factory kept him using the excuse that it had no money to pay his last two months’ salary and said that such a technical backbone like he is the irreplaceable resource of the company. Once the economy improves, he will certainly be able to re-apply his skills to work.
 
Lao You said that he made allowance for the factory’s difficulty, but he was ready to move on. “If I cannot find a job in Dongguan, then I will go back to Guang’an. Guang’an is also developing well. I will come out again when the economy becomes better in the future.” You said that although he had confidence, he still had the feeling that a time of prosperity was now over when looking at the empty factory.

When we asked him whether we could have an interview with the owners, he said the owners were with two big customers then to get orders and seldom came back.

Endnote:
[1] “Village Chief Chen Jingchi,” Nanfang People Weekly, April 13, 2009
http://www.nanfangdaily.com.cn/rwzk/20090413/gj/200904240007.asp
[2] “Financial Crisis Leaves Dongguan with Nothing,” Wenxue City, April 12, 2009
http://news.wenxuecity.com/messages/200904/news-gb2312-833038.html [Note: This introduction section could not be found on Nanfang People Weekly’s website, but was available on Wenxue City’s website when it reprinted Nanfang People Weekly’s articles]

Recently, some netizens posted excerpts from the Chengguan manual on the Internet. Some excerpts from the manual were also reprinted in Nanfang Weekends, a weekend-only newspaper under the Guangdong Province’s state run Nanfang Media Group enterprise, which is noted for maintaining a more liberal style than other state-run media. [1]

“Thirdly, don’t let go of the target easily. The need is to arrest the target and take him to the law enforcement car, the police station, or the Chengguan station. You need to ask where he is from, how long he has been here, why he dares to use violence against the law, whether he knows what kind of punishment he will receive as a result of today’s severe incident.

Fourthly, don’t try to take violent actions to control the target in front of the public. If you can’t avoid the public, use a milder approach to resolve the issue.

Fifthly, perform violent actions against the target on parts of his body. Make sure there is no blood on the target’s face, nor should there be any injury marks on his body. When there is nobody around, complete a chain of super-fast actions against the target in one shot, leaving no trace to be seen. Once in execution, you must do it quickly and cleanly, without any hesitation. Use all the forces at once.”

The report on Nanfang Weekends’ website received many readers’ comments to express their dismay. The following are some excerpts:

“- zcs0209
Public = Enemy???

– tcj1989
Hitler is back to life?

– limengze
(It is) definitely created by the Japanese, so logical and so clear. It’s an advanced version from what they did when they invaded China during the Second World War. The chengguan are much superior to those Japanese invaders.

– wai12320375
(The instruction book mentioned that chengguan should) ‘get to a selfless stage, becoming a firm enforcer of the regulations of the city urban administrative and law enforcement.’ See, being a chengguan is not easy at all. You have to reach the stage of selflessness.

– iamjimmylu
Sincerely recommend our government to make sure each citizen get a copy. Let them practice it daily to improve their health; also to take care the situation when run into bad guys.

– jbtob
How dare you! Obviously this is targeting and against the public. Chengguan, who told you to do this? Confess! Leniency to those who confess their crimes and severity to those who refuse to do so! [Editor’s comments: Chinese police always say ‘Leniency to those who confess their crimes and severity to those who refuse to do so!’ during interrogation]

– caokui
(Chengguan are) soldiers from the Special Forces…

– yinzenweibao
(It) might come from the Gestapo’s professional theory book. The National Administrative Institute is so amazing.

– lihuali
It’s outrageous! Outrageous! A book published by the National Administrative Institute does not tell people how to enforce the law in a civilized manner and respect citizen’s basic human rights, but to teach how to ‘kill people without blood’ and ‘commit crime without leaving a trace.’ What they lost here is not just the basic consciousness of a human being. They are bold and reckless, treating the law as nothing!

– seizetheday
If we had this book published 50 years ago and let each Chinese get a copy, who would need to spend eight years to fight the Japanese during the Second World War?

– lovetop778
How admiring! How talented! How capable our press and publication review process!

– jasonwell
No more mask (on the government’s face)?

– jarodlee
Wow, what a book! Have to give it a thumb up. Where can I buy it? Want to get one home to teach my son…

– tiangangwu
‘Quick and clean.’ ‘Without any trace.’ That’s how to handle the enemy.

– waimaidaole
God, do they still have human nature? We are not the enemy but regular people. How come they spend so much time and effort to come up with ways to deal with us? Please tell me where’s the dignity for a Chinese citizen? Will there be a massacre following this?

– fanqie
The government said that they will enforce the law openly and justly, that they will take people foremost, and that they will serve for the people wholeheartedly. All those sayings were just lip service. Their administrative strategy is to treat people as if they are treating enemies.

– emperorboy
Open. Just. Beat people when they need to beat them. Fine them when they need to fine them. Chengguan also need to make a living…

– fofo
Wow! What a ‘when there is nobody around.’ Being nice when there is people watching and switch to violence when not seen? ‘Quick and clean.’ ‘Leaving no trace out.’ Goose bumps…

– hbhujunbo
The fierce officials come to my town, yelling in the north and south, crashing in the east and west. People are scared and shutting up, even the dogs and cocks can’t have quiet lives. The ancient writer said an ‘oppressive government is more fearsome than a tiger.’ Now under the Communist Party’s great effort on constructing a harmonious society, we have something to compete with it. That’s the ‘chengguan is more fearsome than a tiger.’ Right?”

Endnote:
[1] “The First Textbook on Chengguan law enforcement: ‘Chengguan Law Enforcement and Operation Practice’,” Nanfang Weekends, April 21, 2009, http://www.infzm.com/content/27264