The world talks of India and China in the same breath. Yet, no two neighbours could be more different than “Chindia”.
While we are weighed down by seemingly intractable socio-economic problems like poverty, ill-health and inequity in the era of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation, China seems to have sidestepped them despite its communism, or because of it.
In the fourth of his six-part series, “Our Man in China” T.J.S. George writes of how a sore throat that afflicted him during his recent trip to the Middle Kingdom brought home a vital lesson difference between “us” and “them”.
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By T.J.S. GEORGE in Beijing
You don’t see poverty in the urban belt of eastern China.
There is an occasional beggar, blind or otherwise handicapped, who may extend his hand for alms. One or two impoverished men may also be spotted looking into garbage bins for half-eaten food items. But you don’t see slums and ill-clad children and starving women.
Extreme poverty and overwhelming filth of the kind that hit you again and again in Indian cities seem to have been abolished in urban China. This is a big leap forward from the massive poverty of the imperialist era and the famine days of Mao Zedong‘s experiments with permanent revolution.
Not surprisingly anyone who can speak English would rather talk about Deng Hsiaoping than Mao Zedong.
Anna, for example. She was born in post-Mao China and is today a manager in a serviced apartments company.
When I asked about living conditions in China, she asked me whether I had heard of Deng.
I said yes but what about Mao’s days?
Her response sounded typical of modern Chinese youth. She said: “My parents and grandparents had a hard time during Mao’s days. But he was a great leader. He made China free. Deng Hsiaoping made China happy.”
I said thousands in the big cities must be unhappy because their houses had been demolished to make way for modern buildings. Anna’s family was one of those who were affected. But they were not complaining, she said. “We are a family of poor farmers. Our land was taken away to help developers build highrise residential blocks. But we were given good prices and new houses. Most people who were displaced got a good deal. Some complained but they had to agree when all others agreed.”
An electrician who works for Anna’s company lost his job when his factory was demolished to make way for a park. He was without a job for a few months until he got his present job which gets him a little over 3,000 yuan a month (approximately Rs 20,000). That’s about the earnings of a taxi driver and of other ordinary workers.
For college graduates at the entry level, the starting salary is also about 3,000 yuan though skilled graduates from some outstanding universities may start at double that salary. You need about 5,000 yuan to live quite comfortably in the cities, so a supplementary income is welcome in most ordinary families.
It’s a very different story at the top. Leading financial companies have been doubling and trebling the salaries of their boss officers. Many big executives in the big private companies earn more than 25 million yuan a year after taxes. (More than Rs 15 crore.)
That explains why shining Rolls Royce cars are on display in automobile showrooms. Flats in Shanghai’s highrise residences were selling last month at 15,000 yuan per square metre (about Rs 1 lakh). Luxury villas sold at 25,000 yuan per square metre. The world’s most expensive jewellery names like Cartier do good business in China. This must be what Deng Hsiaoping meant when he talked about socialism with a Chinese face.
The booming economy means also a galloping population of expatriates. But unlike in India, there is a marked differentiation between locals and foreigners in China. The visible example of this is in housing: there are some buildings and some areas that are exclusively for foreigners.
A less visible but more interesting example of the divide between locals and foreigners catches our attention if we go in search of medical assistance. Urban China is notorious for bronchial illnesses like cold and flu and breathing difficulties. If you are a foreigner and develop a soar throat, you better know where to go and what to do.
A local friend took me to a big hospital in Shanghai. At the gate, the watchman told us that the locals’ wing was on the right and the foreigners’ wing on the left.
We decided to go to the locals’ wing.
The verandahs were full of patients lying on stretchers and cots with tubes and bottles attached to them. But the service turned out to be prompt. The local friend got me registered (10 yuan), a young doctor examined me (no charge, waiting time only 5 minutes), a routine blood test was done (50 yuan, completed in 20 minutes on the spot) and a prescription made out for vitamins and parasetamol (50 yuan). Very efficient and economical procedures, I thought.
Very different was the story when my host had the same sore throat complaint attended to.
He works for a foreign company which has an insurance tieup with what are known as expatriate hospitals in China. He went to one of these hospitals. He too got himself registered, a Chinese doctor examined him, called for a routine blood test and chest x-ray, then prescribed the same vitamins and paracetamol. He then got a neatly printed bill. The blood test and x-ray cost 990 yuan and there was an additional doctor’s charge of 1,000 yuan. Plus the cost of the medicines. That is, 2000 yuan (15,000 rupees) against my 72 yuan (about 500 rupees).
He could have gone to the same locals’ wing of the hospital that treated me. But his company has this insurance arrangement, so what does he do? Who is taking whom for a ride? Whether it is food or medical services, you are better off in China if you have a local friend to guide you.
Photograph: courtesy kanzhangguao.com
Tomorrow: Why China’s corruption is different from India’s
George!! When r you coming back?? We miss you!
he is communist supporter and he will come back and sing glory of China forever and forever !
Dont be carried away by his writing.
The Chinese government may disintegrate in few years as there is no democracy there. Chinese people will be up in arms in few years.
In 1980’s, communists in India uses to praise USSR a lot. One scholar from Karnataka late Prof. Jayashankar (JNU) said it will disintegrate as early as in 1980’s when USSR seemed going strong.
The Indian communists especially leftist intellectuals in New Delhi and West Bengal laughed at him and said “he has gone insane”. His prediction came true. When USSR disintegrated into several states, you should have looked at communists intellectuals faces.(They lookedlike rotten bananas:))
Enough of these meaningless praises!
We as a growing economy have many problems, we will overcome.
There is no need to hide our real face and put on ‘shows ‘ like they do!!
@Ramanavare
You are missing him? :)
By the way is Chrurmuri website owned by some leftists or Maruti Marxists(leftists intellectuals)?
Chairman Mao and Mao Zedong killed all the poor and infirm people and exterminated them from their cities. THe chinese villages are insulated from the world through the fascist repressive government in china. It is the proletariat poor chinese in the villages who have fuelled the boom in economy. The people in beijing and shanghai are enjoying the fruits of the labour of the millions of impoverished workers in villages and the factories. It is almost a slave dynasty running china.
How about adopting this model in India. Lets start with the killing all the naxalities and getting them work as slave laboureres in agarbhatthi factories.
Dr. Sree Reddy, your comments are in poor taste, if TJS is a commie then you must be an quack. I just completed a month long backpacking trip of China and I can quite confidently say that socio-economic progress has been quite astounding.
TJS George is a “Chimmi” the chini chamcha equivalent of a dhimmi
So u say autocratic is better than democracy…
but life time of autocratic govt. is very less than strong democracy…
As dr. reddy says best example is USSR and USA
i think we should strengthen our democracy rather going by the chinese way.
by the way george when u r visiting deep rural china, hope to get more interesting stories
Dhans
“by the way george when u r visiting deep rural china, hope to get more interesting stories”
There is no way George or any other tourist will be allowed into these places. The chinese will only show to the world what they want to show. The communists are masters of propoganda and opinion making. It is only the Indian marxists who live in denial of the reality in Communist countries. They are blinded by their utopian dream of the communist shangrila.
This guy George is writing too much about china. I am certainly loosing interest in Churumuri offlate, may be i need to stop browsing this site
I agree with George. A Picture tells thousand words. The picture shows how tidy and clean is the foot path, compared to our muddy and wavy foot paths. It also shows people walking in trendy footwear and nice socks. The beggar’s bowl is clean and washed, including his clothes, compared to our desi beggars.
Only I wonder in a socialist nation like China, why a physically challenged person is not looked after by the state and is left to beg on roads. In India, if not the government, at least a local and kind carpenter will make and donate a 4 wheel board for such guys to propel.
@Aruna Urs
Thanks. your comments on my comments are in bad taste.
I think you dont have right to call people names.
Read ,my other posts.
You want show off your China trip and ‘the knowledge’ you have gained in the process to bloggers!!! You have just visited tourist spots!! Dont forget that.
You brush up your knowledge on China before praising.
I wonder which parts of China you visited. If you are in beijing or Shnaghai’s business districts you will think, it is a great place.
Major cities where they conduct business with foreigners are in good shape.
Have you been to intereior China? Try doing that.
If you are a tourist or an IT worker, then your mobility will be restricted to tourist spots or IT companies.
You wouldn’t be going around the city where commoners live.
And as you claim you were a ‘backpacker’ it is very clear your areas of visit were resticted.
Aruna Urs: You have gone through any data of how much subsidy China govt gives to export oriented business houses. Most of these are owned by Communist leaders. That’s why they sell half the price of production cost. They are just eyeing to increase their share of global exports, at any cost. the downslide of US economy is a blessing in disguise, it’ll spell the doom for China and it’s industries.
Sree Reddy,
I was not an IT worker nor a tourist, I exported 40 tonnes of mysore mangoes and I just made an travel following tiny 5 kilo boxes where ever they ended up. I did visit tourist places but pray tell me, have you visited interiors of India, fark it, old Delhi for instance where unfortunates carry night soil? I am not praising China, but you cannot deny the socio-economic progress that country has gone through. The way private entrepreneurship has blossomed is awesome. Stop calling anyone and everyone a communist just because they say positive things about China.
Rama,
A HKUST prof late last year published a China rich list (was reported in FEER). Out of 3200, 2800 were connected to party. Fair enough. We know how rich our MLA/MPs are, these are the problems that all developing countries irregardless of whether they are authoritarian or democratic (mostly illiberal). Talking about subsidies, China did not invented this model, the so called “flying geese” model was invented by Japanese and was followed by newly industrialised East Asian economies. India too has followed that model but in its own lethargic ways, google for India’s 100% EOU policy or the infamous IT policy. But you have to keep in mind that there is no harm in subsidising export oriented industries (apart from environmental) as long as it generates employment, transfers knowhow and allows government to maintain a fiscal surplus. In case of East Asian economies, it has done all the three and to top it off, it allowed them to accumulate vast amount of reserves. Your view of melting Chinese economy is unfounded. As a trained economist, at present, i might argue that Indian economy is more on a thin ice than them.
China may be show or a crap but as a potential rival you cannot ignore the revolution in military affair (RMA) that PLA has gone through. Time to think about how to “match” the progress, instead of bloody crib about “democracy” and “communist” crap. Ever heard about LKY and Singapore success story? China is simply following that.
Aruna Urs
Too much of praise of a country that does not allow access to its “trouble”ed areas is not at all good. Economy is booming in special economic zones not in other areas.
I come from a agricultural community, though born in Bengaluuru, brought up in Gulbarga, Chintamani, Tumukur and New Delhi. And spending quite a number of years in East Asia.
Good to hear you are promoting something for agricultural community.
It is only communist party leaders or their cronies who get to do private entrepreneurship in China. Private entrepreneurship has been blossoming in our country also for ages. Other wise you wouldnt have seen Kiran Mazumadaar who started her work from car shed or Narayana Murthy who started with 2 old computers from his home.
I think you shouldn’t club all East Asian countries together. China is a communist country. Japan is a controlled democracy. South Korea is dicatorial type of democracy. North Korea, another communist country which is very closed government set up.
Japan claims to be democracy. I hardly find it that way.
If you have time, if you want to know more about China’s economy and its armed forces, please read books / articles are published by
Dr. Srikanth Kondapalli. He is the one of the few, in our country today who has expertise knowldege on China’s political economy and its defense system.
If you are writer or a journalist you should have balanced views not showering praises!! I dont find George’s article that way.