PatColo
17th December 2010, 08:53 PM
Chinese increasingly unhappy with life (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8206709/Chinese-increasingly-unhappy-with-life.html)
Chinese people are increasingly dissatisfied with their lives, despite having never been richer, according to a new survey.
Sky-rocketing food prices, rural land grabs, a growing rich-poor divide and the outlandish corruption of government officials were the chief complaints, according the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Although China's economy grew at 10 per cent this year, pushing average earnings above £2,500 per head for the first time, the poll of 4,100 people across seven major cities and seven smaller town found levels of dissatisfaction at an almost five-year high.
The top concern among ordinary Chinese was rising food prices, which have leapt by 15-20 per cent this year, forcing the government to introduce food subsidies amid a growing amount of grumbling in the nation's market-places.
Although China's government has continued to deliver rising living standards, the poll showed that confidence in the government's ability to manage the social upheaval caused by China's economic development was falling.
For the rural poor land disputes - when farmers are shoved off their village land by local governments in return for unfairly low compensation – remain the biggest source of complaints and social unrest in modern China.
Suicides, self-immolations and violent demonstrations in which police are injured and property destroyed are an increasingly common feature of everyday life, as a growing number of farmers are forced into high-rise accommodation that doesn't suit them, the study found.
"When farmers live in multi-story buildings, they have to pay for everything from water to electricity," said Kong Xiangzhi, vice-dean of the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development in Beijing, "They can no longer raise livestock or dig wells, and live as they had on farms in houses with courtyards." Official corruption and a growing sense of that ordinary people are not getting a fair slice of the vast riches now on offer in the new China, is also fuelling resentment.
China's Gini Coefficient an indicator of income inequality increased this year to 0.5, exceeding the widely recognised "warning" level of 0.4. A country's social stability is generally believed to be in danger if the index reaches 0.6.
According to one calculation, over the last 20 years China's farmers have been cheated out of nearly £200bn as result of being paid below market-rate for their land by unscrupulous developers and local governments, who often work hand in hand.
Corruption remains a deep source of anger, despite repeated pledges by China's ruling Communist Party to purge its ranks and hand down exemplary sentences, as this week when an official whose sexual diaries were leaked online, received 13 years in jail for his excesses.
However public discontent is never far from the surface, as last October when the son of a senior security official from Hebei province ran over and killed a young woman and was heard to shout: "Go ahead, sue me if you dare, my dad is Li Gang".
The phrase "my dad is Li Gang" became a by-word for the arrogance and impunity of Chinese officials, spreading like wildfire across China's internet which continues to seethe with anger over the incident.
For middle class Chinese, the complaints are not food prices but house prices which grew at 15 per cent last year - despite government efforts to dampen the market – making a first home less and less affordable for young couples hoping looking to marry.
China's graduates are also complaining since China's economy, while growing rapidly, has yet to create enough white-collar jobs to absorb the six million graduates turned out by Chinese universities every year, almost of a third of whom didn't find jobs on graduation in 2009.
After spending years of hard work and parental cash on their education, many end up disillusioned, earning low salaries, working long hours and living in poor quality, shared accommodation in what has been dubbed "ant-tribe" by Chinese commentators.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8206709/Chinese-increasingly-unhappy-with-life.html
Chinese people are increasingly dissatisfied with their lives, despite having never been richer, according to a new survey.
Sky-rocketing food prices, rural land grabs, a growing rich-poor divide and the outlandish corruption of government officials were the chief complaints, according the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Although China's economy grew at 10 per cent this year, pushing average earnings above £2,500 per head for the first time, the poll of 4,100 people across seven major cities and seven smaller town found levels of dissatisfaction at an almost five-year high.
The top concern among ordinary Chinese was rising food prices, which have leapt by 15-20 per cent this year, forcing the government to introduce food subsidies amid a growing amount of grumbling in the nation's market-places.
Although China's government has continued to deliver rising living standards, the poll showed that confidence in the government's ability to manage the social upheaval caused by China's economic development was falling.
For the rural poor land disputes - when farmers are shoved off their village land by local governments in return for unfairly low compensation – remain the biggest source of complaints and social unrest in modern China.
Suicides, self-immolations and violent demonstrations in which police are injured and property destroyed are an increasingly common feature of everyday life, as a growing number of farmers are forced into high-rise accommodation that doesn't suit them, the study found.
"When farmers live in multi-story buildings, they have to pay for everything from water to electricity," said Kong Xiangzhi, vice-dean of the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development in Beijing, "They can no longer raise livestock or dig wells, and live as they had on farms in houses with courtyards." Official corruption and a growing sense of that ordinary people are not getting a fair slice of the vast riches now on offer in the new China, is also fuelling resentment.
China's Gini Coefficient an indicator of income inequality increased this year to 0.5, exceeding the widely recognised "warning" level of 0.4. A country's social stability is generally believed to be in danger if the index reaches 0.6.
According to one calculation, over the last 20 years China's farmers have been cheated out of nearly £200bn as result of being paid below market-rate for their land by unscrupulous developers and local governments, who often work hand in hand.
Corruption remains a deep source of anger, despite repeated pledges by China's ruling Communist Party to purge its ranks and hand down exemplary sentences, as this week when an official whose sexual diaries were leaked online, received 13 years in jail for his excesses.
However public discontent is never far from the surface, as last October when the son of a senior security official from Hebei province ran over and killed a young woman and was heard to shout: "Go ahead, sue me if you dare, my dad is Li Gang".
The phrase "my dad is Li Gang" became a by-word for the arrogance and impunity of Chinese officials, spreading like wildfire across China's internet which continues to seethe with anger over the incident.
For middle class Chinese, the complaints are not food prices but house prices which grew at 15 per cent last year - despite government efforts to dampen the market – making a first home less and less affordable for young couples hoping looking to marry.
China's graduates are also complaining since China's economy, while growing rapidly, has yet to create enough white-collar jobs to absorb the six million graduates turned out by Chinese universities every year, almost of a third of whom didn't find jobs on graduation in 2009.
After spending years of hard work and parental cash on their education, many end up disillusioned, earning low salaries, working long hours and living in poor quality, shared accommodation in what has been dubbed "ant-tribe" by Chinese commentators.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8206709/Chinese-increasingly-unhappy-with-life.html