“They locked their doors and hid when I went for them,” said Gao. “So one day I toldthe cadres to pass the message that I’m the bad guy and had all the land under my wing. Ifthey wanted to come and argue with me, then they’d have to come to a meeting the nextday. More than 100 people showed up. Even an 80-year-old man came driving a tractor.”
The land issue was finally resolved a month later, when the village representativesagreed to back down. Jin Lina, deputy chief of Dengzhou’s bureau of migrant services, saidMaying residents will receive around 21,000 yuan in compensation for each mu (0.06 ha)of farmland they give up.
“The thing these new measures have taught is that, even though the majority rules, wehave to work with every member of the minority as much as we can. After all, ChairmanMao said that ‘Truth is often in the hands of the minority’,” said Gao. However, he insistedvillage cadres must be righteous in their dealings. “It’s just like the fortune of a familydepends on the quality of its patriarch,” he said.
Not all families are lucky enough to have the help of an official like Gao.
In 1994, Xulou village, also in Dengzhou county, hit the headlines when four cadresmurdered petitioner Chen Zhongshen.
Today, although the local media report that the democratic measures have broughtharmony, the corruption Chen died fighting is still widespread, according to local sourceswho did not want to be identified.
A Xulou farmer in his 40s claimed village cadres had embezzled about a sixth of theresidents’ farmland, as well as a significant portion of State subsidies intended for farmers.
“The new measures have not improved the situation. Nothing has been resolved,” saidthe farmer.
In response, the Organization Department of CPC Dengzhou Committee has setup a 24-hour hotline to report abuses of power and also conduct biweekly inspections ofeach village, said Zhang. “Without an effective supervision mechanism, all documents andmeasures are futile. We’ll need plenty more than just procedures to make things work,” hesaid.
As villagers nationwide are urged to follow the lead of Dengzhou, the countrysidethroughout Henan is awash with banners and posters promoting the democratic measures.
However, the campaign has proven largely ineffective in reaching younger generations.
Li Xiangqing, 21, who lives in a village in Xixia, a county next to Dengzhou, said sheand her friends “had no idea” about the measures.
“I’ve seen banners all around here but no one has ever told us anything about whatthey are about,” she said. “I didn’t think it mattered to me.”
March 2, 2010
Home alone in the countryside
The children of migrant workers are struggling to cope in rural areas without parental care.
Zhang Yue reports from Anhui.
Children of migrant workers left in villages nationwide are at serious risk of physicaland psychological dangers, mental health professionals have warned following thetragic deaths of five children.
About 58 million left-behind children live in theChinese countryside, according to a survey by the All-ChinaWomen’s Federation in 2008.
The number is almost three times of what was recordedin the government’s 2000 census.
The rise has been attributed to the vast number ofparents who have flocked to cities in search of better salaries,leaving their offspring in the care of older relatives.
Yet, as their numbers have increased, so too has concernover poor educational standards and their general safety,particularly during the summer months.
The latest event to highlight the problems occurred inAnhui province in June when five children were killed whileplaying in the Shahe River, a 200-meter-long branch ofHuaihe River.
Chen Yanhuai, 15, his two cousins, 12-year-old ChenJian and Yue Cuiwei, had just finished their final examson June 29 and went for a swim near their homes in Chenjia, a village of about 800households in the city of Fuyang.
However, they quickly got into trouble, prompting two friends, Chen Yanzhen andChen Huanhuan, to dive in to help. All of them drowned.
“They were playing on the riverside at first but then decided to swim into the middleof the river where there is a steep slope,” said a 10-year-old boy who witnessed the accident.
The parents of the four boys are all migrant workers who were away at the time of theaccident.