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Members of China's top advisory body voiced their views on
problems urgently in need of solution as they met at another plenum
Tuesday afternoon. The following are the main points of their
views:
-- Zhang Junjiu, representing the All-China Federation of Trade
Unions:
Government departments should work in unison to protect the
legitimate rights and interests of farmer-workers in cities so that
they can benefit from the country's reform and opening up.
There are about 100 million farmers working in cities, mostly in
boom towns in east and south China, and their total income exceeds
500 billion yuan (US$60 billion), accounting for one third of the
cash income of rural households, he said.
-- Sun Jiye, representing the Revolutionary Committee of the
Chinese Kuomintang:
Farmers should be treated the same as urbanites in terms of
household registration in order to ensure their rights to move
freely; a unified labor market and tax system should be established
for rural and urban areas; the government should commit more
financial resources to improving rural public infrastructure, the
farmers' living standards and the rural social security
network.
-- Xiao Zhuoji representing the social and law committee of the
advisory body's national committee:
The key to narrowing the income gap between the rich and the
poor is to increase the income of those who earn less but not to
reduce the income of those who earn more.
Some 20 percent of the rich people in China possess 66 percent
of the total financial assets, and 20 percent of urban low-income
groups possess only 1.3 percent, according to the leading
economist.
-- Mo Wenxiu representing the All-China Women's Federation:
Governments at all levels should bias toward women in their
employment and reemployment projects by providing them with more
training and related services, and a sound legal system should be
established to guarantee the legitimate rights and interests of
women workers.
The major problems concerning women include a declining
employment rate, less job opportunities for laid-off women workers
and female college graduates, difficulties in launching their own
businesses and unequal pay.
-- Wang Ruipu, former vice president of China Population
Society:
The government must be well aware of the grave situation of
unemployment resulting from the rapid annual growth of labor force
and seek a long-term solution.
-- Zuo Huanchen representing the Central Committee of Chinese
Peasants' and Workers' Democratic Party:
Governments at all levels must remove all regional blockades and
allow free flow of commodities, service, capital goods providers
and other enterprises in order to facilitate the establishment of a
unified and open national market.
-- Li Jinyou representing the nationalities and religious
affairs committee of the top advisory body's national
committee:
The government should intensify efforts to improve education
among people of various minority nationalities and in their
communities to relieve them from poverty. There are 13.22 million
minority people living in dire poverty and 33.17 million others in
the low-income group.
-- Li Jinming representing Zhejiang provincial committee of the
national advisory body:
Elimination of corruption among officials requires a series of
strong mechanisms, including education, limitation of powers,
standardization of code of conduct, establishment of quantitative
and qualitative performance assessment standards and indicator
system and impartial inner-Party supervision.
(Xinhua News Agency March 10, 2004)
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