Quanzhou, Fujian -- A Traveler's Tale

A January 1999 report from U.S. Embassy Beijing

Summary: Quanzhou, a coastal Fujian city located halfway between Xiamen and Fuzhou, may have begun recovering from an economic slump that has pushed retail prices down five percent over the past year. Quanzhou, like Xiamen and Taiwan, belongs to the southern Fujian cultural zone. Traditional music concerts in Quanzhou are very popular. As elsewhere, corruption is a serious problem. Quanzhou City, on Party and central government orders, has begun a campaign to stop the falsification of official statistics. Farmers in the Quanzhou countryside say that now that their land contract has doubled from fifteen to thirty years, they will invest in crops with a longer payback time. Quanzhou, like many Chinese cities, is online with a newspaper (Quanzhou Wanbao), personal webpages, BBS, forums with some very outspoken participants and chatrooms. Quanzhou region family planning regulations are appended to this report. End summary.

Quanzhou is both a region of 6.5 million people and a city of about 500,000 people. Quanzhou lies midway between the other two major coastal cities of Fujian Province -- the Xiamen Special Economic Zone to the south and the capital city of Fuzhou to the north. Quanzhou’s northern and southernThe south Fujian dialect (minnan yu) of Quanzhou is also spoken in Taiwan and in some parts of south Asia by the millions of descendants of Quanzhou people who settled there over the past several hundred years. Eight hundred years ago Quanzhou is one of the world’s busiest seaports. The central government was long reluctant to invest in Quanzhou, as in nearby Xiamen, because of the military confrontation with nearby Taiwan. The Quanzhou infrastructure is being built up. Now there is a fine Xianmen-Quanzhou highway and the railroad finally reached Quanzhou in 1998, Quanzhou may be able to attract more of the investment capital that has fueled the growth of Xiamen and Fuzhou over the past decade. Quanzhou has little heavy industry, so air pollution is not a big problem. Quanzhou is visibly less prosperous than Xiamen and Fuzhou. Unlike those two cities, motorcyclists working as unofficial taxis and pedicab taxis are common sights in Quanzhou.

Signs of Economic Recovery in the Quanzhou Region?

A local businessman told ESTOFF that the economy is starting to look better for the average man but most businesses have not yet seen any improvement. The businessman attributed the improvement to lower interest rates and other measures taken to stimulate the economy by the central government. According to the Quanzhou Evening News, the official newspaper of the Quanzhou City Communist Party Committee, the consumer price index in the Quanzhou area climbed during November for the first time in many months. In October 1998, the consumer price index for the entire Quanzhou region was down 3.9 percent and for Quanzhou City proper by 2.3 percent compared with the previous October. Deflation was somewhat greater in the rural outlying counties and small cities of the region – Jinjiang City was down by 5 percent and Huian County had the greatest decline with drop in the retail price index of 5.5 percent compared with October 1997. A random sample survey of 600 depositors in 20 city and rural savings institutions reported in the December 14 Quanzhou Wanbao found that the proportion of reports of higher income declined over the past year (half report no change). The survey also revealed a broad consensus that personal incomes would improve in the coming months.

Housing Benefit Monetarized on October 1, 1998 – Real Estate Boom, But Financing a Home is Difficult

Quanzhou City on October 1, 1998 ended the assignment of housing as a job benefit for workers. This benefit has been monetarized so workers are expected to rent or purchase their own housing. According to the November 11, 1998 Quanzhou Wanbao, sales of residential real estate in the urban district of Quanzhou City doubled during the first three quarters of 1998 compared with the same period of 1997. The value of personal housing loans from the two biggest Quanzhou banks, the Quanzhou Construction Bank and the Quanzhou Industrial Bank, increased sharply during the first half of 1998 to a combined total of 120 million RMB [1.0 USD equals 8.3 RMB]. Even so construction has outpaced demand and it has become a buyer’s market. The incorporation of some of the surrounding rural land into urban Quanzhou in 1997 has made more real estate available for construction. Lack of adequate housing loan funds, the limited range of loan products, complicated application procedures, and inadequate loan risk information sharing and risk evaluation are some of the problems holding back personal housing sales. Most people can’t afford to buy homes and so the change from large lot housing purchases by organizations to individual housing purchases will take some time, according to the Quanzhou Wanbao.

Overcharging for rural electricity is a common problem, said the Quanzhou Wanbao. The City Price Bureau and Electricity Bureau set the per kilowatt-hour price for rural residential use at 0.53 RMB, agricultural use at 0.24 RMB and industrial use at 0.71 RMB. The local governments ordered that the price of electricity may in no case exceed 1 RMB per kilowatt-hour. [Comment: Campaigns to stop people from stealing electricity and to eliminate special low prices for “friends of the electric company” [qingdian] have been common in rural China over the past several years. One Chinese scholar who has done field work on energy economics says that door-to-door surveys are the only way to determine what people are really paying for electricity. Electric company official information is often inaccurate, said the scholar. End note]

Fujian Traditional Music Concerts in the Park

By the park in Quanzhou City center, amateur musical troupes play traditional Fujian (minnan inyue -- minin) music to large crowds. The Chinese dialect and the musical style, which scholars say is descended from the court style of the Song Dynasty of one thousand years ago, are the same as in Taiwan just 100 miles away. One musical troupe played under a banner donated by Chen Shuibian on his 1989 visit to Quanzhou five years before Chen became the mayor of Taipei. The language, the music, the ever-present tea shops and perhaps even the orderliness of the city compared with Beijing and some other cities in northern China gave ESTOFF the impression that Quanzhou is in a region with a quite distinct culture of its own. One Quanzhou man told ESTOFF, “You see our music has a much more refined style than the classical Chinese music in the Beijing style”.

Corruption and Corruption Fighting in Family Planning

One Quanzhou resident told ESTOFF that corruption is a serious problem in Quanzhou as in many other Chinese cities. ESTOFF was told that not just strict family planning rules but their uneven application, as well, causes resentment in many rural districts outside of Quanzhou. The rich and well-connected are able to evade rules and have an additional child by just paying a fine. The spread of corruption is the greatest threat to society, said the resident. Even official positions are bought and sold sometimes, he said. A family planning notice posted on a Quanzhou street translated at the end of this report details local policy on marriage age, permission to have a child, and rules against sex-selective abortion.

Another Quanzhou resident told ESTOFF that next year, when his son reaches age twelve, he will finally have paid off the family planning fine in full. Quanzhou couples who have an additional child in violation of the rules pay a fine of between two and three times the couple’s combined annual income. Many fees are higher for a second child, he noted. School fees are three times higher than for a child born within the family planning rules. The resident said that despite the heavy fine he paid, he supports China’s strict family planning policy which limits urban people to just one child. The resident said that people in the countryside can often have two children. He said that since China already has a population of 1.2 billion people, strict population control is necessary for China’s future and a service to humanity.

A Campaign Against Sex-Selective Abortions

The October 3 Wanbao reports on a campaign by the local family planning authorities to stop sex-selective abortion using ultrasound in Nanan City. The campaign included education of health professionals and a public education using radio, television and posted notices. New procedures were implemented. Ultrasound B procedures must be conducted by two or more people. People who conduct ultrasound examinations must sign an agreement acknowledging that they will be fired and prosecuted if illegal fetal sex determination is discovered. A woman who had illegal abortions on the basis of a sex determination lose their family planning certificate (permission to have a child) and must pay a large fine.

Comment: Sex Selective Abortion and Sex Ratio Skewing

Skewed sex ratios, notes Chinese demographer Ma Yingtong [STC: 7456 3467 6639] in the September 1998 issue of Population and Economics [Renkou yu Jingji] appeared first in the cities and developed area where people had access to ultrasound machines. Only after the machines had spread to rural China did rural Chinese sex ratios become higher than in the more developed areas. Fetal sex determination for the purpose of sex-selective abortion has been banned many times in China since the 1980s. Ma estimates that in 1989, when the sex ratio at birth was 113, if a normal sex ratio is 107:100 (this Ma considers to be the high end of the normal range), then “at least 14.28 percent of all mothers had the sex of their fetus determined and so 6.9 percent of the female fetuses were aborted”. If Ma’s analysis is correct, the nominally illegal practice of sex selective abortion is very widespread. If, as some other reputable Chinese demographers argue, sex selective abortion causes only half the sex skewing, then Ma’s estimates would be halved but still remain significant. Sex selective abortion has been banned by the Chinese central government and by local governments many times, yet like many other government orders, the bans are often quickly forgotten or ignored.

A Party Order and Campaign Against the Faking of Official Statistics

A front page article in the October 7 Quanzhou Wanbao called on people to call a hotline created by the Quanzhou City government to fight the falsification of statistics. The hotline is part of Quanzhou City’s effort to implement the recent order “Notice of the Communist Party Central Committee Office and the State Council Office on Resolutely Opposing and Stopping the Falsification of Statistics”. A December 22 front page commentary in the Fujian capital city newspaper Fuzhou Ribao explained the reasons for this campaign.

“A Fujian Province statistical regulations enforcement group through formal investigations and undercover work discovered that some units keep two sets of books. Some units make false reports about their production and income. They make exaggerated reports to supervisory units in order to win awards. To the tax departments they report very low figures so as to evade taxation. Some rural organizations underreport the number of births above family planning targets as well as crime statistics. They make false reports so as to attract businesses and investment. All these falsifications are the work of individuals or small groups of people.

“The falsification of statistics is spreading in some regions and in some departments. The basic reason is that the leaders of these regions and departments want to show they have “glorious achievements”. In this way they count on winning the trust of higher levels and promotions. They report good news but not bad news. They puff up achievements and hide shortcomings. They play all kinds of games with statistics. On the other hand, many higher-ups just accept the reports and read the statistics. They never go out themselves to take a look and so they are very easily fooled. In some regions and departments, there are leaders who insist that unrealistic goals and very difficult tasks be achieved and apply pressure at each level. The natural result is to force up all kinds of trash from below.

“The false statistics crisis is very grave. The bad statistics put false information in the hands of leaders at every level. The results of bad information is very often bad decisions. The bad statistics provide false information to the market and to companies. This can very easily lead to a bubble economy. False statistics are a serious threat to the Chinese nation. False statistics damage the work and interests of the state and of people in every area. They also damage the authority and credibility of the government”, concluded the Fuzhou Ribao front page commentary.

30 Year Land Contracts Awarded in Rural Quanzhou

From the November 3, 1998 Quanzhou Wanbao: “Taiping Village is the trial site for the for Yongping County village collective land contract management authority certificates and the first village in Quanzhou City to be so designated. The certificates handed out in this ceremony involved 14 village organizations, 510 households comprising 2200 people, and contracts comprising 296.314 mu [nearly 20 hectares]. There was a festive air as the certificates were handed out in the Village Council Meeting Room. Villager Li Chubin said happily as he received his certificate, “When planting trees, bamboo, and fruit we need at least three - five years and usually ten or more years before we can get a harvest. The farmers are afraid that government policy will change so they don't invest. This makes the sustainable productivity of the land decline. But with the certificate in my hand I won't have these constraints and can go out a get a lot done." For the past several years, Quanzhou City has made stabilizing and improving the contract responsibility system a top priority. This is very important work. Soon Fujian Province will give all farmers village collective land management authorization certificates.”

Comment: Chinese Academics Say Restoration of Private Property Can Help Solve Agricultural Ills

Extending the term of land contracts from fifteen to thirty years began when many land contracts given out in the early 1980s came up for renewal in the mid 1990s. According to a late 1997 press report, the 30-year contracts had been extended in many but not all areas of China. Giving the farmers more decision making power and a longer term contract are some of the most important trends in China today. Chinese leaders say that they want to reduce interference by local officials in the independent decision-making of farmers. This point is made emphatically in the report of the Guangdong CP Party Chairman Li Changchun [STC: 2621 7022 2504] to the Guangdong Province Party Congress printed on page one of Nanfang Ribao [Guangzhou] on November 12, 1998. In some areas, the contract system has helped attract foreign investors in Chinese agriculture.

Chinese leaders also want farmers who, given the PRC’s history of radical policy swings, doubt that any policy will last for long, will be absolutely convinced that they are secure in their land contracts. They see these measures as the keys to boosting China’s low agricultural productivity. But there are many obstacles. One is the lack of a land registration system to prove title and map out a land claim. The thirty year contract term is written into the new Land Management Law [tudi guanlifa]. The new law also strengthens legal protections for farmers by requiring higher level review of any conversion of agricultural land to a non-agricultural use.

The extension of the land contract term from 15 to 30 years provides some but not all of the incentives of land ownership. Since the first fifteen year contracts were extended to thirty years in the mid 1990s, the PRC mass media has reported on the benefits of longer term contracts for boosting long-term investment in agricultural land. In some areas with marginal land, inheritable contracts for as long as 80 years have been granted.

Collective Ownership: A Sacred Principle is Questioned

Two Chinese university professors who specialize in environmental and sustainable development studies have told ESTOFF that that the real solution to low investment in and low productivity in agriculture is to give the farmers clear ownership of land. The professors also say that while many Chinese academics believe the restoration of private property is necessary, they can talk only around the edges of this thesis. Chinese scholars are not allowed to publish articles or present papers in conferences calling for the restoration of the private ownership of land.

The standard Chinese Communist Party explanation of why market methods are being used by China is that China is using western methods to strengthen socialism resembles the Zhongti Xiyong “Chinese in the main, but the western for the useful” formulation favored by nineteenth century Chinese conservatives. The collective ownership of land is a bedrock principal of communism and so most resistant to change. Yet in Chinese publications on natural resource management as well as in agriculture can be seen a growing recognition that the collective ownership system is the root of the problem. The Chinese Academy of Sciences supported study “Chinese Resource Trends and Development Strategy” [Zhongguo Ziyuan Taishi yu Kaifa Fangluue] by He Xiyu et al, published by Hubei Kexue Jishu Chubanshe] in May 1997 is one example.

In the Local Press: Chinese Law Needs Privacy Concept; Flying Saucers Visit Quanzhou

Chinese law needs privacy concept [Quanzhou Wanbao, November 16, 1998] everyone thinks that they have a sacred right to privacy. But an examination of Chinese laws shows that there is no mention of a citizen's right to privacy. This is a serious shortcoming in China's legal system. A widespread problem today is implementing the law on legal procedures. Strict observance of this law on procedures is an important guarantee of the fairness of judicial proceedings. Since Chinese law does not have the concept of a "right to privacy" legal officials can easily become biased as they work on a case. The people handling the case may not recognize private affairs as being private. This makes it harder to protect the rights of the person who are involved in the case. See “Is There a Right to Privacy” at http://www.usembassy-china.gov/english/sandt/privlaw.html for a full translation of this article.

Flying saucer report [Quanzhou Wanbao December 17]: Several residents of Nan’an, including a journalist, saw an oval shaped white, shiny UFO in the southwestern sky at 11 PM on the night of December 16. The object darkened as it moved to the left and brightened as it moved to the right. The object stayed in sight for two hours. [Comment: According to the Xiamen newspapers, another UFO visited the Xiamen area further south in late November. UFOs are as popular in China as they are in the United States. X-Files video discs and stories about the supposed alien landing at Roswell, New Mexico can be found in Chinese stores. The Lanzhou magazine UFO Research [Feidie Yanjiu] boasts that it is the highest circulation UFO magazine in the world. End comment]

Quanzhou on the Internet

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Appendix: Quanzhou Region Family Planning Regulations

The regulations below are translated from a notice posted on the side of a building off a busy street in the middle of Quanzhou, Fujian Province. A nearby shopkeeper said that the rules were posted about three years ago by the Li district authorities. This district in 1997 was broken up into several smaller districts encompassing Quanzhou City and its surrounding areas.

TRANSLATION BEGINS

Family Planning Policies, Laws and Regulations

The overall planning policy of China is to: control the size of the population, improve the quality of the population, bring population growth to a level appropriate to the growth of society and the economy and into harmony with resource use, the ecology and the environment.

Fertility Policy:

Fertility policy encourages late marriage, forbids births outside of family planning, promotes having children late, and forbids early marriage and having children early. Fertility policy also forbids the illegal giving up for adoption and adoption of children.

If both husband and wife are farmers: a man should not marry before he is 22 full years of age and a woman 20 full years of age. [Translator’s Note: zhou sui – age since birth as opposed to the traditional Chinese reckoning which makes a child one year of age at birth and another year older at the next Spring Festival. End note] At the time of the birth of their first child, the man should be no younger than 22 years, 10 months and the woman 20 years, 10 months. If the first child is a boy, additional births are not permitted (except in those cases in which formal permission has been granted in accordance with family planning regulations). If the first child is a girl, the couple may be granted permission upon application to have another child but there must be a spacing of at least four full years between the births of the first and second children.

If both the husband and the wife are cadres or professional workers or live in a city or township, then the late marriage, late birth rule applies to them. A couple may have only one child (except in those cases in which formal permission has been granted in accordance with family planning regulations). The late marriage regulation stipulates a minimum age at the time of marriage of 25 full years for men and 23 full years for women. A late birth is a birth of a first child to a married woman at age 24 or older or to a woman who gets married and has a child after the late birth age.

In the case of a farmer couple who have a boy, a couple in which the husband or wife is a professional cadre or live in a city or township, the couple shall apply for an only one child certificate within three months of the birth of their child.

Couples who wish to have a child and meet these conditions must apply for a “Family Planning Certificate”. Any pregnancy and birth to a couple which does not possess a “Family Planning Certificate” is considered to be a pregnancy and birth not in accord with family planning. If a woman holding such a certificate has not become pregnant during the period specified by the “Family Planning Certificate” she must make another application to the organ which issued the original certificate.

II. Birth Control Techniques Policy

A woman who marries early must use an intrauterine loop or an implant [Note: similar to Norplant. End note] until arrangements for birth at the late birth age can be made. Within three months after the birth of the first child, a couple must adopt an effective family planning measure. Within three months of the birth of a second child, either the husband or the wife must be sterilized. Sterilization in order to have a child outside the family planning regulations is forbidden. [Translator’s note: according to a Chinese physician who did family planning work in a factory, “jin zhi baotai jiezha” forbids the practice of some rural women who, when pregnant with an additional child, have a tubal ligation in order to obtain a family planning certificate. Thus they escape family planning checks and they can give birth to their child. End note] Supplementary measures should be taken to address a pregnancy arising outside family planning.

For women using intrauterine loops, the loop should be inspected once every season. Couples who have just married and do not yet have a Family Planning Certificate, couples who have a certificate but have not had a child, or after the birth of a child have not yet implemented birth control measures, a man within one year of sterilization or a woman within six months of sterilization, shall use birth control drugs or apparatus. In such cases the woman shall be checked for pregnancy each season and woman using a contraceptive implant shall be examined once every half year. Sex-selective abortion is forbidden and doing a abortion on one’s own is forbidden.

III. Legal Responsibility

Couples who have a child outside the scope of the family planning regulations are assessed a “Fee for an Unplanned Birth” [Jihua shengyu wai shengyu fei].

1. Couples who have their first child too early or violate the rule for spacing the first and the second child are assessed a fee between sixty and one hundred percent the combined annual income of the couple.

2. Couples who have more than one child are assessed between two and three times their combined annual income.

3. Couples which have two children beyond what they are allowed under family planning regulations are assessed between four and six times their annual income. Heavier assessments are levied on couples who have three or more children beyond what is permitted under family planning regulations.

An unauthorized adoptions of a child is handled as an additional outside of family planning birth under the family planning regulations.

[Translator’s note: Informal adoptions based on agreements between two families that might be recognized officially only much later when a change is made in a family register when a need arose are traditional in southern China. Here the intent of the regulation is to ensure that adoption is not used to evade the limitation of children to one or two under family planning rules. End note]

Additional penalties are imposed upon employees of government or party organizations or companies who violate the family planning regulations and sanctions under government or party disciplinary rules.

Li Region Peoples Government (Propaganda Department)

TRANSLATION ENDS