Society
China seeks soft approach for social stability
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-02-26 18:02
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GUANGZHOU - Lianhe Street in the suburb of Guangzhou city, capital of South China's Guangdong province, is a typical community that officials and policemen keep a close eye on.
Most of the community's residents are relocated farmers and migrant workers who, in the words of a police officer, are more prone to "mass incidents" -- protests and illegal gatherings.
The community has a "stability maintenance" office, with officers handling minor disputes and complaints while reporting greater risks of unrest to higher authorities.
Ma and about 50 other children play and do their homework there, with the help of social workers. The children have free meals at the center until their parents come to pick them up. Many migrant workers leave their jobs around 6 to 8 pm while schools end classes at 4:30 pm.
Community service centers bring help, comfort, joy and unity to the local people. "When members of the community feel happy, they have no reason to take to the streets," said Zhang Liangguang, the CEO of Lianhe Family, a pilot project that exemplifies China's efforts to adopt a softer approach to maintain social stability.
Keep stability through services
The link between services, such as taking care of children, and social stability can be best demonstrated in the case of Bai Zhongjie, 17, who is one of China's youngest most wanted fugitives, Zhang said.
At the end of last July, when the police came to ask about Bai, the boy's mother was already worried. She hadn't heard from her son since the last time he ran away from home four months ago. But the news from the police was worse than anything she could have imagined. Her son was wanted for killing nine people.
Bai and four others allegedly killed nine people during six robberies in July last year. He was arrested on Aug 4. The mother couldn't believe that her "honest, filial and gentle" son was capable of the crime.
Bai was born to a family of migrant workers in Dongguan city, a manufacturing hub in Guangdong, in 1993. Both his parents had to work and did not have much time to look after him.
When Bai was seven, the family returned to their hometown Zhengyuan county in Guizhou province. Since then, Bai constantly ran away from home, hiding from his parents and spending days and nights in the woods, nearby villages and playing online games in Internet cafes.
On a few occasions, Pan Mengjin, Bai's teacher, saw the boy's father chasing him on the streets. "Whenever my father wanted to beat me, I just ran until he got exhausted," Bai once told Pan.
"A series of misfortunes caused Bai's tragedy -- lack of care in childhood, family violence and addiction to online games. Had we provided support in any stage of his life, things would have been different," Zhang said.
Lianhe Family cares for troubled individuals and families. It gives the comfort and support they need through various caring and humane services, Zhang said.
In the center, social workers prepare and deliver free meals to old and disabled people, counsel pregnant women and new mothers, talk about love and career with young confused migrant workers, host festivals and celebrations for various occasions and encourage people to get to know and help each other.
"We reach out to people in trouble and help them get out of it. By doing so, we keep the community harmonious," Zhang said.
Why a softer approach is needed
Statistics from the Guangzhou municipal government showed that the city spent 4.4 billion yuan in maintaining social stability in 2007, more than the money it spent on social security that year.
"The exorbitant spending on public security certainly affects China's development. More importantly, social problems cannot really be solved by force. It would only suppress the issue for a moment. The problem would soon resurface, more abrupt and powerful," said Yu Jianrong, head of the Center for Social Research at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
"Social management can no longer rely solely on the government and public security. On the one hand, we do not have enough police manpower, On the other, it is very difficult for the police to prevent sudden acts of violence, like the spate of campus rampages in early 2010," said Kong Wen, a scholar with Guangdong Police College.
In Nanping county of East China's Fujian province, Zheng Minsheng, a local clinic doctor, stabbed eight students to death and injured five others in a primary school on March 23 last year. A man called Xu Yuyuan barged into a kindergarten in Taixing city of East China's Jiangsu province and wounded 32 people with a knife on April 29 last year.
On May 12, 2010, Wu Huanming killed seven children and two women in a kindergarten in Nanzheng county in Northwest China's Shaanxi province. Another 11 children were injured.
In a speech on Feb 19, Chinese President Hu Jintao called for a new approach to social management that involved "stimulating vitality in the society to the greatest extent, maximize factors conducive to harmony and minimize those detrimental to it."
Hu also called for more human, financial and material resources to be given to grassroots organizations to enhance social service capacity and improve community administration.
The municipal government of Guangzhou paid four million yuan for the establishment of Lianhe Family and the one-year service. It will keep providing its service to the community at 2.5 million yuan each year, Zhang said. It is only one of the many social service facilities surfacing across China, especially in more developed areas such as Shanghai and Beijing.
"It's unheard of -- spending so much on the service of a single community. But it's worth it when you see how life here is improved. It is the future," said Duan Chuanli, deputy head of the Administrative Office of Lianhe Street.
