A Wish-List for President Xi to Do

Posted by on Jan 2, 2015 in Blog | 0 comments

Virtually everyone in China is enamoured with President Xi’s anti-corruption campaign and the many reforms and initiatives he’s introduced/taken since taking office. Over the past little while, however, a list for wholesale reforms of China’s politics, economy and society that supposedly Xi endorsed and will gradually introduce over the course of his tenure has been pasted all over the Chinese language Internet in and outside of China.

Most on the list read like Canadian taxpayers’ rants against the government but others are downright funny, outrageous, ultra-nationalistic, and/or quintessentially Chinese. Some are simply pie-in-the-sky and constitute wishful thinking on the part of radical advocates of systemic reform. (The list is attributed to a World Chinese Forum and the translation is not verbatim.)

In this writer’s opinion, items 3, 7, 8, 14, 17, 19, 22 are entirely possible or slowly being implemented; 1, 2, 4, 5, 12, 13, 15, 18, 20, 21 can or should be achieved to varying degrees; 10, 11 are funny and ridiculous but understandable from a mainland Chinese perspective; 9 is a non-sequitur and too broad; and finally 6 and 16 are sheer nonsense or must never be carried out. For instance, No.16 – a major component of China’s soft-power involves foreign aid to developing countries so that policy will NEVER be terminated.

  1. Gradually funnel 50% of national state income toward people’s livelihood (welfare), cap the budget to below 20% and set strict limits on outlays
  2. Provide universal medicare and education
  3. Control inflation; greatly augment people’s income especially the lower rungs and raise the minimum wage substantially
  4. Reduce taxes to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and set 10,000 RMB (CAN$1873) as the baseline for personal income taxes
  5. Start dismantling monopolies, even state munitions factories; and eliminate all unreasonable fees issued by banks and telecoms
  6. Learn from Eastern Europe and begin privatization of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and distribute shares to citizens; and stop state hoarding of hard currency
  7. Stop subsidizing/supporting the real estate market and totally reform the stock market
  8. Do away with the one-child policy and dismantle the Family Planning Commission
  9. Eliminate all special services and privileges
  10. Apart from core state institutions, no more stationing of guards in front of Party and government institutions
  11. Eliminate all song and dance troupes linked to state institutions and disperse the personnel
  12. Gradually stop the recruitment of public servants and reduce their numbers year by year. Eliminate all quasi-administrative departments in legislative, administrative, justice, and military institutions and terminate their budgets
  13. When appropriate, cut administrative levels from the current five to three – central, provincial and county (with all sub-county levels eliminated and people’s autonomy introduced)
  14. Make assets of officials public and provide the people with Internet access to the information
  15. Separate the treasuries of the Party and government
  16. Gradually terminate all foreign aid
  17. Create uniformity and equality in welfare systems across the country
  18. Gradually stop providing government cars to officials; all officials are to take buses or ride bicycles to work
  19. Institute a Anti-corruption Law to punish all graft takers (yet no punishment for bribe givers)
  20. Provide more freedom of speech, allow citizens to freely form media. Only with the right to supervise officials can corruption be thoroughly exposed
  21. Allow peasants to form peasant associations, workers independent unions, and allow autonomous and self-help organizations in all segments of economy and society
  22. Completely rejuvenate Chinese traditional culture and beliefs so the Chinese people can regain spiritual belonging

The item ends with: China has woken up and Xi Jinping shoulders the historical mission of fully awakening this lion. The next stage in China’s reforms is indeed arduous but observing Xi Jinping’s determination, the confidence and vigour of the Chinese people are once again revived.