No Confidence In "Doubling Wages"

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Recent strikes in China are blocked by the media.
The Chinese authorities also refused to confirm this.
However, China's Ministry of Human Resources
and Social Security (HRSS) deputy minister,
Yang Zhiming recently brought up the goal
of doubling wages in the "12th Five-Year Plan,"
with 15% annual wage growth.
But Chinese people respond to it only with doubts.

The news on "Doubling Wages" has caused
heated discussions among netiznes.
Beijing Daily reported an online survey shows
that 93% of the people have no confidence
at all in this "grand objective."

Chief Editor of China Affairs Wu Fan pointed out,
that increasing wages to rise spending power
might control inflation; it could also cause inflation.
The Chinese authorities want to reassure the public
by raising wages.

Wu Fan (Editor-In-Chief, China Affairs):
"Raising wages is like writing a check. No one knows
whether it can be cashed or not.
Even the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
does not know what will happen in 5 years.
CCP wants to stabilize the domestic situation,
which is very intense. People are complaining
and are protesting against high prices."

Netizens still recall HRSS's Labor Wage Institute
leader Su Hanan making similar statement last year
about "increasing income several times." The two
slogans were received in the same way by the public.

Renowned economist-commentator Cao-an thinks
that CCP's slogan on wages increase is to cover up
the fact that people's wage account
for just a small percentage of the GDP.

Cao-an: "Wages accounted for a very small part
of the GDP during the last few decades
of China's development. In the last 20 years,
it dropped to 8-12%. Wages should gradually grow
with the economic development.
They account for 55% of U.S. GDP,
45-50% in other developed countries and over 40%
in developing countries like India and South Africa.
This reflects distribution of workers' wealth."

Beijing Daily commented that people are concerned
this "spring air" would only reach a small number
of state-owned enterprises and government agencies,
so the overall wage doubling would be caused
by the wage doubling of a small, highly-paid group.

Recently the internet revealed workers of Guizhou's
state-owned enterprise Liyang Aero Engine Corp.
went on strike since April 15 due to amiss wages.
According to netizens, workers' wages range
between RMB600-1730 a month, while leaders
are paid as high as RMB6,300 a month.

Cao-an: "Without legal constraints or a fair system,
wages increase might only benefit state-owned
enterprises and civil servants, but wages
for private business workers and migrant workers
will not increase. "

Meanwhile, with the current pressure on inflation,
people question the real impact of wage increase.

In November 2010, the National People's Congress
Economy and Finance Committee vice chairman
Wu Xiaoxia admitted, that in the past 30 years,
China promoted economic acceleration
with money oversupply, which is ca. RMB43 trillion.

Wages increase also means increase of business costs.
This will make things more difficult
for the midddle and small size businesses.

Wu Fan: "Midddle and small enterprises (in China)
are the poorest. They do not earn much money,
but they get the pressure to increase wages,
hence the cost. What can they do with cost increase?
They must increase the price, then sales are affected.
Eventually they close down."

According to Mainland media reports, at the 108th
China Import and Export Trade Fair in Guangzhou,
which concluded in January, some enterprises
got their customers' orders canceled due to wage
and raw material costs increase, and other factors.

NTD reporters Wang Ziqi, Bai Ni and Gao Zitan

《神韵》2011世界巡演新亮点
http://www.ShenYunPerformingArts.org/

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