Page 46 - The Economist

46 China The Economist December 9th 2017
2 the new system. But it is not clear whether to protect the legal rights of detainees.” male ones (a reform for which some wom-
it will improve the rule oflaw. What is real- Chen Guangzhong of China University of en had longcampaigned), and are growing
ly being abolished, says Jeremy Daum of Political Science and Law in Beijing argues more enamoured of unisex ones. Show-
the Paul Tsai China Centre at Yale Law that the legislature’s powers to supervise boatingauthorities in some well-offplaces
School, is the pretence of the separation of the supervisors need to be strengthened. have flooded flashy new toilet blocks with
party and state. Under the new system, He proposesa two-yearnationwide trial to free Wi-Fi, phone-charging and vending
suspects will not have the constitutional ensure due process. machines. Earlier this year toilets near the
protection afforded to those accused of or- Han Dayuan, the dean of the law Temple of Heaven, one of Beijing’s biggest
dinary crimes. They will have no guaran- school at Renmin University in Beijing, tourist draws, were fitted with facial-recog-
teed access to a lawyer, for example, and goes further, suggesting that the proposed nition systems designed to prevent thieves
though family members are supposed to system markssuch a sweepingchange that from absconding with its loo roll (the tech-
be informed of an arrest, that requirement it requires a constitutional amendment. nology prevents toilet-paper dispensers
canbewaivedifitwouldhamperaninves- These concerns appear to be falling on from servingeach visitormore than once).
tigation. Suspects can also be detained for deaf ears, however. Mr Xi has already giv- More is to come. On World Toilet Day, a
longer than before: six months, not four. en the system his seal ofapproval. The law UN-sponsored event celebrated annually
Jiang Ming’an, a professor at Peking Uni- is likely to be approved at the next meeting on November19th, a seniortourism official
versity and a university friend of Li Ke- of the legislature, in March. The Commu- promised that his agency would not only
qiang, the prime minister, worries that the nist Party’s authority is set to become even “consolidate the fruits of the last round of
appeals system “does not seem effectively more entrenched. 7 the toilet revolution” but also “open up a
new chapter”. In a statement padded with
reverent references to the Communist
Public hygiene Party’s just-concluded congress, he prom-
ised to improve or construct another
Labour of lavs 64,000 toilets by the end of2020.
The hope isthatcleanertoiletswill both
improve public health, and boost tourist
receipts, which the government hopes will
swell by11% a year. Chinese manufacturers
hope thatswankynewpublicfacilities will
BEIJING boost the market forsmart toilets, in which
The “toiletrevolution” enters anewera
they compete fiercely with the Japanese.
HE state of China’s smallest rooms is tives has gradually improved matters. Less whining from foreign visitors would
Tno small matter. So said Xi Jinping, the Since 2003 officials have operated a na- also provide a fillip to national pride.
Communist Party’s general secretary, in tional rating system for public toilets, simi- As for politics, some wonder if Mr Xi’s
statements carried prominently by state lar to the star-gradings for hotels. In 2012 very visible support for better lavatories is
media last month. For three years national authorities in Beijing issued a much- designed to paint him as a man ofthe peo-
and local authorities have been busily mocked circular stipulating that toilet ple. The renewed focuson toilet-upgrading
scrubbing up the country’s public lavato- blocks should contain no more than two doesseem to chime with a subtle doctrinal
ries, an effort the party has dubbed the flies. Mr Xi’s “toilet revolution” began in shiftdetected duringthe recentcongress, at
“toilet revolution”. Having hit the pro- 2015, when the tourism ministry launched which a partylongobsessed with boosting
gramme’s original set oftargets, Mr Xi is re- a three-year loo-upgrading programme. It economicgrowth hinted thatitwould start
questinganotherpush. says that it has supervised the building or looking for more holistic ways of improv-
In the past few decades China has done renovation of68,000 toilets since then. ing citizens’ lives. China-watchers are
a fairly good job of supplying basic sanita- A lot of the new loos are in scenic rural jumping at any indication of what the
tion. Only 2% ofChinese still do their busi- spots; the hope is that they will benefit “new era” Mr Xi proclaimed at the event in
ness in the bushes, compared with 40% in both villagersand visitors. Meanwhile city October will look like in practice. The re-
India; three-quarters have access to toilets planners have started requiring develop- launch of the toilet revolution will give
which the World Health Organisation ers to provide more female toilets than them somethingto go on. 7
deems acceptable, up from less than two-
thirds in 2000. But about 70m still use
sharedfacilities,and260mcontinuetorely
on bucket loos, open pits and othergrungy
facilities. Some are literally lethal: last
monthpolicetracedahugeblastintheport
city of Ningbo, which killed two people,
backto an explodingseptic tank.
A second problem for the party is that
China’s middle classes are growing ever
less inclined to tolerate the rank state of
public toilets, which can be filthy even in
big cities. Poisonous smells waft from
squatting pans that may not be hidden in
cubicles.Loorollisaluxuryandhandsoap
vanishingly rare, even in places, including
some hospitals, where it is essential. Rising
domestic tourism means that more and
more Chinese are coming face to face with
gritty provincial and roadside privies.
A steady succession of official initia- The future