Page 40 - The Economist20171214

40 China The Economist December 16th 2017
2 ble? There are several reasons. First, the Protests over wage arrears is responsible.
measures were more effective when eco- These disputes always heat up as cele-
nomic change was making China greener High and dry brations of the Lunar New Year approach
anyway, as it was in 2013-16, when the com- (in 2018 the week-long public holiday will
position of GDP shifted away from heavy begin on February 15th). Some migrant la-
industry and infrastructure towards ser- bourers need their back pay simply to af-
vices. But in 2016 the government grew ford the trip home to see their families.
alarmed about an economic slowdown Some will have promised to take back a
Beijing
and allowed infrastructure spending to ’Tis the season to threaten folly portion of their earnings to help support
riseagain(infrastructureispollution-inten- children or other dependants whom they
sive because of the amount of cement and IGHT construction workers threatening have left in their home towns in the care of
steel used in construction). When this hap- Eto hurl themselves from the top of a tall relatives. In many cases workers fear that
pened, the command-and-control mea- building caused a brief commotion last debtorswill take advantage ofthe seasonal
sures were unable to do more than stop month in the southern Chinese city of hiatus to packup and skip town.
emissions rising. Shenzhen. Their demonstration was only Loud protests are one result. In the first
Second, such measures only change one notable example of a form of protest 12 days of December there were at least
polluters’ behaviour as long as they re- that grows particularly common at this four cases of unpaid workers threatening
main permanently in force. Many Chinese time of year. December and January are to launch themselves from cranes or tall
steel mills and coalmines (especially small the busiest months for altercations related buildings, according to the database com-
privately-owned ones) ramped up output to unpaid wages, as workers seek any piled by China Labour Bulletin (CLB), a
in the months before the curbs went into means to solve their problems ahead of watchdog organisation in Hong Kong (it
effect and did the same again when con- the soon-arriving Spring Festival. With also counted about40 otherprotestsabout
trols were eased. The stop-start character Beijing’s poorest still stewing over a deci- wages). Few are genuinely suicidal; the
ofthe bans made them less effective. sion to demolish swathes of the city’s point is to create a scene requiringpolice to
Third, banning things probably works cheap housing, the risk is that this year’s attend, thereby drawing the authorities
better in China than it would in most seasonal disputes will end up even tenser into the dispute. Even then, demonstrators
places. Many of the biggest polluters are than usual. may have to settle for a portion of the full
state-owned enterprises, so the state can Quarrels relating to unpaid wages are amount owed to them, says GeoffCrothall
moreeasilycontrolthem.Anauthoritarian endemic in the construction industry, and of CLB, and serve a few days in detention
government is also able to issue draconian in recent years have also afflicted factories, as punishment for causing a fuss. Violence
orders—sometimes far too drastic, as the service businesses such as catering and is another outlet. Last month a court in
shivering children ofHebei can testify. The even some internet startups. Construction Beijing warned that wage disputes were a
efforts ofXi Jinping, the president, to make firms employ hordes oflabourers from the big cause of murders, and noted that most
local leaders obey the dictates of the cen- countryside, of whom only a fraction toil such killings tookplace at this time ofyear.
tral government seem to have turned the under proper contracts, says Susan Finder, The government, sensitive to charges
former passive resistance at the lower lev- an expert on China’s legal system based in thatitoverlooksthe plightofworkers, talks
els of the bureaucracy into overenthusias- HongKong.Manyreceiveonlymonthlyex- endlessly about making sure migrant la-
tic compliance. pensesand a promise offull paymentonce bourers get paid. Officials helped 3.7m of
China has two other advantages. More thejobathandiscomplete.Iftheirprojects them claw back more than $5bn of unpaid
than half its pollution comes from coal- end up unprofitable—or lose chunks of salary during 2016, it says; another such
fired power stations, which means that by cash to corruption—they are the last to be drive began on December1st. It also wants
concentrating on coal, the government can paid. In such cases long chains of subcon- to prevent wage arrears accumulating in
do more than in India, say, where the burn- tracting make it unclear at first glance who future. Since 2011 employers who unrea-
ing of stubble after harvest and other sorts sonably withhold salaries risk time in jail
ofpollution are big problems. Unlike most (though that is rare in practice). In July the
developingcountries,Chinahasinvesteda labour ministry announced a gaggle of
lot in monitoringand measuring, too. measures it thinks will help eradicate the
Last, command-and-control suits a scourge within the nextthree years, includ-
country that does not need to justify the ing better enforcement of a law requiring
costs. The Clean Air Alliance of China esti- workers to be paid monthly.
mated in 2015 that the investment cost of Fornowthe problem persists. Solutions
the national action plan in Beijing, Tianjin led by government are no substitute for
and Hebei provinces alone would be better representation of workers, says Tim
250bn yuan ($38bn). That does not include Pringle of the University of London. The
the opportunity cost of suspending con- All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the
struction projects for months on end or country’s only sanctioned outfit, is rela-
shuttingdown some smelters. tively influential at the city level but is
But big environmental controls of ev- mostly ineffective in the workplace.
erykindareexpensive.Germany’sEnergie- Moreover, authorities sometimes look
wende, for example, which uses subsidies more preoccupied with preventing wage-
to encourage greener fuels, cost €60bn related protests than with resolving the is-
($66bn) in 2015 and German carbon emis- sues at their heart. On December12th Chi-
sions have not fallen since 2010. At least in na’s cabinet said it would be using a three-
Chinaairbornepollutantsfellforfiveyears tier scale to assess how well provincial
andthebenefitsintermsofdeathsavoided governments deal with wage problems
were real. Now the government needs to that occur in the year ahead. Leaders who
show that these gains can continue for allow five “mass incidents” involving
more than a few years—without leaving “more than 50” people will automatically
children freezingoutside. 7 Waiting for payday receive the lowest mark. 7