Currently, there has been a lot of hoopla in foreign press reports about the
ruling Party's sixth plenum, and even more about the Party's floor-sweeping
campaign in which the former Shanghai Party boss Chen Liangyu lost his
high-caliber job because of graft charges.
The public has hailed the central government's policy adjustments: from the
dogged pursuit of high economic growth rate towards sustainability of the
environment and energy supply, and to the nurturing of a "harmonious society"
whose aim is to shorten the gap between the rich and the poor, including
providing access to social welfare, medical care and educational opportunities
for the poor.
Alarm bells rang when last year, up to a million residents in the
northeastern city of Harbin were deprived of tap water, because a chemical plant
explosion in the upper reaches of the Songhuajiang River poisoned the source of
the city pumps.
It is sad that quite a number of terminally ill rural elderly are not covered
by any medical insurance and lay on their beds at home waiting for their last
day to come, and that students in rural areas frequently drop out of school
because their parents cannot afford to pay for their education.
The
adjustments are not aimed at restoring the former "socialist equilibrium", which
is a proven failure at propelling productivity and improving
livelihood.
But the outrageous practice of property developers, backed by local
officials, randomly demolishing farmer's houses and taking their farmland for
development, must be stopped and rectified. The powerful and the wealthy should
not be allowed to ride on the backs of the weak and the poor. They have no right
to do that!
Several other goals listed by the Party plenum to be achieved by 2020, are
considered feasible and welcome, such as a creating a better socialist
democratic system, turning regional inequality trends around and making clear
environmental improvements.
Surely, another crux of attaining a healthy
economic growth while lessening public grievances is the Party's anti-corruption
actions taken against those involved in graft scandals.
Lately, a string of corruption cases have been brought to light, and some
high-ranking officials in Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Fujian and the navy were
brought to justice. Among them, Chen Liangyu, formerly sitting in the 24-member
Party policy-making Politburo, is the biggest fish to be caught. Chen, together
with his top aides, is now detained, having reportedly diverted up to US$4
billion of Shanghai's social security funds into private investment firms.
The pension fund is known in China as 'life-saving' money, and as such it is,
in a sense, untouchable. Any loss of value due to bad or wrong investments puts
the means of living for tens of thousands of elderly in peril.
Chen and his aids will face justice. We hope the penalty he will get will be
strictly in accordance with the law, no more and no less.
