Communist values are confused with capitalist ones in an ageing China that feels extra individualistic and reactionary
Putting apart the social anger in Hong Kong after the approval in 2020 of the nationwide safety regulation, the protests of scholars who raised clean pages in opposition to the ‘covid zero’ coverage in the remainder of China on the finish of final yr they demonstrated that demonstrating – and risking repression – could be an efficient technique to attain their finish. The contagion impact has been felt among the many aged in some city areas and through this month of February hundreds of pensioners have taken to the streets -mainly within the cities of Wuhan and Dalian- to point out their discontent over the cuts of their medical advantages . It is in regards to the coined ‘white hair motion’. They do it out of indignation and melancholy, interval, the latter, which units them aside from the TikTok technology. While some raised din-A4 papers in opposition to censorship and the dearth of freedoms, the others achieve this as a result of they contemplate that the Government is shifting away from the spirit of the system that has marked their lives since 1949.
They sing ‘The International’ in squares and parks similar to Zhongstan, in Wuhan, and their anthem is interspersed with extra particular calls for: that they not scale back the medical bills that may be claimed from native governments. They are those who handle one of these profit in a context the place there was an ideal storm between the financial difficulties that the administrations are going by way of after the hangover of the ‘covid zero’ insurance policies, the bills to comprise the virus, the true property disaster and the rise in healthcare prices. With the brand new measures, the affect falls on a bigger inhabitants that has seen that it has to pay unprecedented quantities out of pocket. Some figures say that earlier than you can declare a most of 545 euros per 30 days and now the restrict is 177 euros per 30 days. Another of the reported updates is that funds from employers to pensioners are now not made to particular person financial institution accounts, however to a standard fund that’s later distributed. According to the authorities, this is because of the truth that in rural areas there are extra retirees than taxpayers because of the exodus of younger individuals to the massive cities and this measure avoids leaving pensioners in probably the most distant areas at a drawback.
Class privileges within the “non-class privilege” society
Although the modifications have been introduced in 2022, they didn’t start to use till February 1 of this yr. Every week later there have been the primary concentrations of outraged individuals who threatened to return to the streets if their calls for weren’t heard, one thing they did once more on February 15. They additionally complain that not all pensioners endure in the identical manner. In Wuhan, for instance, they complain that these retired from positions associated to native authorities establishments have extra assist, since a well being care subsidy is added to the employer’s insurance coverage.
“Senior members and retirees of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) have lengthy had entry to beneficiant medical therapy from the general public purse and with out having to pay for primary medical health insurance,” the political danger consultancy informed The Guardian. howeverInsider.
The modifications that pensioners complain about have come shortly after China’s opening to the virus, described by Xi Jinping final week as “a miracle within the historical past of human civilization.” After virtually three years of conservative measures to forestall the unfold of the illness, the Chinese president abruptly modified his ‘zero covid’ technique and hospitals and well being facilities have been on the point of collapse – or collapsed, judging by the photographs that appeared on social networks. social-. Faced with a panorama of complete stress from the well being system, which harmed exactly probably the most weak sector of the inhabitants (in line with the Guangdong Provincial Hospital, 80 p.c of hospitalizations have been over 60 years of age), lots of the criticisms on Weibo o Twitter have accused governments of finishing up cuts to face the large bills generated to attempt to comprise the pandemic. Reuters reported that these amounted to 48 billion euros.
对此，武汉政府相关部门做了充足的应对准备，包括在15号当天针对老年人群体开展各类社区活动。。
然而目前来看，这些方案并没有奏效，大批民众依然走上了街头 pic.twitter.com/3F9QASkZdb
— 李老师不是你老师 (@whyyoutouzhele) February 15, 2023
On the Chinese social community, pictures and feedback in regards to the protests have been rapidly eliminated, but the federal government’s “miraculous” response to the pandemic was one of the vital standard subjects of the week with tons of of thousands and thousands of interactions. The hashtags in regards to the pensioners’ protests have been censored and the dialog moved to a different hashtag that went up like foam and that needed to do with the medical health insurance system. When the authorities recognized that the uncomfortable colloquium had gathered behind him, they didn’t hesitate to use the scissors.
China’s nice problem
Caring for the aged has grow to be an enormous problem for China. The decline within the inhabitants in 2022 for the primary time since 1961 (850,000 fewer individuals) threatens the pension system. Fewer and fewer individuals of working age and extra retired. There are estimates that point out that, by 2050, individuals of retirement age will attain 39 p.c of the entire. Currently, almost 19 p.c of the inhabitants is over 60 years of age (about 267 million individuals), a determine that signifies that 100 working-age Chinese help almost 21 retirees. One of the measures that the Government is contemplating is to extend the retirement age of 60 for males and 55 for girls. It is among the debates which can be open with out it having transcended what the brand new ceiling can be.
The distinction between rural and concrete areas is abysmal in China. Some estimates point out that salaries in massive cities are 2.5 instances larger than in probably the most distant locations, the place they don’t have “wholesome ageing”, in line with a report ready by researchers from totally different Chinese universities. If that “wholesome ageing is the principle goal of the event of a rustic”, it reads in its conclusion, “the disparities between rural and concrete areas are a necessary impediment that have to be overcome, for the reason that rural inhabitants is extra prone to develop a trajectory of low-level wholesome ageing”, he concludes whereas selling social participation. Although it asks for extra, this report applauds with its conclusions the Chinese authorities’s measures to create a standard well being fund -and eradicate the person one- that advantages pensioners in probably the most distant areas.
【#武汉万人市府集会】
【医药补贴缩减 抗议者呛:太不像话了!】
武汉市 上 名 退休 人员 本 周三 （8 日） 聚集 市政府 门前 请愿 ， 要求 政府 公开 解释 为何 将 每 月 两百六十多 元 的 医药 补贴 ， 降至 降至 数十 元 元。 集会者 集会者 集会者 集会者 集会者 称 称 集会者 集会者，全市近两百万名退休工人受此影响，倘若政府不解决问题，定于本月15日举行更大规模的抗议7。 iG7XQL pic.twitter.com/
— 自由亚洲电台 (@RFA_Chinese) February 8, 2023
Within the parameters through which Chinese society strikes, there’s a sure contradiction between the calls for of pensioners from massive cities similar to Wuhan and the rules of the system that they uphold. They sing ‘The Internationale’ and overlook a transcendental idea: “society will grow to be classless and the distinctions between rural and concrete life may even disappear”, as Friedrich Engels argued in his Principles of Communism. In large cities, ‘the white hair motion’ appeals to melancholy whereas ignoring that there are different older individuals who battle different battles, in worse circumstances and whose noise is much less heard. They present from their stratum the large social rift, which fits from the countryside to Zhongnanhai. The wants change and the values are confused in a Chinese city that, in spite of everything, fights for its individualism on the expense of the collectivity. It is probably the results of the coexistence of two programs (the capitalist and the communist) used at comfort and able to producing a sure hodgepodge of beliefs.