Chapter 6.1 - We Chant A Song
- Location
- Orlando, Florida
Excerpt from The Unbowed Dragon: A Retrospective on Antebellum China, 1976-2035
"To understand the events of the summer of 2021, one must be informed of the dirty secret of China's rapid growth: that it was built on the backs of hundreds of millions of disadvantaged workers. When China began its process of modernization, millions of rural farmers from the interior provinces migrated to the cities for employment in the many factories and enterprises that were blossoming as a result of Premier Deng's reforms. However, they were shackled by a system that also ensured they made the perfect low-cost laborers. The hukou household registration system, which tied each Chinese household to a home province, had been in existence since the Qing dynasty, and it was one of the few policies not abolished by the Communist revolutionaries who seized power in China following the Second World War. In its modern form, the hukou mandated that an individual could only gain access to social services such as healthcare or education at their home province, and those who migrated to a different province would lose those benefits. The urban migrants who would form the core of China's industrial labor force were thus systematically discriminated against, and this precarity is what made them such attractive employees to the new urban industries, for they were willing to work for low wages and few benefits.
As the decades passed, the initial stream of migrants turned into a flood, and by the new tens about 40% of the population of major urban areas was composed of them. Thus, the cities were filled with a permanent underclass, the foundation of China's industrial economy. The Chinese Communist Party leadership accepted this, for they could point both to China's rapid growth and original Marxist theory, which stated that an underdeveloped rural nation had to go through a period of capitalist accumulation before socialism could be built. And the migrants accepted these conditions with few complaints, for they still held hope that they could somehow provide for their families and grant them an opportunity to make a better life for themselves. However, as time progressed, the migrants became just as much of a burden on China as an economic benefit, for the dependence on migrant labor hindered the transition to a high-skilled, high-income knowledge economy. A few Party members noticed this and attempted to enact reforms, but they were too little and too late.
However, the migrants would face even worse hardships at the turn of the decade, for China would be battered by both a global pandemic in the year 2020 and the Ping'an Crisis in 2021. Both times, it was the migrants who suffered the most, for these crises forced employers to lay off millions in order to stay afloat. The migrants were left for months without any support, pushing many into poverty. Eventually, in June of 2021, these conditions would finally result in China's long-forgotten underclass to finally make themselves heard.
And it would shake the nation to its core."
June 16th, 2021
Beijing
It had been two months since Yun had lost his job at the construction company he had worked at for years. He didn't understand what had happened - some of his colleagues kept mentioning that something had gone very wrong with the company's debt, and it could no longer afford to keep him on the payroll. Or at least, that's what they said. Yun knew that he had been building nothing but empty houses and abandoned apartments, a symbol of waste and mismanagement. Now, the chickens had come home to roost
He had put up with living in a shoddy tenement, fearing for illness due to the registration that barred him from receiving healthcare in Beijing, and staying at home for months instead of working last year because of that new virus. He had done all of this, just so his wife and daughters in Xi'an could put food on the table, and make something more of themselves. But now, with him facing eviction in a few days, he had realized that he had nothing more to live for, and nothing more to look forward to. However, Yun had resolved not to go quietly. Some of his former colleagues and other migrants in his neighborhood had threatened to take to the streets tomorrow, to march not for freedom, but for bread. He would join them, and together, they would bring the entire city to a halt. The new China had built itself up on the backs of men like him, all while the Party pretended they did not exist. Now, the migrants would send a message that could not be ignored.
"To understand the events of the summer of 2021, one must be informed of the dirty secret of China's rapid growth: that it was built on the backs of hundreds of millions of disadvantaged workers. When China began its process of modernization, millions of rural farmers from the interior provinces migrated to the cities for employment in the many factories and enterprises that were blossoming as a result of Premier Deng's reforms. However, they were shackled by a system that also ensured they made the perfect low-cost laborers. The hukou household registration system, which tied each Chinese household to a home province, had been in existence since the Qing dynasty, and it was one of the few policies not abolished by the Communist revolutionaries who seized power in China following the Second World War. In its modern form, the hukou mandated that an individual could only gain access to social services such as healthcare or education at their home province, and those who migrated to a different province would lose those benefits. The urban migrants who would form the core of China's industrial labor force were thus systematically discriminated against, and this precarity is what made them such attractive employees to the new urban industries, for they were willing to work for low wages and few benefits.
As the decades passed, the initial stream of migrants turned into a flood, and by the new tens about 40% of the population of major urban areas was composed of them. Thus, the cities were filled with a permanent underclass, the foundation of China's industrial economy. The Chinese Communist Party leadership accepted this, for they could point both to China's rapid growth and original Marxist theory, which stated that an underdeveloped rural nation had to go through a period of capitalist accumulation before socialism could be built. And the migrants accepted these conditions with few complaints, for they still held hope that they could somehow provide for their families and grant them an opportunity to make a better life for themselves. However, as time progressed, the migrants became just as much of a burden on China as an economic benefit, for the dependence on migrant labor hindered the transition to a high-skilled, high-income knowledge economy. A few Party members noticed this and attempted to enact reforms, but they were too little and too late.
However, the migrants would face even worse hardships at the turn of the decade, for China would be battered by both a global pandemic in the year 2020 and the Ping'an Crisis in 2021. Both times, it was the migrants who suffered the most, for these crises forced employers to lay off millions in order to stay afloat. The migrants were left for months without any support, pushing many into poverty. Eventually, in June of 2021, these conditions would finally result in China's long-forgotten underclass to finally make themselves heard.
And it would shake the nation to its core."
June 16th, 2021
Beijing
It had been two months since Yun had lost his job at the construction company he had worked at for years. He didn't understand what had happened - some of his colleagues kept mentioning that something had gone very wrong with the company's debt, and it could no longer afford to keep him on the payroll. Or at least, that's what they said. Yun knew that he had been building nothing but empty houses and abandoned apartments, a symbol of waste and mismanagement. Now, the chickens had come home to roost
He had put up with living in a shoddy tenement, fearing for illness due to the registration that barred him from receiving healthcare in Beijing, and staying at home for months instead of working last year because of that new virus. He had done all of this, just so his wife and daughters in Xi'an could put food on the table, and make something more of themselves. But now, with him facing eviction in a few days, he had realized that he had nothing more to live for, and nothing more to look forward to. However, Yun had resolved not to go quietly. Some of his former colleagues and other migrants in his neighborhood had threatened to take to the streets tomorrow, to march not for freedom, but for bread. He would join them, and together, they would bring the entire city to a halt. The new China had built itself up on the backs of men like him, all while the Party pretended they did not exist. Now, the migrants would send a message that could not be ignored.
being uncouth swarthy savages
