Continuing on topic of cleaning the "business environment", prior to our successful pregnancy we had one miscarriage, and for the cleanup operation we were listed 3 or 4 different prices in same maternity hospital.
The difference came from the technique used, which varies in price and safety. The cheaper ones arguably have heightened risk for further complications which may reduce chance of future pregnancy. Most expensive ones probably medically unnecessary in most cases.
I would expect the government to focus on these details (and put money if necessary), so that hospitals could offer the safer options to everyone, and stop offering things that aren't medically justified.
Another experience on softer side of medicine, relating to bed side manners that are not high on priority in China.
After the procedure we were put to a room to wait and observe that everything is OK. In the adjacent bed there was a girl surrounded by a bunch of female friends.
After we left, my wife told me that she overheard the group speaking with language that made her convinced that these women were working in the oldest profession, which only so many years ago was still quite openly practiced here.
The experience rang a bell in my head, because I had just recently read an article (from another country) describing medical professionals to be wary of not placing patients with unwanted miscarriages in same rooms with people who want to get rid of their babies.
Few years ago we had a foreign visitor staying with us. She was wondering why all over the place, from TV to buses, there are advertisements for maternity clinics (read: abortion clinics), but nothing to advertise contraceptives.
The government may well restrict advertising of abortion clinics, and start revoking business licenses from clinics that may appear profiting from abortions. That it can call "cleaning the business environment", without directly banning anything from the general public.
Well there are lot of places where it is considered religious, anti-so at least. Perhaps also in this area China could do well to utilize religion as a vehicle for the desired effect. Study tour to Texas for example.
Our own Chenggong district was listed as ghost town once. I don't think that it qualifies as such anymore.
In many cities with ghost developments, the improvement has been orchestrated by moving better schools and other middle-class attractions to them, which families with money have followed.
I bet the continuation of this story runs tangential to recent education and child raising reforms, not just financial foes of developers.
On the note of wasted finance, good sign here is that safety of people was put before financial gains.
If the information is to be believed, the development was paused for so long that the foundation work for the houses was damaged - although I bet that some flaws in the original work contributed to putting it on hold in the first place.
In "old China" the construction would have probably went on anyway, and people could have ended up dying or losing their apartments due to unreported damages.
One less thing to cover up in coming years, by transparently blowing up the whole thing.
@Geogramatt: "Why the rush? Let this generation pass peacefully. The young all want to leave anyway."
I would think that it makes China look bad (and that's what the leadership cares, despite what their actions sometimes come through as), if there are so many elder people left behind in undeveloped rural homes.
Combine this with left behind children, who often are seen sharing those poor living conditions with their grandparents (if even that).. If the elderly are migrated to better housing closer to even minimal services, then so would their grandchildren - and that's for the future, right now.
As of late, Chinese pro-party commentators have repeatedly mentioned that Deng never said that it is glorious to be rich for everyone - they argue that Deng always meant for select few to become rich first, and rest later.
If much of China growth, or at least opening the potential to it, can be attributed to reforms that Deng initiated, then just as much of the so-called economic injustice (or relative poverty) can be attributed to those same political decisions - not so much people unintentionally falling off the wagon of development and economic prosperity, as is case in some western countries.
Secondly, the culture of shared poverty being the glorious thing (that the previous generations were forced to), would not have disappeared over night.
I have witnessed the internal conflict in some elderly rural residents in Yunnan, torn between being angry for not getting to enjoy the fruits of China's growth on one hand, and not accepting the steps that would be needed to pick the fruits on the other hand.
I was at a rural funeral in Yunnan last autumn, and throughout the event there was a bookkeeper registering and writing down all donations.'
Back then I understood that the family had purchased the feast for a certain price, and this communal bookkeeper was subtracting the payment for that from all those donations.
But in light of this article, I wouldn't be surprised if he served some administrative role as well.
Chinese state does have some economic muscle, and tradition of state-owned enterprising. I think that the state should jump in here.
They could confistace this kind of non-monetary resources (like bricks, or frozen french fries), pay market price to the employees, and then sell the goods back to the market (or donate to charity) through it's own channels.
But I guess there is more bucks in cigarattes and oil.
@alienew: "drive investors to go to places where they can get away"
Well, technically it would drive them away to places where they can get away with unpaid wages in some other ways than being beaten to death.
Preferably the alternative would be a more civilized way to lose face than doing so concretically.
The process somewhere else would be that after 1-2 months salary is unpaid, the employees quit and contact union, which then more or less peacefully negotiates the best possible solution between the employer and the employee.
The workers can then choose better representatives, if the union-led negotiations still produce nothing but bricks as compensation for unpaid wages.
The problem in China is that if you quit, there are 10 other guys waiting to take your position regardless of how you were dealt with.
But in that scale, there is usually just 1 guy offering those positions, and if he or she is dealt with this way, there may not be another guy taking his place.
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In interview, Yunnan Party chief stresses ending poverty
Posted by@Geogramatt: "Why the rush? Let this generation pass peacefully. The young all want to leave anyway."
I would think that it makes China look bad (and that's what the leadership cares, despite what their actions sometimes come through as), if there are so many elder people left behind in undeveloped rural homes.
Combine this with left behind children, who often are seen sharing those poor living conditions with their grandparents (if even that).. If the elderly are migrated to better housing closer to even minimal services, then so would their grandchildren - and that's for the future, right now.
In interview, Yunnan Party chief stresses ending poverty
Posted byAs of late, Chinese pro-party commentators have repeatedly mentioned that Deng never said that it is glorious to be rich for everyone - they argue that Deng always meant for select few to become rich first, and rest later.
If much of China growth, or at least opening the potential to it, can be attributed to reforms that Deng initiated, then just as much of the so-called economic injustice (or relative poverty) can be attributed to those same political decisions - not so much people unintentionally falling off the wagon of development and economic prosperity, as is case in some western countries.
Secondly, the culture of shared poverty being the glorious thing (that the previous generations were forced to), would not have disappeared over night.
I have witnessed the internal conflict in some elderly rural residents in Yunnan, torn between being angry for not getting to enjoy the fruits of China's growth on one hand, and not accepting the steps that would be needed to pick the fruits on the other hand.
Bureaucratic declaration limits Yunnan countryside fun
Posted byI was at a rural funeral in Yunnan last autumn, and throughout the event there was a bookkeeper registering and writing down all donations.'
Back then I understood that the family had purchased the feast for a certain price, and this communal bookkeeper was subtracting the payment for that from all those donations.
But in light of this article, I wouldn't be surprised if he served some administrative role as well.
Migrant workers receive bricks in lieu of pay
Posted byChinese state does have some economic muscle, and tradition of state-owned enterprising. I think that the state should jump in here.
They could confistace this kind of non-monetary resources (like bricks, or frozen french fries), pay market price to the employees, and then sell the goods back to the market (or donate to charity) through it's own channels.
But I guess there is more bucks in cigarattes and oil.
Migrant workers receive bricks in lieu of pay
Posted by@alienew: "drive investors to go to places where they can get away"
Well, technically it would drive them away to places where they can get away with unpaid wages in some other ways than being beaten to death.
Preferably the alternative would be a more civilized way to lose face than doing so concretically.
The process somewhere else would be that after 1-2 months salary is unpaid, the employees quit and contact union, which then more or less peacefully negotiates the best possible solution between the employer and the employee.
The workers can then choose better representatives, if the union-led negotiations still produce nothing but bricks as compensation for unpaid wages.
The problem in China is that if you quit, there are 10 other guys waiting to take your position regardless of how you were dealt with.
But in that scale, there is usually just 1 guy offering those positions, and if he or she is dealt with this way, there may not be another guy taking his place.