近日，經濟學家張化橋在財新網博客發表的《中國農村被拋棄了》一文，文中描述了被無視的中國農村的悲慘現狀：環境惡化、犯罪率上升、兒童留守、農民心理和身體健康等等問題。
文章寫道，上世紀90年代開始，央行的印鈔機驅動著銀行信貸的無節制增長，導致高達兩位數的通脹持續多年，這迅速蠶食了農村的收入，進一步擴大了農村和城市的差距。城市的平均月工資從20年前的幾百元增長到了今天的4000元(合650美元)，而農村的收入水平則遠遠地落在了後面。城市的房價呈幾何級數增長，許多地方甚至增長了五六倍，而相比之下，農村房地產的價值卻幾乎沒有提高。太多農村居民錯過了中國的房地產繁榮，進一步拉大了城市和農村的貧富差距。
文章稱，不同層級的地方政府都疏於管理，廢弛懈怠。工廠在城邊距離鄉村不遠的地方修建了起來。它們抽乾了湖泊，污染了河水和空氣。專家估計，中國有超過450個癌症村，在這些地方癌症患者密集出現，發病率遠遠高於平均水平。村民們付出了慘重的代價。
文章還提到，農村家庭處境悽慘，農村的自殺率是城市的三倍。在農村，父母把年幼的子女留在農村的家中，自己去其他地方的工廠打工。有6000萬兒童承受著這樣的命運，他們大多數被留給祖父母、外祖父母看管，但其中有數百萬兒童要獨自生活。留守兒童通常不得不面對孤獨(許多人沒有兄弟姐妹)和無助。有些報告稱，留守兒童遭遇性侵的案件正在增多。與此同時，越來越多的農村兒童輟學。
同時農村領導人的選舉經常受到操縱，基層選舉舞弊也越發猖獗。政府的撒手不管留下了一個危險的權力真空，許多村民只能自我保護。許多人說，一些類似黑社會的組織正在幕後操縱著權力。
文章稱，中國農村的許多地區已經類似於無政府狀態，犯罪率提高，在農村，只有最極端的犯罪才會向警方報案，但有些駭人聽聞的案子根本無人理睬。即使報警，警方根本不去跟進調查。
文章點評說，中國傳統的社會脈絡已經被撕成碎片——這種瓦解在農村最為明顯，家庭破裂、犯罪率飆升，惡化的環境也在奪去人的性命。
原文如下：
HONG KONG— On atrip home late last year tothe rural Chinese village of my childhood, I found my brother tyinga military knife under his belt as he was leaving the house. Iasked why he needed a knife, and he replied,「It is not as safehere as before.」
The peaceful and idyllic village I grew up in,like many of China's rural towns, has been brought to ruins by thebreakdown of traditional social norms that followed decades offailed policies and neglect by the state. Many of my contemporaryfellow villagers would prefer to go back to the old days.
Nostalgia in China maysound strange to peoplewhose image of the country's recenthistory is colored by memoriesof Mao’s disastrous policies, which in the years following theCommunist revolution in1949 brought economic disaster, starvationand mass death. But my generation, which came of age after theGreat Famine and at the end of the Cultural Revolution in themid-1970s, missed the worst of the misery. And in typical Chinesefashion, my elders preferred not to talk about the bad days.
My childhood came at a unique moment forChina. We were still living traditional village lives, having leftthe horrors of Mao behind, but not yet in the thick of thecapitalist frenzy. Families were strong, crime was unheard of andthe landscape was pristine. We didn't mind being poor— in my thirdand fourth years at primary school in the early-』70s, the wholeschool did not have textbooks— because we didn't know what we weremissing. We lived in peaceful, tight-knit communities.
But China's traditional social fabric hasbecome shredded— and the disintegration is most obvious in thecountryside, where families are falling apart, crime is soaring andthe environment is killing people. Many villagers who were happy tohave the state retreat from their private lives in recent decadesare now crying for government intervention. Something has to bedone to rebuild China’s languishing village life.
Beginning in the late1970s, the communes weresplit up into family farms, prompting a surge of productivity andmore freedom for rural residents. Peasants suddenly had the powerto decide what crops to grow, how to grow them and how to selltheir harvests and other products. Many farmers decided to leavetheland to work in factories in the boomtowns along the southeastcoast, bringing home money as well as fresh knowledge from theoutside world. Many brought back much-needed skills to build theirown businesses. This golden era was celebrated as the triumph ofDeng Xiaoping's economic liberation.
The period of renaissance in the countrysideended in the mid-to-late1990s. Reckless growth of bank creditpowered by the central bank’sprinting press caused years ofdouble-digit inflation that quickly eroded the incomes in thecountryside and helped widen gaps between rural villages and thecities. Average monthly wages in the cities surged from a fewhundred yuan two decades ago to about4,000 yuan($650) today,while incomes in the countryside lagged far behind.
More important, following the government’sprivatization of state housing, urban housing prices grewexponentially, five-to-six-fold in many cases, while the value ofruralhomes rose little by comparison. Too many rural residentshave missed out on China's property boom, contributing to thewealth gap between the cities and the countryside.
Local governments have done little to help. Asmore and more farmers flocked to factories in coastal cities,layers of local government were neglected and decayed. Factorieseventually emerged in towns near rural villages, sucking the lakesdry and poisoning the rivers and the air. Experts estimate Chinahas more than450 cancer villages, towns where cancer cases clusterat much higher than average rates. Villagers have paid a steepprice. Some residents of my village have died of unknown ills intheir40s and50s.
The state of my family’s home village ofJingmen, Hubei Province, is common across China. Its roads are nolonger usable as they have not been maintained for over a decade.The community buildings have been torn down; the last time I wasthere I only saw dust and broken tiles all around.
Rural families are suffering. The suicide ratein the countryside is three times as high as in the cities,according to reports from2011. My uncle, who had been living in amakeshift shack after his grown children kicked him out of theirhouse, hanged himself four years ago, never having recovered fromthe death of his wife two years earlier.
It is common for both parents to leave theirsmall children at home in the village while they go to work infactories elsewhere. Some60 million children suffer this fate;most are left in the care of their grandparents, but more than3percent— millions of children— are left to live on their own.Children who stay behind often have to cope with loneliness(notmany have siblings) and helplessness. Some reports say that sexualabuse of left-behind children is on the rise.
Meanwhile, increasing numbers of ruralchildren are dropping out of school. One study suggests there areat least20 million school dropouts in rural areas, or1 in10young villagers. The primary school that I attended in the1970swas dismembered a decade ago, due to dwindling numbers of students.As a result, young kids in the village have to travel along morethan five miles of mud roads each day to go to school.
In many cases, men go to jobs in the citieswhile their wives stay behind with the children in the village.They get to see each other only a few days a year. Distance,emotional stress and financial frustration tear families apart.
According to the journal Learning Weekly,China's rural divorce rate surged fourfold between1979 and2009.Lianhe Zaobao, a Singapore-based newspaper, and numerous governmentpublications have reported that many parts of rural China havebecome anarchic, with rising crime rates and election fraud.
Beijing's effort to decentralize the country'sgovernance over the past few decades has played a major role inthis social decay. The elections of village heads are often riggedand corruption is rampant. The retreat of the state has left adangerous power vacuum, and many villagers have been left to fendfor themselves. There is a lot of talk of mafia-like groupswielding power behind the scenes.
Crime, rare in the Communist era, isincreasing. Statistics are hard to come by— even the police do notpublish them. In the countryside, only the most extreme crimes getreported, but even some horrific cases are ignored. Several yearsago, my cousin was almost beaten to death by a fellow villager andhis relatives in a conflict over an extramarital affair. My sisterreported the brutality to the police but they never followedup.
In the old days, officials at the village andtownships had the mandate and resources to mediate disputes,including domestic violence. The police would patrol even the mostremote villages. Today the police seem to stay in cities, andvillage heads don’t have the resources to intervene in socialissues. The abolition of an「agriculture tax」 about a decade agohas added to the budget constraints of local governments.
While the government is still obsessed witheconomic growth rates, the country's inequality and a damagedenvironment— especially in the villages— are much biggerchallenges. Whatever libertarians say about the undesirableconsequences of the state, many rural Chinese, particularly thepoor like my relatives and fellow villagers, want more governmentintervention. Farmers are forming petition groups in variousplaces, demanding the government intervene in land disputes,pollution and election fraud.
The misery in the Chinese countryside issevere but fixable. The government and the public must come outfrom the shadows and prioritize the rebuilding of village life. Thestate has the financial resources and expertise to do something. Itjust needs the will.
Joe Zhang,
