RedStarOverChina
13th May 2005, 15:06
Located about 100 miles north of Shanghai in Jiangsu province, Huaxi has been described in the domestic media as both a "paradise" and a "dictatorship". While its residents are nominally richer than any other community, they have less time and freedom to spend their money. Bars and restaurants close before 10pm so that workers do not oversleep. Holidays are scarce. And villagers get little cash from their paper assets. Eighty per cent of their annual bonus and 95% of their dividend must be reinvested in the commune. If they leave the village, this paper wealth disappears.
"Our assets belong to the commune not to the individual," said Sun Hai Yan, a member of the village government. "We have a local saying that your dividend lasts only as long as you stay in the village and the factories keep running."
But with living standards improving rapidly, few people seem to mind. Sun has done particularly well. As a child he remembers only being able to eat meat once a week. Now, he treats visitors to lavish meals of globe fish at the local restaurant and lives in a new villa - decorated with Greek pillars and a marble staircase - by the edge of an artificial lake.
Pragmatism rather than ideology is the guiding principle. "No matter whether it's a new kind of ism or an old kind of ism, our aim is to make everyone rich," said Wu Renbao, the former village chief who is credited with starting the Huaxi miracle.
For the whole article see http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/st...1480145,00.html (http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1480145,00.html)
"Our assets belong to the commune not to the individual," said Sun Hai Yan, a member of the village government. "We have a local saying that your dividend lasts only as long as you stay in the village and the factories keep running."
But with living standards improving rapidly, few people seem to mind. Sun has done particularly well. As a child he remembers only being able to eat meat once a week. Now, he treats visitors to lavish meals of globe fish at the local restaurant and lives in a new villa - decorated with Greek pillars and a marble staircase - by the edge of an artificial lake.
Pragmatism rather than ideology is the guiding principle. "No matter whether it's a new kind of ism or an old kind of ism, our aim is to make everyone rich," said Wu Renbao, the former village chief who is credited with starting the Huaxi miracle.
For the whole article see http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/st...1480145,00.html (http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1480145,00.html)