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In 2000, the Chinese government made new efforts and achieved
new progress in the protection of workers' economic, social and
cultural rights.
The government promulgated and implemented the Regulations on the
Administration of the Labor Market in accordance with the Labor
Law in 2000, providing a guarantee for workers' right to employment
from the angle of standardizing the labor market. According to statistics,
by the end of 2000, employees in China totaled more than 710 million,
an increase of 5.64 million over the figure for the previous year,
including over 210 million employees in cities and towns, an increase
of 2.6 million. Last year, 3.61 million workers laid off by state-owned
enterprises found new jobs through various channels. The registered
urban unemployment rate was 3.1 percent by the end of 2000. To better
solve the employment of rural labor, the Chinese government has
carried out a three-year program for the overall planning of urban
and rural employment since 2000, retraining rural workers, promoting
the development and employment of the rural labor force in the western
region, and encouraging and supporting migrant laborers to return
to their home villages to start businesses.
China has worked hard to develop job training with a view to enhancing
workers' job skills and quality and improving their capabilities
of finding employment and adapting to job changes. In 2000, the
Chinese government formulated the Regulations on Employing Skilled
Workers and the Procedures for Implementation of the Training of
Labor Reserves. According to statistics, there were 4,098 secondary
technical training schools nationwide with an enrollment of over
1.5 million in 2000; more than 3,000 training centers, with an annual
admission to 4.08 million; and 16,000 training centers run by social
sectors, with an annual admission to 3.6 million. A total of 4.5
million jobless persons and laid- off workers received new skill
training, 300,000 people received guidance for and training in starting
businesses, and 750,000 junior and senior middle school graduates
in urban areas who failed to continue further studies received training
under the " training of labor reserves" program. In 2000,
4.25 million students were admitted to various secondary vocational
and technical schools, bringing the enrollment of such schools to
the grand total of 12.95 million; and 96.42 million people received
training at the adult technical training schools. To date, approximately
30 million people have obtained professional credentials in China.
The state guarantees the workers' right to obtain payment for labor,
and their wages have been on the increase. In 2000, the government
formulated the Guidelines on Further Deepening the Reform of the
Internal Distribution System of Enterprises and the Trial Measures
on Settling Wages Through Collective Negotiations, to strengthen
the guidance for the wage-related work of enterprises. In 1999,
the wages of workers in cities and towns totaled 987.55 billion
yuan, an increase of 6.2 percent over the figure for the previous
year; and their per capita wage was 8,346 yuan, an increase of 11.6
percent over the previous year, and a 13. 1 percent growth in real
terms, allowing for price fluctuations. By the end of 2000, all
the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, except Tibet,
had established and improved a minimum-wage guarantee system, readjusted
and issued the standards for minimum wages in their own areas.
To safeguard the social security rights of workers, China has preliminarily
established a social insurance system, mainly covering basic pension
insurance, basic medical insurance and unemployment insurance for
workers in cities and towns. It had enhanced the level of the basic
livelihood guarantee of workers laid off by state-owned enterprises,
the level of unemployment insurance, and the level of ensuring a
minimum standard of living for urban residents. By the end of 2000,
the system for ensuring a minimum standard of living for urban residents
had been established in all cities and towns where the people's
governments at the county level are located, benefiting 3.818 million
urban residents; 15 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities
had established such a system for rural residents, benefiting three
million villagers with a total of 730 million yuan. In 2000, the
cost of social insurance increased substantially in the state financial
expenditure, and the social security costs, such as old- age pension,
unemployment insurance, the basic livelihood guarantee for laid-off
workers, and the minimum-standard-of-living guarantee for urban
residents arranged by the central budget reached 47.8 billion yuan,
an increase of 86 percent over 1999. By the end of 2000, a total
of 104.08 million workers in China had participated in the unemployment
insurance program, with a monthly average of 1.88 million receiving
unemployment insurance; 104.47 million workers and 31.7 million
retirees had participated in the basic pension insurance program;
43 million workers had participated in the basic medical insurance
program; over 2,000 counties and cities had established the system
of insurance against injuries at work, covering 42 million workers;
27 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities had tried out
childbirth insurance, and 1,412 counties and cities introduced the
childbirth insurance mutual assistance program, in which approximately
30 million workers participated.
China has increased its investment in education to create favorable
conditions for citizens to exercise their right to receive education.
During the Ninth Five-Year Plan period, the education fund increased
at a rate of 15.56 percent annually on average, which was higher
than the growth speed of the national economy. The proportion of
the national financial education fund in the GDP increased continuously,
rising from 2.41 percent in 1995 to 2.79 percent in 1999. The nation's
total education fund in 1999 was 1.8 times that of 1995. The central
and local governments raised an 11.6-billion-yuan special education
fund for 852 poverty- stricken counties following the introduction
of the "project for compulsory education in poverty-stricken
areas." The state formulated the Regulations on the Administration
of State Loans for Students (for trial implementation) and the Regulations
on the Operation of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
State Loans for Students (for trial implementation), so as to comprehensively
institute the student loan system to guarantee students with financial
difficulties the right to receive education. By the end of 2000,
China had virtually made nine-year compulsory education universal,
covering 85 percent of the population, and basically wiped out illiteracy
among the young and adults, reducing the rate of young and adult
illiterates to less than five percent. Statistics show that there
were 22.44 million children in kindergartens in China in 2000; over
130 million pupils in primary schools, the attendance rate of school-age
children reaching 99.1 percent; 62.56 million students in junior
middle schools, the gross attendance rate reaching 88.6 percent;
12.01 million students in 14,600 senior middle schools; 5.56 million
students in 1,041 institutions of higher learning; 3.54 million
students in 772 adult institutions of higher learning; 301, 000
students in 738 institutions for training postgraduates; and 378,000
students in special education schools.
Cultural undertakings have developed rapidly, and the people's
cultural life has become increasingly rich and colorful. By the
end of 2000, China had 2,622 performing art troupes; 2,911 cultural
centers; 2,769 public libraries; 1,373 museums; 3,816 archive establishments;
national and provincial newspapers with a circulation of 20.3 billion
copies, magazines with a circulation of 2.85 billion copies, and
books with a circulation of 6.35 billion copies; 732 medium- and
short-wave broadcasting transmitting and relay stations, covering
92.1 percent of the population; and 1,313 TV transmitting and relay
stations each with more than 1,000 watts, covering 93.4 percent
of the population. China has 79.2 million users of cable television,
ranking first in the world.
Telecommunications have advanced by leaps and bounds. The second-biggest
three-dimensional communications network in the world linking the
whole country and the rest of the world has been established, and
the number of telephone subscribers ranks second in the world. By
the end of 2000, there were 230 million telephone subscribers nationwide,
including 85.26 million subscribers of mobile phones, second only
to the United States; for every 100 urban residents there are 39
telephones on average, and telephone service covers 80 percent of
the administrative villages. Digital and multi-media communications
networks now cover all prefectures and cities, and some counties.
Automatic roaming through the networks of the China Mobile Communications
Corporation and the China Unicom reaches 84 countries and regions.
The users of the Internet have risen from 10,000 in 1994, when China
joined the Internet network, to well over 22.5 million. There are
more than 27,300 websites in China at present.
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