Only a few years ago, the word "community" sounded strange to most Chinese. But now, this is no longer the case. Many people will mention community when they speak about the city. But few people realize what the communities mean to the pattern of present cities' management, especially to the grassroots construction of democracy. Great changes with far-reaching importance have quietly been taking place in Chinese cities in recent years, as the concept of community has gained ground.
From Employees of Units to Masters of Communities
Mr. Wang was originally an engineer in an enterprise in Beijing, and housing at his enterprise was in short supply. So, after retirement, Mr. Wang and his wife bought an apartment in a newly developed residential area. After moving there, Mr. Wang found that nearly all the residents in the area worked in different enterprises. Because he used to live in the big compound of his enterprise, Mr. Wang initially felt like a fish out of water. Now, one year later, he is a member of the residential management committee and has a different feeling. As he puts the matter, "It seems that we paid a little more, but we feel much more comfortable. Inhabitants have the right to manage affairs in the residential area." Quite a few people, like Mr. Wang, feel that a new change has taken place in the city.
Big units in the city used to have their work area combined with their living area, forming a so-called "big yard." Most of residents in the yard were employees of the same unit. The administrative services of the unit managed the resident's living affairs, including food provisions, housing, health, death benefits and so on. The unit's administration stretched into the living area. And common employees had little say about the affairs in their living area.
As reforms in China have deepened and society has developed, people are more likely to move to other enterprises. The enterprises and institutes have begun step by step to shake off such social functions as the management of housing, health care, education, etc. That has turned many "unit people" into "social people." Many public affairs pertaining to the inhabitants' daily lives are left up to the individuals. Neither the government nor the units are responsible for them. The expenses previously hidden in a unit's welfare system are now added to the residents' wages and are administrated at their will. Residents living where they did before can now only depend on the community to provide daily services, including education, health care, etc.
"Unit people," raised in "unit groups" with little decision-making power, now have become the masters of the community. That is sure to bring some noticeable changes in the social economy and political activities.
Estate-management companies, serving the residential area, have naturally emerged. But it is hard to avoid the contradictions that arise between management companies and residents. Therefore residents, in some of the newly-built residential areas of Beijing and other big cities, "rapidly" set up their own management committees to supervise the estate-management companies' operations so as to guarantee the residents' best interests.
From Government Sticks to Grassroots Autonomous Organizations
Shenyang, the largest city in the northeast of China, has tried out "community autonomy" since last April. After open elections, speeches and answers, more than 6,400 communities' management members, elected by representatives of the residents, replaced the former 13.000-plus neighborhood committees' officers. Neighborhood committees in the communities officially disappeared from city's grassroots management.
There are several reasons why the city of Shenyang decided to eliminate neighborhood committees so as to realize self-governing communities.
Under the system of planned economy, government, state-owned and collective-owned enterprises and institutes handled nearly all issues pertaining to the residents' lives, even environmental sanitation, while neighborhood committees in the past only dealt with trifling affairs. For that reason, residents didn't care about who constituted the membership of the neighborhood committees, and the committees' members, appointed by governmental offices, were mostly old men and old women. "Old women with bound feet" even became a derogatory term used as an alias for the neighborhood committees' officers.
The members of neighborhood committees, appointed by governmental offices, naturally acted as the government's "sticks." Investigations, made in the Heping District and the Shenhe district of Shenyang, showed that the relevant administrative offices had referred over 80 tasks to the neighborhood committees, of which 14 related to civil administration.
As management functions of cities became increasingly complicated, many large and middle-size cities began to recognize that the cities couldn't be effectively managed until the functions of neighborhood committees were strengthened.
Qingdao City in Shandong Province convened a representatives' conference of residents in the communities at which important events relating to the communities were subject to discussion and approval by the representatives. In Beijing, residents made an attempt to elect the director of one neighborhood committee, and as a result the Beijing Residents Neighborhood Committees' Election Regulations were drawn up and have been put into practice since past July. Nanjing set up a community committee, and formed a new system. Based on this system, a conference of residents' representatives makes decisions; the community committee carries out what is decided; and enterprises, institutes and residents in the communities are widely involved in the process.
The reform in Shenyang boasts the most distinguishing features. The city's government redefined the boundaries of the communities during the time for reelection of the neighborhood committees. The redefinition has changed the former conditions that limited neighborhood committees because they lacked clear boundaries and were designated by a set number of households. The demarcation of the communities is now based on natural conditions and this has increased the residents' identification with and attachment to the communities. For example, a total of 4,800 households in the Northeast University district, which were divided into seven neighborhood committees before, is now established as one community. All seven members of its management committee came through the election process. Units, organizations and individuals in the community are all members of the community and have the right to participate in the community's consultative committee.
It is important that the right to self-govern communities is guaranteed. The representatives' conference is the most powerful institution in a community, the place where important community matters are discussed and decided upon. The community management committee, responsible for education, services and supervision, is expected to follow the decisions of the representatives' conference. The community's consultative committee, made up of deputies, commissioners, celebrities, and representatives from residents and units, makes suggestions to community's management committee and supervises its work. The Party committee in the community supports and guarantees its self-governing. City governments and district governments will try to relegate some governmental functions to the community, such as public security, health care, education, culture, physical education, urban construction, environmental sanitation and preservation.
From Village Self-governing to Community Self-governing
Village self-governing, as an important step in the democratic construction of rural grassroots, has steadily gained ground, while community's self-governing has received far less attention.
On the one hand, genuine communities haven't formed widely yet. Take Beijing as an example. Except for some newly-built residential areas, the largest number of people still live in enterprises' houses that are managed by their own units. These even act as their units' electorates to elect deputies to National People's Conference. Hence, many people only have the concept of units rather than that of community; a lot of people have not yet come into contact with a neighborhood committee.
At the same time, the present management and operations of the cities are not suitable for newly created communities. The following case happened in Shenyang after the reform of the communities. One resident persisted in dumping his garbage randomly, disregarding any criticism from members of the community management committee. There was nothing the management committee could do to stop this bad behavior, because .the committee has no right to impose any fines. City officials pertaining to environmental sanitation have the right, but they are too far removed from the immediate situation to manage it. Quite a few problems like this one still commonly exist.
For this reason, Zhang Mingliang, director of Grassroots Democracy and Community Construction Bureau under the Ministry of Civil Affairs, believes the pressing problems to be handled are the following. First, the community must be scientifically divided so that residents living in the same community have some mutual identification. Second, whatever the established organization is called, it needs to reflect the distinguishing features of the grassroot self-governing organization. The items for development of a community basically fall into five aspects: services, environment, sanitation, culture and security. Based on this, a community self-governing organization needs to be given help in order to streamline its relations with functional governmental offices, estate-management agencies and the residents.
