From being hailed as the leaders of the nation to being asked to upgrade their skills or face losing their jobs, the working-class in the mainland have seen a dramatic change in their fortunes over the past 50 years. The change has been felt most acutely by workers at the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) who used to be affectionately called the lao da ge, or big elder brothers, of the working class for enjoying high status and secure employment. The move towards a market economy has exposed SOEs as a drain on the public treasury. They are essentially no different from companies elsewhere that depend on government subsidies. Once the subsidies are gone, they face being shut down.
Whereas in most countries forced redundancies would trigger, at most, protracted labour disputes on the mainland they take on a uniquely political dimension. For the ruling Communist Party, which regards itself as the vanguard of the working class and has inculcated that notion in the people for decades, preparing them to come to terms with the demise of the SOEs and the mass dismissals of workers is a sensitive issue. Handled well, it would help to maintain the legitimacy of the regime, if not enhance it; mishandled, it could spell trouble. Indeed, reconciling a dated ideology with changed circumstances has occupied the minds of party leaders in recent years. A study by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, completed in 2001, lays the theoretical foundation for the challenge. It revealed that the mainland's working class has changed in so many ways that only a small proportion of its members are still industrial workers whose occupation matches the cogs that feature in the national emblem. As individuals are allowed greater freedom to do what they want in a market economy, many have become self-employed businessmen and professionals and technicians who would have been classified as 'intellectuals' in the days when only factory hands were considered workers.
According to the study, there are now 10 social strata in the mainland: national and social management, managers, industrial workers, agricultural labourers, private enterprise-owners, professional technicians, clerks, industrial and commercial individuals, business service staff and city unemployed, the laid-off and half laid-off in urban areas. Its conclusion: the old notions of class struggle and of creating a classless society by eliminating class enemies are no longer applicable. That has in turn paved the way for the incorporation of the Theory of the Three Representatives into the party constitution last year, allowing it to admit private businessmen as members.
Still, traditions die hard. As the country celebrated Labour Day yesterday, it followed the long-standing practice of honouring model workers by awarding medals to about 1,000 people. Among this year's recipients are three medical units and six medical workers who made distinguished contributions to the fight against Sars.
Despite the conscious attempt by the party to keep up with the times, it has not been easy to resolve the contradiction between theory and practice where it counts most - providing employment to laid-off workers. Official statistics have put the number of urban unemployed workers at the end of March at 7.75 million, a 0.4 per cent rise over the same period in 2002. Labour unrest remains a problem that threatens to boil over should the economy fail to grow at a sufficiently high rate.
As an eerie silence descended on Beijing's Tiananmen Square on what should on Labour Day be a crowded tourist spot, one shuddered to think what a protracted Sars outbreak would mean in terms of lost employment and more hardship for the lao da ge forced out of their old jobs.