My Take | The time is ripe for China to smash the iron rice bowl and trim its bloated state sector
- As China’s economy faces increasing headwinds, it is becoming difficult to justify a massive bureaucratic system
- If China moved to smash the iron rice bowl, it would send a positive message to society as a whole and especially younger people
The actual size of China’s massive bureaucratic system is somewhat hard to pin down. Defined narrowly, there are just around 7 million civil servants in the nation, but if we look at the state’s payroll, the government is estimated to be hiring dozens of millions of people.
Still, the general consensus is that the headcount in the Chinese bureaucratic apparatus, usually defined as government organs financed by public funds, has become too large.
Authorities have repeatedly tried to cut the government payroll over the years. Former premier Zhu Rongji in the 1990s attempted to cut the size of the cabinet while closing incompetent state-owned enterprises. The country also tried to streamline its five-layer governing apparatus into four layers by allowing some counties to report directly to provincial authorities.
However, those efforts did not really stop the state payroll from expanding. With the government playing a crucial role in Chinese society and economy, economic growth and social changes have provided ample reasons to add state jobs. It was simply impossible to downsize the ruling apparatus when it was controlling more resources and shouldering more responsibilities, the reasoning went.
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