China Briefing | Li Keqiang’s support for street vendors has hit a nerve in Beijing
- The premier’s championing of the return of street vending is a sign of rising worries over a grim unemployment situation made worse by Covid-19
- It highlights widening inequality at home at a time when China is flexing its muscles abroad and for the city of Beijing will appear particularly galling
For years, roadside stalls and mobile vendors were frowned upon as a blight on China’s urban landscapes.
For the authorities, they represented chaos and backwardness. A source of poor hygiene, noise pollution, inferior products and traffic problems, unfitting fixtures in a confident China’s rise to become a wealthy and powerful nation taking pride in its technological advances and gleaming skyscrapers.
The urban management officers, or Chengguan, were tasked with chasing the vendors off the streets, their aggressive tactics often leading to brawls and making them among the most despised civil servants in the country.
Over the past few weeks, however, street vending has come back with a vengeance, with Premier Li Keqiang, China’s second-most senior leader, as its most vocal proponent.
05:59
Coronavirus: What’s going to happen to China’s economy?
But the ensuing spirited debate has even deeper implications. It has focused national attention on the plight of China’s poor and low-income population – who number at least 600 million – and widening income inequality at a time when the country’s propaganda machine is highlighting China’s rising international standing as the world’s second-largest economy and when Beijing is flexing its economic muscles to advance its interests abroad.