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Residents in the Chinese capital received one more boon as winter set in: free inoculations of an anti-influenza vaccine for people 60 years old or older on the same day the ruling Communist Party of China opened its 17th National Congress. From October 15 to November 15, according to the Beijing Municipal Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, registered permanent residents of the city born before October 1, 1947, may visit any hospital or clinic near their homes and get a free inoculation. In addition, all primary and middle school students may be inoculated at half price (20 yuan or US$2.60) including children of nongmingong, migrant workers from all parts of rural China who are working on permanent or temporary jobs in the city.

In a city with 12 million "permanent residents" plus a "floating population" of 5.1 million, including nongmingong and their families, more than two million senior citizens and about one million youngsters are entitled to these Beijing Municipal Government-provided benefits. Just a week earlier, on October 7, commuters in Beijing were allowed more transport for less money with the opening of the new 27.6-kilometre Beijing Subway Line 5 that runs north-south through the city and with a system wide reduction in fares to a flat fare of 2 yuan (about 27 US cents), less than half the previous maximum tariff. Earlier still, on January 1, 2007, public bus fares were cut to 1 yuan (13 US cents) per ride. Users of the yikatong, a "smart card" for public transport, now pay even less, 40 fen (5 US cents) per ride and for students using yikatong, the bus fare is a mere 20 fen (2.5 US cents) per ride.

Tangible Benefits for the People

In Beijing, mass inoculations in the annual battle against influenza began in 1999. "For financial reasons, plus ignorance of the epidemic, "the Beijing News reported, "Only 5 percent of our senior citizens actually showed up for inoculations per year from 1999 to 2006. "

Observers invariably link those new benefits—the free and half-price influenza inoculations, the reduced public transport fares, and other benefits—to the Party Congress, which endorsed, among other matters, General Secretary Hu Jintao's philosophy of a "harmonious society under socialism" and "scientific development" that calls for increased public spending on improving the people’s livelihoods, the livelihoods of the underprivileged groups such as nongmingong, in particular. In plain language, this philosophy aims to allow more and more "tangible benefits" to the biggest possible swath of the Chinese people as they endure persistent changes accompanying the break-neck growth of the Chinese economy. Beijing is recognized as taking the lead in translating this philosophy into reality.

The Chinese capital's leadership has managed double-digit economic growth for eight years in a row, from 1998 to 2006; growth was computed at 12.5 percent for the first six months of 2007. In 2006, municipal government revenue exceeded 110 billion yuan (US$14.66 billion), an increase of 20 percent over the previous year. In the first half of 2007, it came to 73.15 billion yuan (US$9.51 billion), up 27 percent year-on-year, accounting for 57.9 percent of what had been expected for the whole year. "With governmental revenue continually increasing, we can afford to spend more money on social welfare and benefits," said Chai Xiaozhong, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission, quoted by the China News Service.

According to Chai and other officials, municipal authorities plan to earmark 400 million yuan (US$53.3 million) for free and half-price influenza inoculations and another 2.7 billion yuan (US$360 million) to help the subway and bus companies balance their accounts for 2007. Officials say that the subsidies for the bus and subway companies are bound to increase year after year in keeping with the expansion of the city's public transport systems. Despite that, municipal authorities have committed themselves to a policy of ensuring low-fares for public transport. "The public transportation system is a vital part of our social welfare programme, and it must continue to be such," declared Liu Qi, secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the CPC, at a panel meeting of the Beijing delegation during the week-long Party Congress. Echoing, Mayor Wang Qishan, also a delegate to the Party Congress, reaffirmed that in allocating public money, his government will see to it that "public welfare programmes are expanded in such a way as to cover as many people as possible."

While allowing free and half-price inoculations against influenza, municipal authorities slashed the full price per inoculation from 70 yuan (US$9.33) to 40 yuan (US$5.33). "For people like us, the cut, 30 yuan (US$4), is not a small sum," said Wang Xia, who was laid off from a State-owned factory three years ago and who has been unable to get re-employed because of poor sight. She is one of 270,000 Beijing residents now living on government-provided subsistence allowances of 310 yuan (US$43.60) per month.

Medical Insurance System

The policy that allows low fares for public transport is meant to encourage people to take buses and subway trains instead of cars as the authorities are eager to ease the city's traffic jams before the 2008 Olympic Games. Regardless, this is no small blessing for Beijing's average wage earners. Li Ting, a teacher, has to commute between her home at Shijingshan District in western Beijing and her school at Tongzhou District in Beijing's east. On her way to work and back, she used to pay three yuan (30 US cents) for a ride on the Line 1 subway and then two yuan (26 US cents) to transfer to the Batong Line: 10 yuan (US$1.33) per day or more than 300 yuan (US$74.60) a month. "I used to spend more than one-tenth of my monthly salary on transport," said the 25-year-old woman, who has been saving for her wedding, planned for August 2008. "Now the cost has been reduced to just four yuan (62 US cents) per day. That saves me 6 yuan (80 US cents) a day and about 100 yuan (US$13.33) a month."

Development of mass transit networks is a top priority in Beijing's urban development. The city's subway system will increase to 561 kilometres of subway lines by 2015 from 141.6 kilometres now, considerably more than the London Underground's 408 kilometres. Nevertheless, traffic congestion, for which Beijing is notorious, is just "one among" the top concerns being addressed by the municipal authorities.

Over the years, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics has reported, the authorities have developed a medical insurance system for employed residents, under which the premiums are shared by the employer, the employee and the government. The system now provides coverage to 95 percent of the eligible population. In early September, a new medical insurance programme was initiated, benefiting 1.8 million people who are not part of the work force—"juniors" (babies, infants and primary and middle school students) and "seniors" (people aged 60 or older). Under Municipal Health Bureau rules, for a payment of 50 yuan (US$6.66) annually, juniors may have 70 percent of their medical costs reimbursed, up to 170,000 yuan (US$22,666) a year. A senior pays an annual premium of 300 yuan, for which they may have 60 percent of their medical costs reimbursed, up to 70,000 yuan (US$9,222) a year. Moreover, juniors and seniors in families living on subsistence allowances are exempted from the premiums. A middle school student, identified by the Beijing News as Xiao Lei, would be among the first to benefit from the new medical insurance programme. The boy is a cancer patient and his family has paid 160,000 yuan (US$21,333) for his treatment. "Officials have told us that we will get 120,000 yuan (US$16,000) in costs reimbursed at this point," said Xiao Lei's father, who was laid off from a State-owned factory six years ago and who is now up to his neck in debt.

Work has also begun to get nongmingong medically insured. Under a set of municipal government regulations, migrant workers from rural areas outside Beijing Municipality are given the privilege of having the premiums paid exclusively by their employers, unlike permanent residents who have to share the costs. Employers are obliged to pay the premiums on a monthly basis. In addition, once insured against diseases, a migrant worker may have up to 97 percent of his or her medical expenses reimbursed. The "privilege," so to speak, is in fact a necessity because in Beijing, as elsewhere in China, nongmingong are the most vulnerable population group and need special protection. Virtually all of them are from the least-developed areas in China and in Beijing, many of them have to live on the government-set minimum wages of 610 yuan (US$81.33) per month. Moreover, increasing numbers of nongmingong are no longer "floating" though they are counted as members of the floating population in society. According to a recent survey conducted by the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, more than half of the liudong renkou (floating population) currently in Beijing have worked in the city for five years in a row or even longer and about 40 percent have, in fact, settled in the capital city even though without a permit for permanent residence.

Liudong renkou with families in Beijing used to have problems with their children's educations. Schools were meant exclusively for children of "permanent residents" and just to send a child to a school, an "outsider" had to pay the school a sum of several thousand yuan in the so-called jiedufei ("fee for temporary study") or zanzhufei ("sponsorship fee"), allegedly to help the school balance its budget after taking the child in. Collections of the jiedufei and zanzhufei were banned on September 1, 2006, after municipal authorities increased funding for schools. From that day on, free textbooks were issued to all the primary and middle school students in the ten rural districts and counties under the jurisdiction of Beijing Municipality. And beginning that day, students living in Beijing's mountainous areas began getting a yearly sum of 300 yuan (US$40) to subsidize their living expenses. So will disabled students and students from poverty-stricken families in both urban and rural parts of Beijing.

Benefits for All

According to the Beijing News, some 260,000 children in Beijing's floating population are studying at government-run primary and middle schools, accounting for 65 percent of the total number of children in Beijing's floating population that are eligible for a nine-year compulsory education under Chinese laws. The rest, about 100,000, are studying at schools set up by migrants themselves, which are mostly illegal and short of qualified teachers. Fortunately, the daily newspaper reported, the municipal authorities have decided to earmark 400 million yuan (US$53.33 million) a year from now to 2010 to ensure quality educations for all eligible children in the city, whether they are permanent residents or migrants.

Officials admit that in one way or another, there is still discrimination against nongmingong and their children. They cite the "legacy" of the Soviet-style planned economy practiced until China shifted to the market-oriented economic reforms in the early 1980s as a reason. Under the old system, people were divided into "urban residents" and "rural residents" to facilitate State planning. For rural residents, there were virtually no social benefits to speak of. "Old things die slowly," said Luo Jie, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, who was quoted by the Beijing News. "But they will die eventually as the reforms deepen and our economy continues to grow."

As this article was being written, news came that at the Party congress Hu Jintao called for quadrupling China's per capita gross domestic product (GDP) by 2020 with the 2000 per capita GDP as the base figure, an increase from about US$1,000 to US$4,000.

Beijing's 2006 GDP exceeded US$6,000 for each member of its population, up from US$4,000 for 2000. If all goes well, it could increase to US$16,000 per capita within 14 years. It is not immediately known how many more benefits people in the capital city can expect from the capital's growth, but one thing is certain: according to the city's 11th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development (2006—2010), by 2010 Beijing’s public medical care system will have been expanded in such a way as to cover all the residents—permanent or temporary, employed or unemployed, men or women, young or old.