The creation of a new underclass in China and its implications.pdf

The creation of a new
underclass in China
and its implications
DOROTHY J SOLINGER
Dorothy J Solinger is ABSTRACT The emergence of a new urban underclass in China is a major
Professor of Political challenge confronting munist Party, and its potential for fomenting
Science and Co-Director of instability has unnerved the Party. A strong case can be made, however, that the
the Center for Asian members of this emerging group have been cast into their current plight chiefly
Studies at the University of
as a result of the marketization reforms that the regime itself set into motion two
California, Irvine, and
Senior Adjunct Research and a half decades ago. The group prised of recently laid-off workers,
Scholar at the underpaid and underprivileged migrant labourers from the countryside, and any
Weatherhead East Asian others who have fallen into penury with the withdrawal of job and welfare security
Institute at Columbia and the elimination of free health care in the cities, which have panied the
University. Her most recent government’s “economic reforms”. However, the challenge may not be as great as
publications are Contesting is often feared, for the same reforms have equipped the leadership with a battery
Citizenship in Urban China of “weapons” that have the power to mitigate the expression of grievances,
(1999), University of including new welfare measures, state-of-the-art surveillance technologies and
California Press and, as
crowd control equipment.
co-editor, States and
Sovereignty in the Global
Economy (1999), Routledge. KEYWORDS Chinese cities / coercion / instability / migration / poverty / protest /
Her current project is on underclass / welfare
unemployment in China,
France and Mexico.
Address: School of Social I. INTRODUCTION
Sciences, University of
California, Irvine, CA 92697,
USA; e-mail: Among the most portentous of the challenges confronting the Chinese
******@. Communist Party in the early years of the century