Xi and Li wrestle over street vendors (Poon Siu To)
It is rather unbelievable that the two top leaders of Communist China shall fight over the relaxation or tightening of street vendors, which has exposed the party’s highest level internal conflict as a result.
Although the succession plan devised at the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2012 mimicked the “Hu-Wen Administration”, meaning that it is dual leadership with Xi Jin-ping becoming the General Secretary of CPC and Li Ke-qiang serving as the Premier, the “Xi-Li Administration” took on a new face after two years.
With the formation of leadership groups such as the Central Comprehensively Deepening Reform Commission and the National Security Commission, all government powers were highly concentrated in the hands of Xi Jin-ping, the sole leader ever since. In the subsequent years, he kept filling positions in the State Council with trusted confidants. Vice Premier Liu He and heads of several important ministries and commissions all pertain to Xi’s clan.
Li’s power was usurped and he became the weakest Premier in the history of CPC with no influence at all in the areas of national defense, diplomacy and public security. He could not even have full control over finance and economic affairs, but only run errands of making post disaster visits, such as dropping by after the earthquakes in Yunnan and Sichuan or the epidemic in Wuhan. Nevertheless, if any economic problem arises, he has to be accountable. Being put in an awkward position, he has the responsibility but not the authority; he must take the blame but not the honor. How is the economy revived when the epidemic is over? It is Li’s responsibility. Before that, however, the post epidemic recovery measures for various Chinese cities have come to Li’s attention.
As early as March, cities such as Chengdu gradually loosened the regulations on unlicensed hawkers. As for Hubei, where the epidemic has been most severe, many cities apart from Wuhan have been locked down for a long time. The economy has been hard hit and unemployment rate has soared. How to get out of the predicament? Daye, a county-level city in Huangshi of Hubei province, was the earliest city to allow “street vendors” as a way to absorb the newly unemployed. On May 18, the city announced the opening of a temporary night market and allowed qualified individuals and business units to apply for the setting up of stalls. Other parts of the province were soon to follow suit and Li was inspired. He publicly praised the "street vendor economy" at the press conference of the Two Sessions and said that it could solve the unemployment problem. Li also said that the average monthly income of some 600 million people in China was only about 1,000 RMB. Caixin.com later quoted the research report of Beijing Normal University, confirming that there are 600 million people in the country with a monthly income of less than 1,090 RMB, and the population with a monthly income of less than 2,000 RMB is as high as 964 million, meaning that nearly 70% of the population is below World Bank’s middle-income standard. This has clearly shown that the Chinese dream of “reaching a well-to-do standard of living” by the end of the year is totally unrealistic.
During a subsequent visit to Yantai, Shandong, Li praised the street vendor and small shop economy again as an important source of employment and lifeline of China. Since then, stalls had sprung up everywhere, and unlicensed hawkers once wiped out had reappeared. In some cities, tens of thousands of stalls had emerged overnight and economic rings had been formed. Such stalls became hot topics of WeChat and the media. Street vendor economy seemed to be taking off.
Li cares about employment. Xi cares about image.
Undoubtedly, Li Ke-qiang's remarks at the Premier's press conference and the article of Caixin.com was a slap in the face for Xi, who launched a series of counterattacks a few days later. On June 6, Beijing Daily, the official newspaper of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee under the auspices of Cai Qi, Xi’s confidant, stated firmly, “Street vendor economy is not suitable for Beijing”, and that all kinds of stalls would be eradicated. In addition, the Publicity Department banned the use of the term "street vendor economy" and demanded that all previous coverage of the subject be deleted. CCTV commented that street vendor economy should not become a trend, pointing out that “large cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou had to be managed with grace. At present, major first-tier cities have not jumped on the bandwagon; there is no official stall map; some cities have made it clear that stalls are not allowed”. Without the backing of Xi, Wang Hu-ning, a low level publicity official, would not dare to challenge the words of the Premier openly.
Li Ke-qiang is the economy gatekeeper who well knows that there is no quick fix for the plunging economy. He is also aware that Xi’s political goals cannot be achieved this year. In the short term, employment is more important than GDP, because it is the foundation of social stability. He has reiterated at least 40 times in the government work report that his primary task is to create employment, and street vendor economy can indeed create numerous job opportunities and ease the current crisis. However, at a time when the United States relaunched manned spacecraft, how could China allow street vendors to flourish all over the place? The big gap is so embarrassing for Xi Jin-ping. How could China compete with the United States? No Chinese will be proud of prosperity brought by street vendor economy. This will lead to a major setback in Xi’s strategy to rule with nationalism, and the Chinese dream is hardly convincing.
Li Ke-qiang's sudden disclosure of the poverty in China, whether it is to promote street vendor economy to help the grassroots and increase employment, or deliberately embarrass Xi Jin-ping and shatter his dream of getting rid of poverty, has shown that the relationship between the two has hit rock bottom. Not only did they fail to discuss how to restore the economy and alleviate poverty after the epidemic, but also fail to conceal their discrepancies, which grabbed the headlines of world media.
(Poon Siu To, veteran journalist)
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