BY LI XIN

Residents in the Chinese capital received one more boon as winter sets in---free inoculations of a vaccine against influenza for people at 60 or older the day the ruling Communist Party of China opened its 17th Congress. From October 15 to November 15, 2007, according to the Beijing Municipal Center for Diseases Control and Prevention, any person born before October 1, 1947 and registered as a permanent resident in the city may visit any hospital or clinic near his or her home for the inoculation free of charge. Moreover, all primary and middle school students may be inoculated at half price, 20 yuan or US$2.6, including children of nongmingong--- migrant workers from all parts of rural China who are working on permanent or temporary jobs in the city.

   In this city with 12 million "permanent residents" plus a "floating population" of 5.1 million that include nongmingong and their families, more than 2 million senior citizens and around one million youngsters are entitled to the latest benefits provided by the Beijing Municipal Government. Just a week earlier, on October 7, commuters in Beijing were allowed more transport for less money. Even as the new 27.6-kilometer No. 5 Subway line that runs north-south through the city is now in operation, the price of tickets for the expanded underground network has been slashed to a flat fare of two yuan (about US$0.26), less than half of the previous maximum tariff. Earlier still, on January 1, 2007, the bus fares were cut to one yuan (US$0.13) per ride. Users of yikatong, a "smart card" for public transport, now pay even less---40 fen (US$0.05) per ride and for students using yikatong, the bus fare is a mere 20 fen (US$0.025) per ride.

 "Tangible Benefits"

In Beijing, mass inoculation of vaccine against influenza began in 1999. "For financial reasons, plus ignorance of the epidemic," the Beijing News reported, "only 5% of our senior citizens actually showed up for inoculations every year from 1999 to 2006."

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

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

  According to Chai and other officials, the municipal authorities plan to earmark 400 million yuan (US$53.3 million) for the 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, the municipal authorities have committed themselves to always upholding the low-fares policy for public transport. "The public transport systems are a vital part of our social welfare program, 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 programs will be expanded in such a way as to cover as many people as possible."

   While allowing free and half-price inoculations against influenza, the 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," says Wang Xia, who was laid off from a State-owned factory three years ago and has been unable to get reemployed for poor sight. She is one of the 270,000 Beijing residents now living on government-provided subsistence allowance---310 yuan (US$43.6) per month.

   Medical Insurance

   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. Meanwhile, it comes as no small a 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 (US$0.3) for a ride on the No. 1 Subway Line and then two yuan (US$0.26) for a shift to the Ba-Tong Line---10 yuan (US$1.33) per day or more than 300 yuan (US$74.6) a month. "I used to spend more than one tenth of my monthly salary on transport," says the 25-year-old woman, who has been saving for her wedding scheduled for August 2008. "Now the cost has been reduced to just four yuan (US$0.52) per day. That saves me six yuan (US$0.8) a day and about 100 yuan (US$13.33) a month."

Development of mass transit networks is receiving top priority in Beijing's urban development. Just for one thing: the city'ssubway system will have 561 kilometers of line by 2015, well above London Underground's 408 kilometers, up from 141.6 kilometers now. Nevertheless, traffic congestions, for which Beijing is notorious, are just one of the top concerns being addressed by the municipal authorities in real earnest.

   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 covers 95% of the people eligible for the benefit. In early September, a new medical insurance program began working, to the benefit of 1.8 million people without an employer--- "juniors" (babies, infants and primary and middle school students) and "seniors" (people aged 60 or older). Under rules of the Municipal Health Bureau, for a payment of 50 yuan (US$6.66) in annual premium, a "junior" may have 70% of his or her medical cost reimbursed, up to 170,000 yuan (US$22,666) a year. A "senior" pays an annual premium of 300 yuan, for which he or she may have 60% of his or her medical cost 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 program. 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 have 120,000 yuan (US$16,000) in the cost incurred so far reimbursed,"says Xiao Lei's father, who was laid off from a State-owned factory six years ago and is now up to the neck in debt.

   Work has also begun to get nongmingong insured for medical care. Under a set of municipal government regulations, migrant workers from rural areas outside Beijing are given the privilege of having the premiums paid exclusively by their employers, unlike permanent residents who have to share the cost. Employers are obliged to pay the premiums on a monthly basis. Besides, once insured against diseases, a migrant worker may have up to 97% 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 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--- 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 registration of citizens' residential status. According to a latest sample survey by the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, more than half of the nongmingong currently in Beijing have worked in the city for five years in a row or even longer and around 40% have in fact settled in the capital city even though with a permit for permanent residence.

   Those nongmingong with families in Beijing used to have problems with their children's education. 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. Collection of jiedufei and zanzhufei was banned on September 1, 2006 after the municipal authorities increased the funding for schools. From that day on, free textbooks would be 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 will each receive 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% of the total number of children in Beijing's "floating population" who are eligible for the nine-year compulsory education under Chinese laws. The rest, numbering 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 education 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. Meanwhile, they call this a "legacy" of the Soviet-style planned economy practiced until China shifted to the market-oriented economic reforms in the early 1980s. Under the old system, people were divided into "urban residents" and "rural residents" to facilitate State planning. For "rural residents," virtually there were no social benefits to speak of. "Old things die out slow," Luo Jie, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Education Commission was quoted by the Beijing News as saying. "But they will die eventually as the reforms deepen and our economy continues to grow.?When 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 in 14 years from now. It is not immediately known how much more benefits people in the capital city will receive from the 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 and women, and old and young.