The EconomistDecember 21st 2019 China 552 sign it wants to move up the value chain
and attract higher-wage workers.
Initially the central government stood
back when local officials failed to punish
companies for ignoring the rules, perhaps
reckoning that strict enforcement might
deter at least some firms from hiring. But in
the early 2000s it grew more worried that
fast-rising income inequality would cause
unrest. In 2004 it began demanding
tougher enforcement. The fine for firms
that misbehave was raised from a fifth of
the accumulated shortfall in wages paid to
five times the arrears. “Full implementa-
tion” of the minimum-wage rules was
needed to reduce “excessive income in-
equality”, said the Ministry of Commerce.
In 2011 the government unveiled a new
five-year plan that set a target of increasing
minimum wages nationwide by at least
13% annually. The goal was achieved, but
some firms, especially in poorer provinces,
complained (the rises were far higher than
inflation each year). In the north-eastern
province of Liaoning, a leader of the cham-
ber of commerce says his organisation
tried to convince the local government to
“slow down a bit”. As growth slowed, com-
panies in backward areas grumbled that big
and frequent increases in the minimum
wage were harming competitiveness.
In the latest five-year plan, adopted in
2016, the central government appears to
have accepted this argument. The docu-
ment sets no minimum-wage targets. Cen-
tral officials have refrained from berating
provinces for foot-dragging. In July Eco-
nomic Daily, a state-controlled newspaper,
said that those setting minimum wages
should not only take into account the inter-
ests of “low earners” but also “the actual
burden on enterprises”.
Officials still talk about a need to reduce
income inequality. But they no longer sug-
gest that increasing the minimum wage
frequently is a good way of achieving this.
Mr Xiang, the security guard, says he un-
derstands why his wages are not rising fast-
er. “The reality is that there are still too
many unskilled people like me,” he says. 7
Keeping the bar low
Average minimum wage
As % of average national wageSources:NationalBureauofStatistics;
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roadtrafficin2013.Sorry.B
ookish and soft-spoken, Wen Zhao
never expected to become a celebrity. In
Toronto, where he lives, Mr Wen is often
asked for selfies by adoring fans (female
ones are especially keen, he says bashful-
ly). He owes his fame to a video blog, updat-
ed every two or three days, in which he
talks in Mandarin about current affairs, of-
ten very critically of China’s ruling Com-
munist Party. His viewers are mainly eth-
nic Chinese living outside China. But Mr
Wen, who is 45, reckons many are in China
itself, where he was born and grew up.
In recent years party-controlled media
have been trying to extend their influence
abroad by buying up Chinese-language
newspapers or reaching deals to provide
them with news. But vloggers such as Mr
Wen (pictured in his typical on-camera
garb) are attracting huge audiences among
overseas Chinese with commentary that
does not follow the party line. They also ap-
pear to be penetrating the great firewall of
China, as the country’s system of online
censorship is often known.
In one of his recent 20-minute mono-
logues, published on YouTube, Mr Wen dis-
cussed a demonstration in late November
in the southern Chinese town of Wenlou,
over the building of a crematorium. Mr
Wen noted that some participants had
chanted “revolution of our times”. This is a
popular rallying cry in neighbouring Hong
Kong, which has been roiled for months bypro-democracy unrest. He speculated that
similar sentiment may have begun to
spread to parts of the mainland.
Such views cannot be aired in China,
where YouTube is blocked (as is Mr Wen’s
personal website, wenzhao.ca). But tech-
savvy netizens in China can access Mr
Wen’s vlogs by using a virtual private net-
work. Mr Wen’s videos have attracted about
175m views since the launch in 2017 of his
YouTube channel, or about 300,000 views
per recording. He says a fifth of the audi-
ence could be in China, a belief reinforced
by messages he gets from mainlanders and
analysis of traffic to his site. His vlog often
has more than 100 times the viewership of
news items posted on YouTube by China’s
main state broadcaster.
Mr Wen says politics in China has
boosted the vlog’s popularity (except
among trolls who bombard him with on-
line abuse—possibly, he suspects, at the in-
stigation of the Chinese government). Not
long after the vlog was launched, China’s
leader, Xi Jinping, abolished the presiden-
tial term-limit, fuelling speculation that he
would never retire. China then entered into
a protracted trade war with America. The
shock of both events appears to have fu-
elled demand among Chinese speakers for
independent analysis. Other vloggers have
piled in, too. There are at least a dozen peo-
ple whose YouTube channels in Mandarin
relating to current affairs boast more than
100,000 subscribers. Most are based in
North America. Among the best-known is
Guo Wengui, a Chinese businessman (also
known as Miles Kwok) who fled to New
York in 2014. His vlog, with a following of
more than 300,000, is filled with unveri-
fied titbits of political gossip.
Party sympathisers use YouTube, too.
One is Han Mei, a Canadian resident who
sings the Chinese government’s praises in
her vlogs. In a recent recording Ms Han ar-
gued that the Chinese army had “respond-
ed appropriately” to the Tiananmen Square
protests of 1989 (it massacred hundreds, if
not thousands, of people). Her channel has
92,000 subscribers.
A Chinese couple in New York who go by
the names Stone and Lexie run a joint You-
Tube channel. Stone describes it as the cen-
tre ground between Mr Wen and Ms Han. In
the 20 months since its founding, the vlog
has picked up 130,000 subscribers. At least
some are likely to be in China. A young fan
in Beijing says the couple are credible be-
cause the China they present “is neither as
good as state media claim nor as bad as
some foreign media suggest”. Stone, how-
ever, says he is sure he would be arrested
were he to return to his native country. 7TORONTO
Chinese video blogs critical of the
Communist Party have a big reachPolitical vloggingConfronting the
party hacks