Ridiculously true ... ?
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A house sits in the middle of a new road on the outskirts of Wenling, China, in November. Authorities later demolished the home that had become the latest symbol of resistance by Chinese homeowners against officials accused of offering unfair compensation.(Photo: AP)
Employees are rewarded for demolishing homes and flattening tombs.
Governments the world over often hand out year-end bonuses to those employees who devise efficient ways to handle problems or meet goals for improving service.
In China, at the close of 2012 local governments gave employees cash awards for doing good work in demolishing family homes, flattening ancestral tombs and enforcing the nation's "one child" policy.
"Land acquisition, house demolition and relocation is China's biggest tool for wealth transfer," Shen Xiaojie, a news website editor, wrote on Sina Weibo. "This kind of award is like bandits dividing their spoils."
Such payments reveal local priorities as officials rewarded their own for the often difficult work of implementing controversial policies, sometimes with violent methods. But the 2012 bonuses that have leaked out to the public have provoked condemnation that highlights how China's people are growing more vocal in their criticism of a government many view as deeply corrupt.
Two of the most commented upon new awards in late 2012 rewarded the demolition workers who tore down family homes on government requisitioned land in Lin County, in north China's Shanxi province, and the tomb flatteners in Zhoukou City, central Henan province, who cleared over 2 million ancestral tombs last year in a campaign to recover farmland.
On Sina Weibo, a hugely popular Chinese version of microblogging site Twitter, which is banned in China, many users called the $116,000 total payment to "advanced" demolition workers in Lin county a "shameful" and "ridiculous" award.
The majority of the mass protests that happen each year in China are sparked by government land grabs and forcible demolition of homes, as officials evict residents, who are often poorly compensated, to secure the land sales that form the bulk of local government income.
In the Beijing News, a tabloid in the Chinese capital, commentator Hu Yinbin noted the public's doubts about this award and blamed local governments' "confrontational work perspectives."
Officials "treat people as the opposite side, getting them down counts as their success, and for which they will be rewarded. This kind of thinking will only stimulate more hostile emotions," he wrote.
In Henan province, officials have run through widespread opposition to government demolition of ancestral tombs. The policy shatters tradition and breaks cultural taboos, but the government insists it is essential to recover badly needed farmland for crop cultivation.
As website editor Shen suggested, some Chinese suspect officials intend to sell off any recovered land to property developers.
The almost $500,000 award that Zhoukou officials received for tomb leveling in 2012 from their bosses in the provincial capital Zhengzhou angered many Chinese. On Christmas Day, even the Ministry of Agriculture's spokesman in Beijing criticized Henan's strong-arm methods, but the campaign continues.
"Nobody will love a country which digs out your ancestors' tombs," Shi Pu, a professor of government administration in Zhengzhou, warned on his microblog.
Year-end awards, including those for achieving family planning quotas, have long been part of China's governance, said Wang Yukai, a public management expert at the Chinese Academy of Governance in Beijing. Punishments also apply to officials if a significant number of residents in their area exceed the family-size limits of one child in urban areas and two in the countryside, if the first child is a girl.
"But giving awards from the public budget in sensitive issues, when the government hasn't reached agreement with the people, just worsens the situation," said Wang.
The recent public outcry hasn't halted the awards in either Shanxi or Henan, or reversed policy, but "at least it's progress that people can now stand up and express their opposition," he said.
"The people, not government employees, should decide what should be rewarded," said Zhang Chengfu, a professor of public management at People's University in Beijing. "In a democracy, the people decide and the government acts as their agent."
To reduce anger over such awards, "the only way is to increase openness and transparency, and negotiate and communicate with the common people," he said.
"Policies should not be forced on the people. There must be an institutional dialogue that permits people to participate in the decision-making process," Zhang said.
The Chinese Communist Party's new leader, Xi Jinping, who took over in November, has emphasized the need for a more open and less corrupt government. His people require plenty of convincing that change will reach down to their local, highly corrupt levels.
In Zhoukou, party member Zhang Fang lost two relatives who died under falling tombstones when Zhang, 70, leveled the family's ancestral tombs ahead of the government deadline.
"No matter what amount the government awards, the ordinary people could get little, only local officials will benefit from it," he said.
Sunny Yang @ USA Today