Democracy and an economic recovery programme in one Chinese village sized package.
On December 9, there was an election in Longmen village, Han city, Shaanxi province. The candidates for village committee were Wang Wenxuan and another villager named Yang. In the end, Wang Wenxuan won the election. Afterwards, Wang Wenxuan carried out his election platform as promised.
Before the election, Wang Wenxuan had promised to turn Longmen village into the number one village in all of Han city, through economic developments such as the establishment of a coal-washing factory to provide employment and so on. More concretely, he promised that he will prepay the villagers for the anticipated wealth over the next three years. Specifically, each village resident was to receive 5,000 yuan for the first year, 5,000 yuan for the second year and 10,000 yuan for the third year. "In order for the villagers to become wealthy quicker, I will prepay 20,000 yuan to each villager out of my own pocket. Then everybody can use that money to make more money." On the morning of December 9, Wang Wenxuan sent a copy of his campaign promises to each village home.
On the day after the election, Wang Wenxuan fulfilled his promise by bringing 13 million yuan out and giving 20,000 yuan to each village resident.
Before the election, Wang Wenxuan had promised to turn Longmen village into the number one village in all of Han city, through economic developments such as the establishment of a coal-washing factory to provide employment and so on. More concretely, he promised that he will prepay the villagers for the anticipated wealth over the next three years. Specifically, each village resident was to receive 5,000 yuan for the first year, 5,000 yuan for the second year and 10,000 yuan for the third year. "In order for the villagers to become wealthy quicker, I will prepay 20,000 yuan to each villager out of my own pocket. Then everybody can use that money to make more money." On the morning of December 9, Wang Wenxuan sent a copy of his campaign promises to each village home.
On the day after the election, Wang Wenxuan fulfilled his promise by bringing 13 million yuan out and giving 20,000 yuan to each village resident.
Divide roughly by 12 for sterling values. Still, not bad for Shaanxi. Bear in mind though that Mr Wang now has at least some control over land use rights, facility user fees and local taxation. One wonders what the effect of his ‘coal washing plant’ will be on local farmland too.
Some people thought that this was a form of sensationalistic vote-buying. So did the losing candidate named Yang complain? On the evening before the election, Yang had sent a copy of his own campaign promises to each village home. Yang promised that the villagers would earn 5,000 yuan the first year, 10,000 yuan the second year and 15,000 yuan the third year, for a total of 30,000 yuan. The villagers thought that Wang's upfront cash and the details of his proposals for the future were more attractive.
Quite right: cash down and an actual plan beats vague promises of prosperity from unspecified economic development.
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