China’s cash-strapped local authorities are struggling to cut back headcount due to calls for from Beijing for higher safety and monitoring of its residents.
Local authorities have in recent times employed hundreds of thousands of individuals to gather data on residents, determine safety dangers and talk state coverage as President Xi Jinping tries to tighten control on society.
These similar authorities additionally reported the most important decline in fiscal income in many years final yr as Beijing’s zero-Covid coverage stifled progress and forced them to pay for mass testing and quarantines.
Their revenue has been hit hard by a crash in the property market — land gross sales account for a few quarter of all income for local governments, that are accountable for every little thing from roads to healthcare and schooling.
As a end result, local authorities are underneath strain to cut back workers and reduce prices. The State Council, China’s cupboard, unveiled plans final month to cut back its headcount by 5 per cent, a sign for cities and provinces to comply with swimsuit.
“There is a conflict between having fewer government employees and keeping every citizen under tighter watch,” mentioned Ming Xia, a political science professor on the City University of New York.
Official information reveals the variety of authorities workers with full advantages was 46.5mn on the finish of 2021, up 10 per cent from 2016. Government departments reported annual wage funds of Rmb6.3tn ($911bn) in 2020, up 37 per cent from 2016.
“Such expenditure is difficult to cut,” mentioned the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences, a think-tank underneath the Ministry of Finance, in a report this yr.
China has in recent times gone to nice lengths to place communities underneath authorities surveillance. The efforts gained urgency in the course of the pandemic when harsh Covid-19 management measures, together with frequent lockdowns and mass PCR testing, required important manpower to implement.
“President Xi’s decision to strengthen grassroots governance means we need many more community workers despite a tight fiscal budget,” mentioned a researcher on the CAFS.
Local governments have recruited greater than 4.5mn “grid managers” and “community inspection liaison officers” since 2018, in accordance with official statistics. These officers work on every little thing from gathering public opinion to reporting prison and corruption actions in a given neighbourhood and even residential constructing.
“I keep the government and residents in my building informed of each other,” mentioned a grid supervisor within the central metropolis of Wuhan.
This grassroots governance overhaul has made it tough for local authorities to axe individuals. “The authority doesn’t believe people can govern themselves,” mentioned a Shanghai-based scholar and former official. “That forces the government to grow bigger so it can deal with an increasingly complex society.”
With that in thoughts, many cities have continued to increase their contract workforce regardless of their tight price range.
In south-western Chongqing’s Yongchuan district, the place land gross sales dropped greater than 10 per cent final yr, the local authority this week posted 196 grid supervisor jobs with a view to construct “a modern governance system”.
“We are not in a position to reduce headcount despite a tight budget,” mentioned an official in Yongchuan.
Some cities are so hard-pressed for money they’ve needed to reduce workers. The north-eastern metropolis of Harbin, the place land gross sales fell 80 per cent final yr following a 20 per cent drop in 2021, mentioned in March it deliberate to do away with contract employees in 5 years with a view to “reduce administrative costs”.
The metropolis of Shiyan in central Hubei province this month mentioned it had laid off 9 per cent of presidency contractors, saving Rmb15m a yr.
“We must implement the [central government’s] requirement on living a frugal life,” mentioned the Shiyan Institutional Organisation Office in a press release.
