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Social services avert 'mass incidents'
By Yang Dingdu, Zhang Zeyuan and Liu Jinyang |
March 1, 2011, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
LIANHE Street in Guangzhou City, capital of Guangdong Province, is typical of the communities that officials and policemen keep a close eye on.
Most of the community's residents are relocated farmers and migrant workers who are more prone to take part in "mass incidents" - protests and illegal gatherings. The community has a "stability maintenance" office, with officers handling minor disputes and complaints while reporting greater risks of unrest to higher authorities.
But the "stability maintenance" office means little to third grader Ma Qingqing, who passes by without noticing it every day after class. She ran directly to the four-story building next door. Lianhe Yijia, or Lianhe Family, is a 1,020-square-meter community service center with 18 staff, including 11 professional social workers.
Ma and 50 other children play and do their homework there. The children have free meals at the center until their parents pick them up. Many migrant workers leave work around 6pm to 8pm, while classes end at 4:30pm.
Community service centers bring help, comfort, pleasure and unity to locals. "When members of the community feel happy, they have no reason to take to the streets," said Zhang Liangguang, CEO of Lianhe Family, a pilot project that exemplifies China's efforts to adopt a softer approach to maintain social stability.
Most wanted
The link between services, such as taking care of children, and social stability, is illustrated by the case of Bai Zhongjie, 17, who is one of China's youngest most wanted fugitives, Zhang said.
Late last July, when the police came to ask about Bai, the boy's mother was already worried.
She hadn't heard from her son since the last time he ran away from home four months ago.
But the news from the police was worse than anything she could have imagined. Her son was wanted for killing nine people.
Bai and four others allegedly killed nine people during six robberies in July last year.
He was arrested on August 4. The mother couldn't believe that her "honest, filial and gentle" son was capable of the crime.
Bai was born to a family of migrant workers in Dongguan City, a manufacturing hub in Guangdong, in 1993. Both his parents had to work and did not have much time to look after him.
When Bai was seven, the family returned to their hometown Zhengyuan County in Guizhou Province. Since then, Bai constantly ran away from home, hiding from his parents and spending days and nights in the woods, nearby villages and playing online games in Internet cafes.
On a few occasions, Pan Mengjin, Bai's teacher, saw the boy's father chasing him on the streets. "Whenever my father wanted to beat me, I just ran until he got exhausted," Bai once told Pan.
"A series of misfortunes caused Bai's tragedy - lack of care in childhood, family violence and addiction to online games. Had we provided support in any stage of his life, things would have been different," Zhang said.
The municipal government of Guangzhou spent 4 million yuan to establish Lianhe Family. It is only one of the many social service facilities surfacing across China, especially in more developed areas such as Shanghai and Beijing.
Most of the community's residents are relocated farmers and migrant workers who are more prone to take part in "mass incidents" - protests and illegal gatherings. The community has a "stability maintenance" office, with officers handling minor disputes and complaints while reporting greater risks of unrest to higher authorities.
But the "stability maintenance" office means little to third grader Ma Qingqing, who passes by without noticing it every day after class. She ran directly to the four-story building next door. Lianhe Yijia, or Lianhe Family, is a 1,020-square-meter community service center with 18 staff, including 11 professional social workers.
Ma and 50 other children play and do their homework there. The children have free meals at the center until their parents pick them up. Many migrant workers leave work around 6pm to 8pm, while classes end at 4:30pm.
Community service centers bring help, comfort, pleasure and unity to locals. "When members of the community feel happy, they have no reason to take to the streets," said Zhang Liangguang, CEO of Lianhe Family, a pilot project that exemplifies China's efforts to adopt a softer approach to maintain social stability.
Most wanted
The link between services, such as taking care of children, and social stability, is illustrated by the case of Bai Zhongjie, 17, who is one of China's youngest most wanted fugitives, Zhang said.
Late last July, when the police came to ask about Bai, the boy's mother was already worried.
She hadn't heard from her son since the last time he ran away from home four months ago.
But the news from the police was worse than anything she could have imagined. Her son was wanted for killing nine people.
Bai and four others allegedly killed nine people during six robberies in July last year.
He was arrested on August 4. The mother couldn't believe that her "honest, filial and gentle" son was capable of the crime.
Bai was born to a family of migrant workers in Dongguan City, a manufacturing hub in Guangdong, in 1993. Both his parents had to work and did not have much time to look after him.
When Bai was seven, the family returned to their hometown Zhengyuan County in Guizhou Province. Since then, Bai constantly ran away from home, hiding from his parents and spending days and nights in the woods, nearby villages and playing online games in Internet cafes.
On a few occasions, Pan Mengjin, Bai's teacher, saw the boy's father chasing him on the streets. "Whenever my father wanted to beat me, I just ran until he got exhausted," Bai once told Pan.
"A series of misfortunes caused Bai's tragedy - lack of care in childhood, family violence and addiction to online games. Had we provided support in any stage of his life, things would have been different," Zhang said.
The municipal government of Guangzhou spent 4 million yuan to establish Lianhe Family. It is only one of the many social service facilities surfacing across China, especially in more developed areas such as Shanghai and Beijing.
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