Word: hunan
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...been quick to brand as "counterrevolutionaries" students and workers who voiced far subtler sentiments, shipping them off to jail, or worse. What was so intriguing about this book, published last May, was that its author was the official Communist Youth League committee in Mao Zedong's home province of Hunan, and that copies were circulating more than three months after the massacre in Tiananmen Square. Youth League officials in Beijing claimed not to know anything about the tract's origins, but they said the case was "under investigation." Said a Western diplomat: "The language is strongly reminiscent of the Cultural...
...benefits -- and pitfalls -- of Zhao's coastal approach are most visible in the contrast between Guangdong and Hunan. Since 1985, for example, Guangdong has allowed the price of pork to rise, as it did earlier with other foodstuffs. Popular demand not only spurred local pig production but, with Guangdong merchants paying more than twice the state-controlled price of 2.80 yuan per kg (35 cents per lb.) for pork in Hunan, also began to siphon off the output of pig farms in the neighboring province. As a result, the supply of pork decreased dramatically in Hunan's state-subsidized markets...
...sharp contrast with such assertiveness, a sense of defeatism permeates parts of Hunan. "When it comes to running businesses," concedes the province's vice governor, Yang Huiquan, "we're not on a par with people in the coastal areas." To a large degree, central planners still require Hunan's state farms to grow grain instead of cash crops. Yang would like Hunan and its 56 million people to imitate Guangdong. He is even seeking investment from the neighboring province. But the desire for prosperity does not seem as deeply rooted in Hunan as in Guangdong, particularly among older people. "Social...
...young certainly do. Prosperity next door has become a magnet for young Hunanese, though they may still lack the skills to benefit quickly. Those who remain behind contend that the lure of Guangdong saps Hunan of its best and brightest. In Changsha, the capital of Hunan, one government functionary demands a radical solution. "We should not merely ask for higher prices for our rice and vegetables," he says. "We should demand 40% of Guangdong's foreign-exchange earnings. Otherwise we would really become its colony." Some Hunanese have gone so far as blockading the border to prevent the outflow...
...moment, Hunan officials are doing their best to downplay the tensions created by growing inequality with their neighbors. Says Vice Governor Yang: "The old and the new systems coexist." To avoid friction between the provinces, says a Western diplomatic analyst in China, Beijing must "either roll back the reforms or expand the experiment to the rest of the country as quickly as possible." As Premier Li pointed out at the NPC, however, the government is not likely to take either course at this time. While one China presses on, the other must wait its turn...