Wu Qing, now serving her seventh term as an elected representative in a district People's Congress in Beijing, feels that the biggest problem in Chinese model of development is Beijing's top-down approach. In an interview with Trithesh Nandan, she said Chinese government should bring more women into the decision making process.

She says that China has a long way to go when it comes to ensuring adequate representation of women in  rural politics. Qing highlights India's reservation model as something her country would do well to learn from.

The feisty 73-year-old professor is known for speaking her mind and even criticising the Chinese government (a very uncommon thing in the tightly-administered country). In 1988, she was one of the first people to cast a “no” vote at a People’s Congress.

Qing was very active in 1989 Tiananmen Square student movement. She had to pay for involvement because for three years Qing was not allowed to leave the country and the government also tried to prevent her from being re-elected. But she got re-elected from the Beijing Foreign Studies University.

The professor's mother Bing Xin translated Tagore’s collection of poems, The Gardener into Chinese in the 1930s. Her father, Wu Wenzao, is regarded as ‘father of Sociology’ in China.  

Edited excerpts of interview:

China is the second-largest economy and an emerging military superpower. But a lot of questions are raised when it comes to the development of its rural areas. Your take.
I think India and China have lot of things in common. We are the two largest populous countries in the world and majority of people come from rural areas. For me priority of the development should be on rural areas but in China, the focus is on developing the big cities. That is why it has created the great disparity between rich and the poor, urban and the rural. Though now the Chinese government is trying to shift the focus, yet I feel implementation is very slow.

What are the initiatives China is taking for the development of rural and backward areas? Are the current adminstration's programmes well-taliored or is there a need for more?
I feel that budget for rural China is still very small. Also, the biggest problem is that the development approach is still top-down approach. I think Chinese government should bring more women into the decision making process. In rural China, women form 66 percent of farm labourers. The best approach is to bring them into government schemes because they have been left out of the development process.

What could China learn from India’s governance?
The most important thing is how one respects the democratic process. In India, there is respect for democracy. China is still a country whre the rule is of man and by man. On the other side in India, women in panchayats are really playing a very important role. I think we should learn more from Indian democratic process.
I have been to Orissa and saw the democratic process in the state. It is wonderful. It takes a long time but once people decide to be part of development, you can see the gradual change. In China, we don’t need drastic change but gradual change. Like if there is heavy rain, it will take away top soil, which is fertile. If it drizzles, rain water sinks and irrigates the soil. So there should be process, especially the education for democracy and during the process, people can benefit from it.

Have you heard of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), which aims at enhancing the livelihood security of people in rural areas by guaranteeing hundred days of employment?
I have not heard about it. But in China, we have been training rural women on ‘Start Your Business’ (SYB) because it is very important for rural women to create jobs for themselves. The government should try to improve the infrastructure like to bring water to villages, to provide electricity to villages, biogas, and windmill energy. That’s the responsibility of the government. Government should not just invest in infrastructure of urban areas and people in rural China also needs that. There should be a budget enough to guarantee people of rural China also enjoy infrastructure facilities.

What kind of governance exists in China's villages?
In villages there is still governance is still top-down. We have a village head, village party secretary, mostly chosen by the party. We do have some kind of village elections but we also face all kinds of problem like bribery, corruption. But the village heads are mostly men and not enough opportunities are opening up for women. In terms of women representation in rural politics, we have a long way to go. But then, China has had 2,400 years of feudalism. For China, the way forward in terms of gender development is treacherous and long. So, Chinese women can learn from sisters in India.

What is the state of the education system in rural China?
We do have compulsory education up to nine years yet we have many illiterates. The Beijing cultural central for rural development started a literacy campaign in 1996 because women wanted it. This literacy project is very holistic as it includes human rights, citizens rights and responsibilities, environmental protection and conflict resolution through negotiations, peace, health, sanitation, safe drinking water and education in the curriculum. But we have a huge task to accomplish and also a long way to go before it is done.

What about health in the rural areas?
Now, the government is trying to reach rural areas. In some areas it is good but also depends upon local government officials. In many areas, it is not good. We don’t have the mechanism to oversee implementation. It mostly depends upon the local government officials and if there is corruption, no oversight, nobody can do anything. Corruption is a very big problem. Checks and balances are needed. The new things promoted by the government are not enough.

Does rural China see rural India as a model of success?
I think people in rural China do not know about what is happening in India. So they don’t know how panchayats work or that there is reservation for women in panchayats. 

You talked about elections in rural China. Can you elaborate on it?
Some institutions, think tanks are popularising it - how it should be done, and how to get women involved in the decision-making process and how women should vote in such elections. We encourage the villagers to know the democratic processes. There should be transparency in the election process but it is very slow. But we are trying to do in very limited areas.

Are the elections controlled by the People’s Congress of China (the central party)?
Usually it is controlled by the local People’s Congress as well as the local government. So, cases of women's participation and  their getting elected in the rural areas are very rare. They just make for a segment that is below two percent of the total particpation. We don’t have reservation like in India where in panchayats one-third of seats are reserved for women and in many places fifty percent are reserved for women. So, we have a long way to go.

Should China be interested in India's model of ensuring women's representation and participation?
Yes. It is very important. China has the largest female population in the world. Many of them cannot read or write. This limitation, combined with thick layers of feudal tradition, making a formidable obstacle to attaining goals related to improving their quality of life. Finding ways to provide services for women (especially rural women) regarding general education, legal education, health, employment, social and public services has become our priority. As a country I will say we are young in terms of political participation of women.

Would you say that Beijing has been encouraging in this regard?
In the past, we did have a 20 percent reservation for women at the central level. Yet, sometimes women are there because they are women. There are token seats. Changing the mindsets of people takes time because change itself is a process. I am serving my seventh term as a people’s deputy to Hidea municipality People’s Congress.

What is the role of civil society groups in China? Does government support them?
There are civil society groups in rural areas. The Beijing Cultural Centre for Rural Women is training these groups in rural places to form cooperatives so that they can work together. The National Social Sciences Institute is trying to reach out to more women.
I want China to become a country of rule of law and by law. It is written in the constitution yet there is great disconnect. There are some good policies but most of them are not good enough. It is important for China to have a constitutional court and then we need our judiciary to be independent. Also, we need media to play the role of watchdog.
We should have policies which enable all citizens to share in the economic growth. Those policies have to be inclusive and detailed. If we want to change China, then we have to change rural areas. If we want to change the rural areas, we have to change women.

Which plagued more by corruption - rural or uban China?
I think it depends because China is so big and so diverse. It also depends upon citizens of particular areas. It is also matter of legal awareness of the citizens. But corruption is also universal.

Are the people vocal in their protest against the government's shortcomings, especially in rural China? Tell us also about the citizens' involvement in urban areas?
Yes, the people do raise voice against corruption, so there have been several unrest in different parts of China. People do care about what’s going around in China because people use internet, cell phones. Because of the development of IT, television, media people use that.