中國官員盼加薪惹爭議

Chinese officials can’t get any respect these days. And they probably don’t deserve a pay bump, either.

That was the sharp reaction of at least 20,000 internet users who body-slammed a suggestion made last week by a representative to China’s annual “Two Sessions” that the salaries of government officials need to increase.

He Xiangjiu, a delegate from the China Writers Association to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, was the one who made the proposal. “Most junior-level civil servants work diligently with an intense workload,” He argued, “but they have a particularly low monthly salary, not unlike the income of migrant workers.”

Proponents of a pay raise have argued that making officials’ salaries competitive with the private sector would help China attract better-qualified civil servants while also reducing incentives for corruption–especially if those salaries are publicized. Indeed, low salaries are one of the chief complaints officials have when asked to comment on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption push.

But it’s still a tough sell to a skeptical citizenry in China. Many Chinese believe that the official salaries earned by bureaucrats are meaningless, because, in their view, even the well-paid ones loot public money and use government funds for personal use. Many critics of He’s proposal wondered why more money should be given to immoral cadres intent on supplementing their incomes anyway.

Others were equally dismissive, with one blogger noting that everyone knows that civil servants enjoy “a variety of benefits from being in high positions,” and for many bureaucrats, “work is nothing more than being idle, reading the newspaper, clean their offices, and wait for work”.

Another annoyed post claimed that if civil servants wages were as low as those of migrant workers as He says, that the government should be more concerned about the latter, not the former.

Censors let frustrated netizens slap He Xiangjiu around—a sign that Party heavyweights weren’t thrilled about underwriting even this minor attempt to help out their lower-level comrades. In fact, the Party line at first was that government officials were not paying enough attention to why many citizens were furious with them.

As one Party commentator wrote, “while [the responses do] express some irrationality, that may show the true sense of the mood.” Cadres, the commentary stated, “need to get caught up to the state of public opinion…for the sake of less misunderstanding and to make progress towards more productive discussions with the public.”

But not everyone in the Party feels that way.

For example, a sharply-worded commentary from Beijing Evening News that appeared on the website of People’s Daily blamed the response the absence of requirements for civil servants to reveal how much they make. The way forward, the essay insisted, “is to require the [civil servant] system to ensure transparency…for the more transparent, the more able [authorities will be able] to dispel the doubts of the public.”

In other words, the onus is on the government for not making information available and officials held accountable.

He Xiangjiu agreed with that latter view, as he said in the wake of the public reaction that “officials are public figures; they should accept social supervision.” He noted that he has disclosed his own financial situation (a monthly salary of 4000 yuan, or roughly $650, after taxes) but meekly conceded, “under the current system my declaration is not yet fully open to the public for viewing.”

How likely is a pay raise? The same day that He’s proposal broke into the open, a high-ranking CPPCC Committee chair stated that, “taking into account China’s national conditions,” neither he nor the masses would approve of increasing officials’ salaries. Yet the following day, a high official in the administrative apparatus overseeing the civil service in China indicated that pilot studies of the feasibility of a pay adjustment for civil servants were continuing.

By the end of the weekend, a separate government webpage appeared, with leading delegates debating the merit of pay raises.

It’s encouraging that such a robust discussion on the practical issue of pay could occur at this highly scripted legislative gathering.

But the fact that there’s resistance to a simple pay raise points to a major dilemma that the Xi leadership faces: How do you tackle corruption when there’s so little transparency of official salaries and assets and when Party credibility itself isn’t on the increase?

The “Two Meetings” probably don’t have the answer, but at least they’ve asked the question.中國的官員們現在得不到一點人民的尊敬。而且他們可能也不配漲工資。

當上週中國兩會代表提出公務員工資需要上漲時，20000多名網友做出激烈迴應，他們狠狠地批評了這一言論。

何香久（音）是政協委員，他來自中國作協，是提出上述議案的人士之一。他指出，許多底層公務員工作勤懇，工作量也很大，然而他們的月薪卻很低，和農民工的收入不相上下。

支持公務員工資上漲的人士表示，如果公務員的工資和一些私營企業看齊的話，就能吸引更多更有能力的人加入，並且降低腐敗的可能，尤其是在工資被公佈的情況下。的確，當被問起習近平主席的大力打擊腐敗時，官員們常常抱怨他們過低的收入。

但是對於充滿懷疑的中國普通老百姓而言，這遠遠不能使他們信服。許多中國人認爲公務員所掙取的官方收入是毫無意義的數字，因爲在他們看來，即便是那些收入很高的人也會掠奪公共的財富並且把政府資金作爲私用。批評何香久的人士認爲，既然這些不道德的官員們熱衷於通過不良渠道增加自己的收入，我們爲什麼還要給他們加工資呢？

還有一些人對此表示鄙視。有一位博友指出，大家都知道公務員們“在高高的位置享受着一系列的福利”，而且對於許多官員而言，“工作就是發呆、看報、打掃辦公室，同時等待着工作”。

還有一些憤怒的帖子指出，如果公務員的工資真的像何香久所說和農民工那樣低，那麼政府擔心的應該是農民工，而不是公務員。

網絡審查也使得失望的網民們能夠批評何香久的言論。這是黨領導者發出的一個信號，對於這些幫助底層官員的小舉動，他們並不是很開心。事實上，黨一開始就很關注政府官員們沒有對爲什麼老百姓的憤怒引起足夠的重視。

這就像一位黨評論員寫的那樣，當官員說出一些不合理的話時，老百姓們就會表達出他們真實的情緒。他指出，官員們需要緊跟民聲，那樣會減少和老百姓間的相互不理解，並且可以通過與公衆更有成效的對話來推動進步。

黨內也並不是所有人都同意公務員加薪。

比如說，人民網上轉載了北京晚報上一篇措辭嚴厲的評論文章，文章中指責了對於公務員收入公開要求的迴應緩慢。與此同時，文章進一步指出，我們需要要求公務員系統更加透明，因爲系統越透明，公衆的懷疑也就會越少。

換句話來說，責任就是政府沒有把相關信息公開，而官員也要對此負責。

何香久對於後者的觀點表示認同。在公衆的激烈迴應之後，他表示官員們代表了公衆的形象，他們也應該接受公衆的監督。他指出他已經公佈了自己的財產狀況（月收入稅後爲4000元人民幣，相當於大約650美元）。不過他也謙和地指出，在目前現有的系統下我公佈的數據也沒能充分地公之於衆。

漲工資有多大可能呢？在何香久提議公之於衆的同一天，一位政協高級委員指出，考慮中國國情不論是他還是中國老百姓都不會同意增加公務員的收入。但是第二天，一位監管中國公務員的政府機構高級官員指出，關於公務員收入調整可行性的初步研究還在進行中。

在週末，在另一個政府網站上，兩會代表們正熱烈討論着工資上漲的好處。

在高度照本宣科的兩會期間，對於工資這樣實際問題的激烈討論是很鼓舞人心的。

但是現實是，簡單加薪的阻力指向了習近平領導的新政府所面臨的一個主要窘境：當政府官員的工資和財產這麼不透明，當黨的公衆信服力沒有增加的情況下，該如何反腐倡廉呢？

正在召開的兩會可能沒有答案，不過至少他們已經提出了問題。