Friday, December 8, 2017 A13 Reform tunnel The quest for trust tolls before city grinds to a halt Robert Lawrence Kuhn says under Xi, China has set itself the tough challenge of winning over the people development and the people’s ever- growing needs for a better life”. Bernard Chan says policymakers As Xi said: “The needs to be met he significance of the for the people to live a better life are must overcome the objections of new “principal contra- increasingly broad. Not only have interest groups, and change the diction” in Chinese their material and cultural needs society, established at grown; their demand for democra- pricing system before the whole the 19th Communist cy, rule of law, fairness and justice, TParty congress in October and security, and a better environment tunnel system is overwhelmed advocated vigorously by President are increasing.” Xi Jinping, is underappreciated. It’s This “new-era contradiction”, a surprisingly powerful lens for replacing quantitative gross nyone travelling through the Cross-Harbour viewing China’s domestic policies. domestic product growth with Tunnel – from Causeway Bay to Hung Hom – at Two recent events in Beijing which qualitative quality-of-life improve- Apeak hours knows it is terribly congested. A have shaken public trust highlight ment, is what will now drive policy. recent Transport Department study showed why. For example, it is not that people southbound traffic backed up as far as Mong Kok in the The first was alleged child abuse cannot afford medical care, it’s that morning. In the evening rush hour, queues on Hong at a kindergarten. When authorities they must wait for hours at over- Kong side go as far as Exchange Square in Central. claimed that the hard disk of the crowded hospitals and, even then, These jams are about 3km long. The result is that a surveillance camera had broken have only five minutes with a doc- trip, taking maybe 10 minutes if the route were clear, and that the recovered data showed tor. It’s not that people do not have takes more than 30 minutes. Meanwhile, the Western no evidence of abuse, netizens ridi- good homes; it’s that they do not Harbour Tunnel, from Western to West Kowloon, has culed the claim and suspected a have clean air. Success will be mea- no queues and no delays. cover-up. What’s worse, they said, is sured more by the satisfaction of the Further north, in Kowloon, there is a similar that the police accused two parents people than by the growth rates of discrepancy. The Lion Rock Tunnel linking Sha Tin to of spreading rumours of the abuse. the economy. Wong Tai Sin has a 1.8km queue, on average, in the Angered netizens criticised author- Will “satisfaction” be harder to morning, taking up to 17 minutes to clear. The Route 8 ities for enabling the alleged abuser judge? Chinese people are not shy. tunnel, from Sha Tin to Cheung Sha Wan, has no to mask the truth. And when the Implementing ways of thinking queues or delays. Part of the problem is that the most online criticism was censored, consistent with the new principal popular tunnels are the most centrally located, and anger escalated. contradiction would mean trusting therefore most convenient for many commuters. The second event was a fire in the people more. Here, the media The problem is made worse by pricing. Logically, which 19 people died. All were plays a crucial role. the links with the highest demand should have higher migrant workers and, within days, As with Sars, when truth about tolls than the others (or at least the same). Instead, the many migrant workers were forced unpleasant events is censored, the most popular, crowded tunnels are the cheapest. Even to leave their “illegal” apartments, cover-up engenders false rumours motorists who would have a quicker journey using the literally, in some cases, thrown out and fuels conspiracy theories. The other tunnels use them. into the cold, stoking more public media should be an ally, not an At some point, this has to change. The whole tunnel anger. Again, social media, includ- adversary, in the government’s system will be overloaded by 2021 unless the pricing ing WeChat, was cleansed of critical quest for public trust. structure changes. comments. The sense was that the This need not mean adapting The Transport Department’s toll rationalisation local government was taking the Western media model. China study is impressively detailed and examines traffic advantage of the fire by doing what needs to find its own media model flows and pricing at all six cross-harbour and Kowloon it wanted to do anyway: reduce the for its own stage of development – tunnels. Not surprisingly, it calls for changes in the number of migrant workers living in which should encourage, in cases tolls. The report goes over assorted options – some of Beijing to create a beautiful Beijing bad things he did only aroused truth is worse. Recall the 2003 severe bourgeoisie”, which catalysed like child abuse or tenement fires, which have been proposed in the past. These include a of the future. people’s dislike of him. The Chinese acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) severe, widespread and prolonged truth to be told. variety of combinations of decreasing and increasing Even the Chinese state media scholars draw the analogy: “When a epidemic. When the government chaos and destruction during the I can appreciate the opposite different tunnels’ tolls. They also include ideas like full criticised the local government, say- government department or an tried to hide the actual facts to avoid political mass movements in the view. China’s leaders want the best ing more “warmth” was needed in organisation loses its credibility, panic, the cover-up engendered 1950s and 1960s, especially the for the Chinese people, of that I am moving migrant workers. Sensitiv- whether it tells truth or lies, does wild rumours that were far worse sure, and there can be a perceived ities are so high that the Chinese good or bad, the public believes than the actual facts. People tension between, on the one hand, media can no longer use the pejora- them to be lies and bad.” believed the wild rumours, causing reporting bad news that could upset Logically, the links with the tive phrase “low-end population”. It may surprise Westerners that greater panic. Only when the truth the public, and, on the other hand, Some Chinese scholars warn these two isolated incidents can was told did the public relax. It was a The media should restricting the reporting that could highest demand should have that the government is at risk of fall- trigger such heated emotions, even good lesson. erode public trust. Given China’s ing into the so-called “Tacitus trap”. vitriol, towards the government. How to improve public trust? be an ally, not social disparities and stage of higher tolls ... Instead, the The Roman historian Tacitus had After all, such tragic or scandalous The party, I believe, has taken a development, such decisions are most popular are cheapest observed that once a ruler became events are not uncommon in all decisive step by redefining the prin- an adversary, in challenging. an object of hatred, the good and countries. Why then have these cipal contradiction in society. the government’s When Xi first announced the caused such a stir in China, whereas “Contradiction” is a Marxist new principal contradiction, some electronic toll payment and even waiving all tolls. The in the US, for example, public inter- term describing a kind of political quest for dismissed it as arcane party-speak. situation is complicated by the ownership structure of est would barely budge? analysis – “dialectical materialism” Public reaction to the child abuse the tunnels. However, the report assumes that public At the risk of oversimplifying, I – which identifies “dynamic oppos- public trust and to the fire, albeit “minor” inci- subsidy of a franchisee would be feasible in principle. People in China suggest two interlocking reasons. ing forces” in society, and seeks to dents among many, reveal its pre- The recommendation is that tolls be adjusted so First, people in China have unrealis- resolve tensions by applying ruinous Cultural Revolution. Now, scient and perspicacious wisdom. private cars and taxis have a greater incentive to use the have unrealistic tic expectations that the govern- “correct” political theories. even as China achieves its goal of less-crowded tunnels. This is about changing the ment can do everything, and In Deng Xiaoping’s era, the prin- becoming a moderately prosperous Robert Lawrence Kuhn is a public relative charges – so, in theory, it could mean toll expectations second, they believe that the media cipal contradiction was “the ever- society, fulfilling basic needs intellectual, political/economics reductions rather than just increases. The key would be that the reports only that which the govern- growing material and cultural through economic growth, there is commentator, and an international having a situation where it is cheaper to use the less- ment approves. The result is that for needs of the people versus back- growing dissatisfaction with social corporate strategist. He is the host crowded options. government every problem, the government is ward social production” – a change conditions. Thus, in Xi’s “new era”, of Closer to China with R. L. Kuhn, The report mentions some other possibilities, such blamed, and no matter what the most welcome from the prior con- the principal contradiction is “be- a weekly show on CGTN, and the as peak charging for rush hours, or different charges on can do everything media says, people assume the tradiction of “proletariat versus tween unbalanced and inadequate author of How China’s Leaders Think Sundays.