No quick govt fix for thorny housing problem

• Source: Globaltimes
• [22:39 March 01 2010]
• Comments

By Xiao Kailin

During an online chat with netizens Saturday, Premier Wen Jiabao responded to netizens' inquiries about soaring housing prices.

He said, "I used to live in a 9-square-meter apartment with four family members, so I know the taste of living in humble and samll housing."

Wen also made a pledge to tame the housing market and keep property prices at a reasonable level during his term as premier.

The term "narrow houses" came from a popular TV series in China woju (literally "snail house) that portrays the struggles of white-collar workers facing skyrocketing housing price. Despite a series of measures the government has introduced to rein in the market, housing prices have remained a hot issue and a considerable burden for ordinary families in recent years.

Yet the housing problem cannot be solved without overhauling of social structure. The three decades of reform and opening-up have not only brought great achievements to China's economic development, but also seen the collapse of old social structures, which has caused tough social problems in housing, education and healthcare.

Voices calling for social restructuring in China are getting stronger shortly before the an-nual meetings of the National People' Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) this week.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the government's think tank, stated in a newly released report that the current social structure is 15 years behind the economic structure. Many economists also pointed out that future planning for Chinese government should prioritize both economic and social transformation.

Despite being top of the agenda for this year's NPC and CPPCC sessions, there is a long way to go for China's social restructuring. The two sessions can't solve everything in an instant. The delay illustrates how tough the challenges could be while China is stepping into the "deep water zone" of reform.

China's fragile social structure has started to negatively affect the development of the macro-economy. The potential impact could be disastrous. It may lead to a supposedly wealthy nation but a poor population. Statistic shows that salary increases in China in the past decade have been higher than the increase in GDP, but people aren't happier as a consequence.

Some deep-level difficulties were reflected by "mass incidents" like protests and riots, and also caused more difficulties in the meantime.