Files Vanished, Young Chinese Lose the Future

[Sarad AV]

i don't get it. the school/university issues certificates to the student
which are verifiable. when does this scenario arise?

Sarad.

--- On Mon,
7/27/09, R.A. Hettinga <rah at shipwright.com> wrote:

> From: R.A. Hettinga
<rah at shipwright.com>
> Subject: Files Vanished, Young Chinese Lose the Future
> To: cypherpunks at al-qaeda.net, "Gold Silver Crypto"
<gold-silver-crypto at rayservers.com>
> Date: Monday, July 27, 2009, 6:18 PM
>
Apparently, in China, your "Permanent
> Record" is still worth
> something. At
auction.
> 
> Of course, the open running sore that is hypercentralized
>
credentialism is nothing new in China.
> 
> Cheers,
> RAH
> "Behave, young
man, or it'll go on your Permanent Record!"
> --------
> 
>
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/world/asia/27china.html?_r=1&th=&emc=th&pa
> gewanted=print
> >
> 
> The New York Times
> 
> July 27, 2009
> 
> Files
Vanished, Young Chinese Lose the Future
> By SHARON LaFRANIERE
> 
> WUBU,
China  For much of his education, Xue Longlong
> was silently
> accompanied
from grade to grade, school to school, by a
> sealed Manila
> envelope stamped
top secret. Stuffed inside were grades,
> test results,
> evaluations by
fellow students and teachers, his Communist
> Party
> application and  most
important for his job
> prospects  proof of his
> 2006 college degree.
> 
>
Everyone in China who has been to high school has such a
> file. The
> files
are irreplaceable histories of achievement and
> failure, the
> starting point
for potential employers, government
> officials and
> others judging an
individuals worth. Often keys to the
> future, they
> are locked tight in
government, school or workplace
> cabinets to
> eliminate any chance they
might vanish.
> 
> But two years ago, Mr. Xues file did vanish. So did the
>
files of at
> least 10 others, all 2006 college graduates with exemplary
>
records,
> all from poor families living near this gritty
> north-central town
on
> the wide banks of the Yellow River.
> 
> With the Manila folders went
their futures, they say.
> 
> Local officials said the files were lost when
state workers
> moved them
> from the first to the second floor of a
government
> building. But the
> graduates say they believe officials stole
the files and
> sold them to
> underachievers seeking new identities and
better job
> prospects  a
> claim bolstered by a string of similar cases
across China.
> 
> Today, Mr. Xue, who had hoped to work at a state-owned oil
> company,
> sells real estate door to door, a step up from past jobs
>
passing out
> leaflets and serving drinks at an Internet cafe. Wang Yong,
>
who
> aspired to be a teacher or a bank officer, works odd jobs.
> Wang
>
Jindong, who had a shot at a job at a state chemical firm,
> is a
>
construction day laborer, earning less than $10 a day.
> 
> If you dont have
it, just forget it! Wang Jindong, now 27,
> said of
> his file. No matter how
capable you are, they will not hire
> you.
> Their first reaction is that you
are a crook.
> 
> Perhaps no group here is more vilified and mistrusted than
>
Chinas
> local officials, who shoulder much of the blame for
> corruption
within
> the Communist Party. The party constantly vows to rein them
> in; in
> October, President Hu Jintao said a clean party was a
> matter of life
> and
death.
> 
> Critics contend that Chinas one-party system breeds graft
> that
only
> democratic reforms can check. But Chinas leaders say the
> solution is
> not grass-roots checks on power, but smarter oversight and
> crime-
>
fighting.
> 
> Public policy specialists say China is shifting its
> emphasis
from
> headline-grabbing corruption cases to more systematic ways
> to hold
>
officials accountable. The government opened an
> anticorruption hot
> line
last month to encourage whistle-blowers. A few
> localities require
> that
officials disclose their family assets to the party.
> 
> But in Wubu, a
struggling town of 80,000 banked by steep
> hills and
> coal mines, citizens
say that local officials answer to no
> one, and
> that anyone who dares
challenge them is punished.
> 
> When the central government talks about the
economy and
> development,
> it sounds so great, said Mr. Wang, the day
laborer. But at
> the local
> level, corrupt officials make all their money
off of local
> people.
> 
> Student files are a proven moneymaker for corrupt
state
> workers. Four
> years ago, teachers in Jilin Province were caught
selling
> two
> students files for $2,500 and $3,600; the police suspected
>
that they
> intended to sell a dozen more. In May, the former head of a
>
township
> government in Hunan Province admitted that he had paid more
> than
> $7,000 to steal the identity of a classmate of his
> daughter, so his
>
daughter could attend college using the classmates
> records.
> 
> While not
quite as important as in Communist Chinas early
> days, when
> it was a
powerful tool of social control, the file, called
> a dangan,
> is an absolute
requirement for state employment and a means
> to bolster
> a candidates
chances for some private-sector jobs, labor
> experts say.
> Because documents
are collected over several years and
> signed by many
> people, they are
virtually impossible to replicate.
> 
> So in September 2007, when one Wubu
graduate sought work at
> a local
> bank and discovered that his file was
gone, word spread
> fast. For the
> next two years, his parents and a group of
other parents in
> similar
> straits said, they sought help at every level of
the
> bureaucracy.
> 
> The governments answer, they said, was to reject any
>
inquiry, place
> the graduates parents under police surveillance and
>
repeatedly detain
> them. Last February, they said, five parents trying to
>
petition the
> national government were locked in an unofficial jail in
>
Beijing for
> nine days.
> 
> We are so exhausted, said one tearful mother,
Song Heping.
> Our
> nerves are about to snap from this torture. The officials
> who were
> responsible not only have not been punished, they have been
>
promoted.
> 
> Wubu officials did not respond to repeated inquiries. One
>
Chinese
> television journalist said they told him they had resolved
> the
matter
> simply by creating new folders. But families say the
> folders held
>
nothing but brief, error-riddled risumis that employers
> reflexively
> reject
as fake.
> 
> The parents are uniformly poor: one father drives a
>
three-wheel taxi,
> earning just 15 cents per passenger.
> 
> Mr. Xues parents
sacrificed even more than most, in the
> belief that
> education would lead
their children out of poverty. They
> earn just
> $450 a year growing dates,
and live near a dirt mountain
> path,
> drinking well water and cooking over a
wood fire.
> 
> Mr Xue, the oldest child, wore secondhand clothes and
>
skipped meals
> throughout high school. When he won admission to a
>
university in Xian,
> 400 miles away, his parents borrowed to cover the $1,500
in
> annual
> expenses. Initially, it seemed the bet would pay off: he
> said
he had
> had a chance to work at an oil company with a monthly
> salary of
$735.
> 
> But the job evaporated with his dangan. It was a
> catastrophe, he
> said. Now he earns a base salary of $90 a month as a
> door-to-door
>
salesman and lives in a tiny, dingy room in a Xian slum.
> 
> The woman he
hoped to marry left him because her parents
> said he would
> never have a
stable job. His mother suffered a nervous
> breakdown, and
> the family debt
ballooned. his father, Xue Ruzhan, said he
> owed more
> than $10,000  more
than twice what his property is
> worth.
> 
> What is the point of continuing
to live? the father said.
> Sometimes
> I want to commit suicide. These
corrupt officials destroyed
> all our
> hopes.
> Including, it seems, the
hopes of Longlongs younger sister,
> Xiaomei,
> an 11th grader who once
thought she would follow him to a
> university
> degree.
> 
> No more. I want
to quit, she said during a school lunch
> break. My
> brother graduated from
college. What good did it do him?
> Zhang Jing contributed research from Wubu,
China, and Yang
> Xiyun from
> Beijing.