BEIJING â€" With nearly 100,000 kilometers of track, China’s railway system is the second-largest in the world, according to Sheng Guangzu, the last minister of railways. Its nearly 9,400 kilometers of high-speed rail â€" rising fast as China invests heavily in the sector â€" is the largest.
But as I write in my Page Two Letter today, change is coming to “the independent kingdom†that was the Ministry of Railways since the founding of the state in 1949. Especially in the early decades of the People’s Republic, with air travel minimal and no private vehicular traffic, rail was king. Generations of families worked on the railroads, making it a culture as well as a way of life.
Now the massive system, which employs more than 2 million people, is being turned into a state-owned corporation. Speculation among ordinary people and some analysts is rife that certain people, perhaps highly-placed families in the Communist Party, will gain enormously from the shift from ministry to company, while others say it is an important part of economic reform and that as a result of the change, the corruption-plagued system will be better run.
Among ordinary workers, there’s considerable anxiety, and an insistent concern about whether their lives will actually improve.
“As a second generation working on the Qinghai-Tibet railway, I want to know if they’re going to change employee benefits, if there will be new developments in terms of culture, and if railway employees will benefit more,†said Shandian zhangu deli’an on Sina Weibo, the country’s biggest microblog.
“On March 18 the ministry was formally dissolved, where will we ordinary people and workers go This month’s salary was chopped by 776, that’s half a month’s pay!†wrote Liantao tingmeng.
“I’m a railway worker, and I hope the reform will be to the material benefit of the employees,†said Fanren yefu.
