The political economy of compassion: China's 'charity supermarket' saga

Journal of Contemporary China

Volumn 20, Issue 72, 2011, Pages 751-772

  Shue, Vivienne ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EMPOWERMENT; POLITICAL ECONOMY; URBAN AREA; URBAN SOCIETY;

CHINA; TIANJIN;

ARMERIA;

EID: 80052756608     PISSN: 10670564     EISSN: 14699400     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/10670564.2011.604493     Document Type: Article

References (75)

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17. Ibid., p. 320.
18. (Liu Ke), (Chinese Source) ['Charity supermarkets quietly springing up'] (Chinese Source) [China Today] 5, (2005), pp. 57-58;
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29. Christine Wong, 'Can the retreat from equality be reversed? An assessment of redistributive fiscal policies from Deng Xiaoping to Wen Jiabao', in Vivienne Shue and Christine Wong, eds, Paying for Progress: Public Finance, Human Welfare and Changing Patterns of Inequality (London: Routledge, 2007), pp. 12-28;
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33. Vivienne Shue, 'State power and the philanthropic impulse in China today', in Warren Ilchman, Stanley Katz and Edward Queen, eds, Philanthropy in the World's Traditions (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1998), pp. 332-354.
34. Liu Ke, 'Charity supermarkets quietly springing up';
35. Wang Xianjin, 'Present characteristics and development difficulties of China's charity supermarkets'. Most sources give Shanghai credit for setting up China's first 'charity supermarket' (Chinese Source) in 2003. There had already been a move to do something similar in Shenyang, however (Jiang Jiwei, 'On marketizing charity supermarkets'). Shenyang, in Liaoning Province, had set up what it called 'antipoverty supermarkets' (Chinese Source) in 2002, but these shops differed in key respects from the Shanghai model whose chosen appellation 'charity supermarket' was to become the one most commonly used across the country. [In some areas the term 'compassionate supermarket' (Chinese Source) is used instead, and in Beijing these shops are referred to as, literally 'compassionate homeland'.] Hu Jintao noted the institutional innovations in Liaoning in 2002, which he saw as a means to help meet the emergency needs of urban dwellers in distress, and he approved a proposal to carry out broader experimentation in setting up such supermarkets in other selected cities. Then, shortly afterward, the Shanghai venture was launched.
36. For a brief history of Goodwill, which (as Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries) was founded in Boston by a Methodist minister, and is now well developed on the American east and west coasts
37. www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Goodwill-Industries-Internatio nal-Inc-Company-History.html.
38. For more on the experiences of the Shanghai charity supermarket,
39. Fang Suqin, (Chinese Source) ['Analysis of the current condition of Shanghai's charity supermarkets'], [China Disaster Relief] 12, (2007), pp. 26-27.
40. Liu Ke, 'Charity supermarkets quietly springing up'.
41. Wang Xianjin, 'Present characteristics and development difficulties of China's charity supermarkets'.
42. Ma Defeng, (Chinese Source) ['Investigation of the types of charity
43. supermarkets established in the communities of Suzhou'], [Jiangnan Tribune] 7, (2008), pp. 37-39.
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46. Underscoring how important it now was for other areas to study the Liaoning model, Liaoning Province issued its own document in September 2004 explaining, in 16 points, its approach to running what it referred to as 'anti-poverty supermarkets'. " ['How Liaoning Province manages anti-poverty supermarkets'], Liaoning People's Government Document, 12, (2004), available at: www.mca.gov.cn/article/zwgk/dfwj/200711/20071100004107.shtml (accessed 23 May 2010).
47. Ma Defeng, 'Investigation of the types of charity supermarkets established in the communities of Suzhou'.
48. Wang Xianjin, 'Present characteristics and development difficulties of China's charity supermarkets'.
49. Jiang Jiwei, "On marketizing charity supermarkets'.
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53. Wang Xianjin, "Present characteristics and development difficulties ofChina's charity supermarkets';
54. Wu Teng et al., 'On the significance ofNPOparticipation in social relief in China';
55. Jiang Jiwei, 'Onmarketizing charity supermarkets';
56. Jiang Jiwei, "A policy appraisal of "charity supermarkets"';
57. Lü Hongye (Chinese Source) ["How to create enduring mechanisms for charity supermarkets: examples from Beijing and Liaoning'], [Journal of the Gansu College of Administration] 1, (2008), pp. 78-81.
58. Interviews in Tianjin confirmed that this was also the case there. In a conversation with Tong Shuhai, Secretary General of the Tianjin Municipal Charity Association, he explained how, when the Municipal MOCA began pressing a campaign to create charity supermarkets around the city, he and some other leading members of the Association had gently pointed out to ministry officials that since the supermarkets were to be established in the name of 'charity' (), not social welfare (), it really ought to be the Charity Association that took the main role and responsibility for promoting, organizing, and supervising them. 'But', he said, 'ministry officials were so very keen then to do it themselves, and since after all it was going to involve spreading and popularizing the idea of charity, we could hardly oppose it. So we went along'. Interview, Tianjin, 9 December 2008.
59. Wang Xianjin, 'Present characteristics and development difficulties of China's charity supermarkets'.
60. This sketch is based on interviews carried out in Tianjin with the Secretary General of the Tianjin Municipality Charity Association in December 2008; with officials in Tianjin's Hedong, Hebei, Hexi, and Heping Districts in April, May, and June, 2009; and Ibid.
61. It is routine to station a sheqü committee member or someone else in authority at the door to check entitlements.
62. Li Xueping and Chen Weidong, 'Community charity supermarkets'.
63. Jiang Jiwei, 'A policy appraisal of "charity supermarkets"'.
64. Wang Xianjin, 'Present characteristics and development difficulties of China's charity supermarkets'.
65. Wu Teng et al., 'On the significance of NPO participation in social relief in China'.
66. Jiang Jiwei, 'A policy appraisal of "charity supermarkets"'.
67. Zhang Liangshi, 'A public services perspective on the construction and development of charity supermarkets'.
68. Wu Teng et al., 'On the significance of NPO participation in social relief in China'.
69. Li Xueping and Chen Weidong, 'Community charity supermarkets'.
70. Lü Hongye, 'How to create enduring mechanisms for charity supermarkets'.
71. Li Xueping and Chen Weidong, 'Community charity supermarkets'. For a very brief history of the 'United Way', its Jewish and Christian roots, and its relationship to the proliferation of 'community chests' in American urban settings,
72. www.unitedwaybroome.org/pages/What%20Is%20United%20Way/history.htm.
73. Wu Teng et al., 'On the significance of NPO participation in social relief in China'.
74. These are extracts from interviews carried out in Hexi and Heping Districts in Tianjin during spring 2009. Heping, in Tianjin's central business district, is a relatively high-income area. Hexi, by contrast, enjoys less commercial tax revenue and the income gap between its wealthiest and poorest residents is wide. The Hexi informants were high-level officials of the district's Charity Association who also held posts in MOCA. The Heping informant was the party secretary of the district MOCA, a senior leader who had previously served as the ministry's Heping District Bureau Chief.
75. Further interviews and visits to three other Tianjin districts confirmed that this small 'warehouse' model, rather than the commercial enterprise or shop model, is the norm not only for Hexi, but across most of the municipality. [Interviews in Hedong (Dawangzhuang jiedao), 17 April 2009; Heping (Qingyouxili jiedao), 27 May 2009; and Hebei (Jiangdulu jiedao), 4 June 2009.] When the informant in Hebei was asked, 'Why is it that you don't sell items? It seems the supermarket is more like a warehouse than a real supermarket', this was the reply: 'As soon as selling things is involved-as soon as there's money involved-then the matter becomes difficult for us. First of all, we are the Neighborhood Committee, a government department. We can't-we mustn't-get involved with money. And besides, how would we sell the things that the people have donated? Who would set the prices? Prices aren't so easy to set. The potential buyers are not in a position to decide the price! Would we distribute the proceeds to everyone in the community? Or only to those in need? And besides, we don't have the numbers of personnel to run such an operation as that'.