“A lot of people don’t understand neighborhood committee members and some even look down upon them. For myself, I’m seeking a sense of psychological gratification,” said Guo Bin, Director of the neighborhood committee of Beitoutiao Community in Beijing’s Xicheng District. His job involves every aspect of the life of residents of his area, from finding employment for those who have been laid off in restructuring of state-owned enterprises, to ensuring good sanitation and social order of the community and settling domestic disputes.
　　
　　Guo, who is around 40, is viewed as an “officer” by local residents, albeit without the rank and perquisites of a civil servant. “We are endowed with no authority, so all we can do is help to persuade and coordinate,” Guo said.
　　Like the villagers’ committee in rural areas, the neighborhood committee is the grassroots autonomous organization in cities. Committee members are usually elected by a few representatives of the residents, or by direct elections, although such cases are rare at present.
　　But these days, the city’s neighborhood committees are undergoing profound changes. Fresh blood has been injected into the grassroots self-governing bodies, and Guo is one of the people helping to transform these organizations.
　　As Beijing’s earliest test case, Beitoutiao Community came into the spotlight at the end of 2002. The reform here focused on transforming the neighborhood committee into a “community congress,” whose members are directly elected by local residents. Their job is to solicit public opinion and promote residential autonomy. It is not a full-time position and members are not paid. The neighborhood committee employs some full-time staff members to form an executive workstation, which is expected to accomplish tasks assigned by the committee and the government and is supervised by the latter.
　　According to related regulations, “community congress” members shall meet once or twice a month to discuss matters of importance to the community, such as nighttime lighting, public order, tree planting and the agenda for the next working term, based on public opinion. It also has the right to refuse assignments from the government that are outside the scope of the neighborhood committee.
　　
　　SERVING ALL: An elderly member of the Beitoutiao Neighborhood Committee is on patrol, safeguarding community security
　　During meetings, the “congress” also hears a work report by the superintendent of the workstation and makes decisions on key projects. “The committee leads the workstation,” Gao Zhanying, head of the Xinjiekou Subdistrict Office of Xicheng District, told Beijing Review, explaining the relationship between the two organs.
　　Gao’s office is the grassroots governmental body administering Beitoutiao Community. The 2002 reform was originally intended to cover all 21 neighborhood committees that are under the jurisdiction of the office.
　　However, few residents showed an interest in running for office, because many did not consider it a “decent job,” believing it should be assigned to those who are retired or unemployed. According to Gao, the public showed little enthusiasm in participating. A cold reception was especially evident among some newly built “high-grade” communities, where most residents are white-collar workers and elderly residents are rare.
　　At first, only three communities under the Xinjiekou Subdistrict Office went through with the reform. Located in the center of the city, all three are hutong (lane) areas where many senior citizens live. “We don’t want to impose the reform on local residents before they are willing to participate,” Gao said.
　　
　　A chronic headache
　　
　　A chronic problem has plagued neighborhood committees: defining the relationship between self-governing bodies and local governments. Their autonomy cannot be realized without a clear answer to this puzzle.
　　Zhu Jianmin, Deputy Director of the Xicheng District Civil Affairs Department and a key person in promoting the district’s grassroots democratic reform, asserted that many neighborhood committees were no longer self-governing bodies, since they were burdened with too many administrative functions and were not able to take care of local residents’ affairs.
　　
　　CONFUSED: Guo Bin, Director of the Beitoutiao Neighborhood Committee, feels unsure of his duties
　　“Let the workstation take over the heavy administrative work and set the neighborhood committee free. The committee is supposed to focus on the building of socialist democracy at the grassroots levels,” Zhu said.
　　In the past, members of neighborhood committees were paid by the government and undertook the work assigned by the government, like carrying out population censuses and introducing state policies. This was against the nature of the neighborhood committee as a self-governing organization. According to Zhu, members of the reformed neighborhood committees are not paid so they can preserve their independence, which is conducive to building a more fluid communication system for public opinion and strengthening its function of supervising the government.
　　Another advantage is that the neighborhood committee can draw new people because its members don’t have to be full-time employees. Thus, the committee is no longer dominated by retired women. In Beitoutiao Community, for example, the current members include a middle school principal and company managers.
　　However, Beitoutiao Community has also seen three changes in the directorship over the past one and a half years, and now another election looms.
　　The first director of the neighborhood committee of Beitoutiao Community following the reform was Wei Guo, a retired man in his 70s who was formerly a primary school principal. He had beaten out more than 20 candidates, but decided to leave after one year.
　　Regulations say that, as speaker of the “community congress,” Wei did not have to keep office hours.
　　But Wei embraced his task and worked full-time, according to his colleagues. He kept the workstation humming. During its busy time, he would tell the workstation to put aside government assignments and give priority to his tasks. This created a dilemma for the workstation staff because they were paid by the government.
　　
　　PERSEVERANCE: Sun Jingying, member of the Beitoutiao Neighborhood Committee, believes the reform of setting up a “congress” and workstation is good, but still needs to be perfected
　　The differences between Wei and the workstation escalated. Wei fired two superintendents of the workstation in succession. But the problem remained.
　　What was worse, Wei did not win over the residents. “He’s passionate and good at theories, but he knows little about community work,” Gao said, a view that many residents share.
　　Gao cited a typical example. There were a growing number of dogs in the community because of the increasing number of elderly residents. The animals created sanitation problems, and upon taking office Wei banned dogs as pets, which caused a lot of dissatisfaction among dog owners. “Public opinion weighs over everything. Wei doesn’t keep a dog himself, so how can he understand what pet-loving people feel if they are not allowed to have dogs?” Gao said.
　　Shortly after, Wei resigned. A young woman took over from Wei but suffered the same fate several months later because she could not manage the situation. “It dawned on me after Wei quitted that it’s not easy to choose a suitable leader for the ‘congress,’” Gao said.
　　
　　A new approach
　　
　　In July 2004, Guo Bin came to work on Beitoutiao’s neighborhood committee. He had visited every household in the community and built up good connections with many activists there. One month later, Guo was elected the new director of the neighborhood committee. He was also deputy director of the workstation and was paid by the government.
　　“This is a way to help the neighborhood committee chief get a better understanding of how the workstation functions and thus achieve smoother cooperation between the committee and the workstation,” Gao explained. She emphasized that though Guo is paid by the government, this won’t affect his supervision of the workstation, “because the salary is appropriated in a package to the workstation, not to him individually.”
　　Commenting on his predecessor Wei, Guo said, “He has the concept of democracy, and he truly wanted to do something. But he’s kind of out of this world. The main task of the committee is to coordinate, not to manage.”
　　
　　BE PATIENT: Zhu Jianmin, Deputy Director of the Xicheng District Civil Affairs Department, holds that it takes time to implement grassroots democratic reform, so it’s natural if some problems occur in the process
　　Guo has organized four general assemblies of representatives of local residents to seek public opinion and advice on “hot” problems of the community. His pragmatic work style gradually won him widespread support.
　　According to Guo, the neighborhood committee has six members, half male and half female, with the oldest being 61 and the youngest 28. It holds a regular meeting every month, with extra meetings scheduled any time they are needed.
　　Sun Jingying, 54, one of the committee members, has spent 25 years living in the community. She retired in 1997, and later was recommended for work on the neighborhood committee.
　　Sun maintains good relationships with her neighbors and is always ready to help whenever residents need it. “I would turn off the gas, leaving food half cooked, to offer a helping hand to those who came to me for assistance. When the matter was over, I would come back and resume cooking. This has happened to me a lot,” she said.
　　The reform drove her out of the committee’s leadership, however, because she is not qualified academically. It is stipulated that committee leaders must have finished high school at least. But in the ensuing election, Sun was chosen as a committee member. As long as someone is enthusiastic about public affairs and has lived in the community long enough, then he or she is a qualified candidate, said Sun.
　　
　　NEEDS FACILITIES: Hao Jianfu, member of Beitoutiao’s “community congress,” pledges more resources for the underfinanced neighborhood committee
　　The reform received a lot of publicity from the government before it was launched, Sun recalled. The residents were divided into different teams to study its details. Every team recommended or elected some 30 candidates, who not only gave a campaign speech, but also answered questions from about 92 representatives (each team has one representative). The final step of casting and recording ballots was conducted in an open and transparent way. “This is an experiment. We are still exploring it,” Sun said of the reform.
　　Nowadays, Sun attends a “congress” meeting once a month. Like other members, Sun occasionally expresses her differing views. “Part of my job is to supervise the work of the workstation,” Sun told Beijing Review.
　　Some residents have already come to report to her. “The new reform does work,” Sun admitted. But she is not yet content, noting that, according to regulations, committee members enjoy many more rights than that, but it’s still a little difficult to put into practice.
　　Hao Jianfu, Deputy Principal of Beijing No. 41 Middle School, is another member of the committee. The school is one of the only two big institutions located in Beitoutiao Community.
　　Unlike Sun, Hao is not a native community resident. Such outside “councilors” make up half of the neighborhood committee. Many residents say that it is okay for the committee to include outsiders, although native “councilors” should constitute the majority.
　　“They elected me as a committee member probably because they want to share resources of my school,” Hao said. Residents of Beitoutiao can hold sports and entertainment activities in the school; the committee’s regular meetings are also held there. Some facilities for the committee, such as desks and a water cooler, were donated by the school, Hao added.
　　“It would not have been so easy to get access to these conveniences if I had not been a committee member,” Hao said. But he also acknowledged that native members should make up the majority of the committee, noting that they “see and hear more” than outsiders.
　　“I always feel guilty when talking about my responsibilities as a committee member,” said Hao, who does not have high regard for his efforts because he is always busy with school work and does not spend much time in the community. But he said he would try to provide more resources for the residents because they are necessary for the development of the community. For quite a long time, insufficient funds have been the bottleneck.
　　
　　Spreading reform
　　
　　At the end of 2001, 10 communities were picked to test the feasibility of the “community congress” reform. By mid-December 2005, 59 percent of 195 communities in Xicheng District had carried out the reform, and it is expected to spread to all of the communities in the district in 2006. At the same time, similar reform has been launched in other districts in Beijing.
　　But there are concerns about how long the reform will last, because neighborhood committee members don’t keep office hours and don’t get paid.
　　“Though there is a development imbalance, with some areas doing well and some not, generally speaking, the present situation is good,” Zhu of the Xicheng District Civil Affairs Department said. He noted that the 35 communities under the jurisdiction of the Shichahai Subdistrict Office had held 500 “congress” meetings, 400 of which dealt with residents’ issues, and 91 percent of the matters had been resolved.
　　“This fact indicates that as a self-governing organization, the neighborhood committee is coming to listen to what the public really cares about,” said Zhu. As for the role the government should play in community democracy, Zhu said he believes the government should respect the people’s will and do what they want it to do. For instance, the government advocates that “natives” should make up the majority of the “community congress,” but whatever the election outcome is, the government should respect that, because it is the residents who cast the votes.
　　“We are hammering away at boosting people’s interest in participation,” Zhu said, adding that the harmonious development of residential communities depends on both democratic autonomy and public services that are provided by the government.
　　In high-grade communities, where residents are largely white-collar workers, many are indifferent to public affairs. They won’t open the door for committee officers to convey any policies. But these people have one thing in common: They surf the Internet a lot. In this regard, the Xicheng Civil Affairs Department is planning to set up a special website to provide a virtual public forum, in the hope of cultivating public interest and enthusiasm among young residents.
　　In China, most neighborhood committees have a poor public image, being lodged in a shabby office, either in a basement or a simple house. Take Beitoutiao Community for instance: Eight or nine people share a 25-square-meter house, with the most expensive property in the office being a computer that is already out of date.
　　“How can we expect people to be willing to work under such unpleasant circumstances, and how can we foster a sound neighborhood committee image?” Gao asked.
　　“A neighborhood committee needs to conduct various activities to draw people’s attention and interest in becoming involved in public affairs. And activities cannot be done without money,” Zhu said.
　　In this regard, the Beijing Municipal Government decided to appropriate 80,000 yuan ($9,876) to every community for its operating budget beginning from 2006. What’s more, the government is planning to invest 200 million yuan ($25 million) in improving their office facilities in the next two years. Specifically, the space for a committee office and activity room must be 230 square meters for old communities and 350 square meters for new ones.

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