A good gesture beckons promising future
In the first session of the 11th National People Congress, three farmer immigrants are representatives on behalf of five hundred million more peasants. It is symbolic though the number is so small and unproportionate with the number of peasants in total. It marks the breakthrough of our democracy in terms of coverage of representatives. The presence of immigrant farmers epitomizes the changing transition of government concerns, which is followed with the alteration in the way of calculation of GDP by replacing permanent residence with constant residence.
It goes without doubt that farmers and immigrant farmers contributed a lot to the progress of economy, especially to the rapid development of cities, yet institutionally they are excluded from the redistribution of the wealth amssed, with their kids left in rural areas, without medical coverage, pensions and etc.
It's a good sign that the current government shows more concerns toward the yawning gap between cities and rural areas, the footstep marching toward the expected integration of urban and rural economy and labour market, together with the larger coverage of representative.