Migrant Workers Elected to Guangdong People's Congress for

UNCLAS GUANGZHOU 000027 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/CM, DRL E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ELAB PGOV CH SUBJECT: Migrant Workers Elected to Guangdong People's Congress for First Time ¶1. (U) For the first time in Guangdong province (and perhaps in other provinces as well),six migrant workers were elected to the eleventh Guangdong People's Congress. According to local press reports, the six, elected by municipal-level people's congresses, could well represent more than 30 million migrant workers in the province. ¶2. (U) The six migrant workers are: -- Ma Xiaofeng, female, from Heilongjiang Province, working in the Quality Control Department of the Guangzhou Pearl River Piano Group; -- He Xiyun, female, from Hunan Province, working as a cleaner at the Guangzhou Jingjing Cleaning Company; -- Zhang Zhiya, male, from Jiangsu Province, working at the Shenzhen Jiade Property Management Company; -- Wei Xiaoming, female, from Sichuan Province, working as an administrative assistant at the Shenzhen KXD Multimedia Company; -- Fang Weizhen, female, from Hubei Province, working at the trade union at the Guangdong Fudi Auto Company in Foshan; and -- Zheng Xiaoqiong, female, from Sichuan Province, working at the Dongguan office of the Minghao Trading Company. ¶3. (U) According to Deputy Chief of the Election Committee of the Guangdong People's Congress Standing Committee Yang Chengyong, candidates elected as "migrant worker representatives" must meet three criteria: their hukou, or residency permit, must state that they are a "rural resident;" the hukou must be registered outside of Guangdong Province; and they must be real workers, not management. In the same news report, Yang also said that the Guangdong People's Congress would elect one of the migrant worker representatives to the National People's Congress this year. ¶4. (U) COMMENT: These developments may stem from a 2007 speech in which National People's Congress Standing Committee Vice Chairman Sheng Huaren noted that representation of farmers and workers in the National People's Congress had been in decline. In his speech, Sheng said that, "in provinces and municipalities where there is a high presence of migrant workers, there should be migrant worker representatives." Though contemporary news reports heralded the speech as "great progress in China's democratic politics" and as a signal that the "highest-ranking power institute has come to pay attention to the constitutional rights and social roles of migrant workers," it remains to be seen whether membership of a token number of migrant worker representatives in the already underpowered People's Congress (with its 790 representatives) will make any noticeable difference. GOLDBERG