Public Disclosure Authorized RP784 V 3 Nanning-Guangzhou...

Nanning-Guangzhou Railway

Construction Project

Social Assessment Report

Drafted by: the West Development Research

Center of the Central University of Nationalities

China Minority Research Center of the

Central University of Nationalities

February 2009 in Beijing

RP784

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1 .

Table of Contents

1.Mission, methodology and procedure .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.1 Miss ion and reference ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.1.1 Mission... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.1.2 Reference... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.2 Qual i f ica t ions ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.3 Research methodology .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

1.3.1 Emphases and levels of f ie ld invest igat ion .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

1.3.2 Invest igat ion procedure ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

2.Related laws, regulat ions and review mechanism .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

2.1 Nationa l i ty identifica t ion and the defin i t ion of “minor i ty nat ional i ty” in China 2

2 .2 Chinese polic ies and regulat ions on nat ional i t ies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2 .3 The def in i t ion of “minor i ty nat iona l i t ies” according to the World Bank policy 10

2 .4 Compar ison between China’s minori ty nat ional i t ies and the World Bank’s

ind igenous peoples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

2 .5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

3. Land system ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

3 .1 The s ta te bas ic land sys tem .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

3 .2 Rura l land sys tem .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

3 .3 Land sys tem of the project area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

3 .4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

4.Minority Nationalit ies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

4 .1 Associat ion of the project to minori ty na t ional i t ies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

4.1.1 General introduction to the minor i ty nat ionali t ies in the project area . . . . . . . . 20

4.1.2 Associat ion of the project to minori ty nat ionali t ies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

4 .2 Rura l resources and l ivel ihood .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

4 .3 Culture and l ivel ihood of Zhuang socie ty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

4.3.1 General introduction to Zhuang .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

4.3.2 The l ivel ihood of Zhuang people in the project area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

4 .4 Relat ions and comparison between different nat ional i t ies in the p roject . . . . . . . . . 32

4 .5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

5.Poverty and the sexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

5 .1 Pover ty in the project area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

5.1.1 General introduction .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

5.1.2 Analys is of the causes of pover ty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

2 .

5.2 Associat ion of poverty to nat ional i t ies ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

5.3 Women .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

5.3.1 Women and trad i t ional roles ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

5.3.2 Associat ion of nat ional i ty to the sex ro le and posi t ion . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

5.4 Summary . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

6.Project impact ana lysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

6.1 Posit ive analysis .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

6.2 Adverse impact .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

6.3 Analysis of the d i fferences of impact by the project on the nat ional i t ies . .. . . . . . . 45

6.4 Summary . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

7.Part ies having an interest in the project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

7.1 The ident i f icat ion of the par t ies having an interest in the project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

7.2 Analysis of the part ies .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

7.2.1 The Ministry of Rai lways .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

7.2.2 NG company ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

7.2.3 Guangxi Autonomous Region Government ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

7.2.4 The ci ty, county/d is tr ict and Township governments ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

7.2.5 The World Bank ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

7.2.6 The construct ion contractor .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

7.3 Summary . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

8. Conclusion and recommendation .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

8.1 Information exposure and support by the residents .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

8.2 The indigenous peoples’ pol icy o f the World Bank (OP4.10) does not apply to

th is project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

8 .3 The RAP drafted fo r th is project a lso applies to the Zhuang people . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

3 .

1. Mission, methodology and procedure

1.1 Mission and reference

1.1.1 Mission

According to the recommendation of the experts from the World Bank, at

the end of August 2008, the Foreign Investment Uti l izat ion and Technology

Introduction Center of the China Ministry of Railways (referred to as the

entrust ing party thereinaf ter) entrusted Professor Zhang Haiyang, director

of the West Development Research Center of the Central Universi ty of

Nationali t ies, and Associate Professor Jia Zhongyi, deputy director of the

above center (referred to as the trustee thereinafter) to conduct social

assessment for this project. On September 2n d, the two part ies signed a

contract, by which the trustee accepted the commission formally.

Through negotiation between the two parties, and after consultation with

the related experts f rom the World Bank, i t is clarif ied that the trustee

should undertake the following tasks:

a) As per operational policy OP4.10 of the World Bank and the appendixes,

the trustee shal l invest igate along the route of Nanj ing-Guangzhou Railway

project, so as to understand clearly the actual distribut ion of minority

nat ionalit ies in this area and identifying the potent ial posit ive and negative

impact the project shall have on the minori ty nationalit ies.

b) Through in-depth f ield investigation, the trustee shall learn the economic

and social development status and the social cul tural characteristics of the

minority nat ionalit ies along the route, so as to tel l whether the minority

nationalities in this area comply with the “indigenous peoples” as defined

in the operational policy OP4.10 of the World Bank. The trustee will then

take the impact analysis of the project into consideration and decide

whether i t is needed to draft a “Minority Nationali ties Development Plan”

for the minority nationali ties in the area.

c) The trustee shall analyze the suitabil ity of the related action plan (RAP).

4 .

d) The trustee shall draft both the Chinese and English versions of “the

Social assessment Report of the Nanning-Guangzhou Railway Construction

Project”. If necessary, the trustee wil l help the entrust ing party to draft the

Chinese and English versions of the “Minori ty Nationalit ies Development

Plan for the Nanjing-Guangzhou Railway Construction Project”.

e) The trustee shall conduct f ield investigation and finish the “social

assessment report” (and if necessary, the “minority nationalit ies

development plan”) in a timely manner at the appropriate time based on the

progress of the preparation work for this project. Timing for the above task

starts in early September of 2008 and ends by mid February of 2009.

1.1.2 Reference

References that the social assessment invest igation and report are built on

are mainly the following three types:

a) Related policies and regulations on minority nationali ties right

protection, land resources exploitat ion and major infrastructure

construction by the central and local government of China;

b) Securi ty safeguard policy, part icularly indigenous peoples policy by the

World Bank (OP4.10);

c) The “feasibility s tudy report” (FS) provided by the entrusting party, the

reset tlement action plan (dated January of 2009) of the project, etc.

1.2 Qualifications

The team composit ion and qualif icat ions of the trustee:

(I) Project leader and major experts

Mr. Zhang Haiyang, Han nationality, professor, Doctor in ethnology,

director of the west development research center of the central universi ty

of nationalit ies, director of China minori ty nationalities research center.

5 .

Special ized fields of Mr. Zhang include ethnology theory, methodology and

applicat ion study.

Mr. Jia Zhongyi, Miao national ity of Guangxi, associate profession, doctor

in ethnology, deputy director of the west development research center of

the central university of nat ionali t ies. Specialized f ields of Mr. Jia include

history, cul ture and ethnic group relations of minority nationalit ies in

South China;

The two project leaders have rich knowledge and appl ication research

experience. They have directed and part icipated in many social assessment

tasks for World Bank loans, including reservoirs, roads, forestation, r iver

basin management and railway projects in China. They helped the project

owners draft the related minority nat ionality development plan. They are

famil iar with related policies and regulat ions by Chinese governments and

the standards of World Bank. They have an in-depth understanding of the

si tuation and needs of China’s minori ty nationali ties as well as the

linguistic and cultural characteristics of the local ethnic groups. Their

recently-completed projects include:

a) Minority nat ionali ty development plan for the water and soil reservation

project of the upper reaches of Yangtze River/Pearl

River(2004/05�2005/03);

b) Social assessment and minority nat ionali ties development plan for the

adjusted route of Gui-Kun Railway (2005/09);

c) Protection and development study of minority cultures of China with a

small population (2006/07-08);

d) Social assessment and minority nat ionali ties development plan for the

general project of Guangxi Forestry(2005/01�02);

e) Social assessment report and minority nat ionali ties development plan for

Gui-Guang Railway Construction Project(2007/05�2008 /12);

f) Social assessment and minori ty nationalit ies development plan for flood

control and river basin management in Xining City(2007/11�2009 /01);

6 .

g) Resettlement and compensation system study of Chinese water and

electr ici ty construct ion projects in minori ty nat ionali t ies areas.

(II) Team members

Ms. Zhao Jianl i, Miao National ity of Hunan, deputy profession, expert on

rural social security study in minority nat ional ity areas f rom the humanit ies

and development school of China University of Agricul ture. She conducted

several investigation and studies on rural issue project in Guangxi, Hunan,

Yunnan among others.

Ms. Hu Yingzi, Zhuang nat ionali ty of Guangxi, with undergraduate and

graduate cert if icates in ethnology f rom the Central University of

Nationali t ies. She is now studying for the doctor’s degree in sociology. She

also has working experience in several NGOs.

Ms. Wei Xia, Mongol nationali ty of Inner Mongolia, graduate of sociology

from the Central Universit ies of nationali ties. She is now studying for the

doctor’s degree in sociology and working part-time for an NGO. She

conducted rural invest igation and study in Yao nationali ty area of Guangxi.

Mr. Liang Xining, Zhuang nationality of Guangxi, double degree in

ethnology and ecology f rom the Central Universi ty of Nationali ties. He is

now studying for the graduate degree in ethnology. He participated in the

invest igation of resettlement for water and electricity construction projects

and the drafting of related reports.

Ms. Liu Liu, Zhuang nationality of Guangxi, Graduate and Teaching

assistant in Central Universi ty of Nationali ties, majored in ethnology. She

conducted field invest igation and study in Guangxi and Guizhou.

Mr. Liu Fengshi, Han nationality of Henan, Graduate of sociology f rom the

Central Universi ty of Nationali ties. He worked as teaching assistant and

part icipated in the Gui-Guang Railway project and Xining City f lood

control project.

Ms. Jia Zhen, Miao nationali ty of Guangxi, undergraduate in history from

Xinyang Normal University. She partic ipated in rural investigation of

Miao, Tong, Zhuang, Yao nationali ties.

7 .

(III) Team strength

When sett ing up the team, we have the fol lowing priorit ies in mind:

First, famil iarity with local language and culture. Zhuang is the biggest

minority nat ionality along the route. They speak their mother tongue

Zhuang Language as well as Cantonese (called “vernacular” by the locals)

in daily life and this includes both Zhuang and Han people there.

Therefore, the team includes 5 researchers from Guangxi. They are mostly

from the project areas, have competent efficiency in Cantonese and

understand Zhuang Language. This ensured barrier-free communication

with villagers and thereby raised the invest igation effic iency.

Second, to facil ita te communication with the disadvantaged groups. To

approach women, the elderly and teenagers, we enrolled five female

researchers in the team. They played wonderful roles when we visi ted

villagers’ home by gaining the villagers’ trust.

Third, diversif ied background. Majors of the team members are mainly

ethnology and sociology but we also have history and ecology. This is to

avoid the blind point that one or two major background could probably

create.

Fourth, rich experience. Aside from the leaders’ rich experience in similar

project, nearly al l team members have part icipated in field investigations

several t imes. They can understand the project goal better and have mastery

of the investigat ion tools.

(IV) Allocation of work

a) Deputy professor Jia Zhongyi designs the invest igation and study plan

and develops invest igat ion tools;

b) Professor Zhang Haiyang and Deputy Jia Zhongyi are responsible for

training of the team;

c) Mr. Jia Zhongyi acts as the executive team leader and together with

deputy professor Zhao Jianli, led the team in f ield investigation. The

8 .

students help col lect ing documents, photo and video taping, taking minutes

and household interviews and questionnaire investigation.

d) Jia Zhongyi and Zhao Jianli are responsible for the draf ting of study

reports. The students assist sort ing f i les and data analysis.

e) Professor Zhang Haiyang directs and revises the draft ing of the Chinese

and English reports.

1.3 Research methodology

During investigation and assessment, the trustee mainly adopts

Partic ipat ing Rural Assessment (PRA) methods. Based on the holism theory

and comparative study criter ia of anthropology and sociology, we col lect

data through fie ld investigation, which is to collect f i rst-hand information

by part icipating observation, focused discussion, and focused mass

discussion, typical vi l lage and vi l lager sampling. We collect local

documents and stat istics based on the document l ist. At the same time, we

add to the depth and width of the research and the strength of the argument

and of the rel iabil ity of the conclusion by drawing f rom the methods of

historical document research and policy and regulation analysis.

1.3.1 Emphases and levels of field investigation

1.3.1.1 Scope and emphasis of investigation

Based on the common understanding between the entrusting party and the

trustee on the missions, the fol lowing points wil l be taken into

considerat ion: (a) The project area is the l ineal area stretching from east to

west and bordered by Guangzhou and Nanning; (b) Among the potential

impact that project wi l l have on the vi l lages within the area, the most

important and most direct ones are land acquisi t ion and resettlement caused

by the construction of roadbed, bridges, tunnels, stations and supporting

facil i t ies and the sett ing up of railway securi ty control system. The next

important import is the disturbance to the vil lagers around the construction

si tes; (c) The population f low caused by the construct ion may inf luence the

behavior, mindset and interpersonal relations among vi l lages along the

route. There also exists the risk of the infection of various diseases.

Therefore, it is decided that a screening wi l l be carried out within 10

ki lometers diameter along the route.

9 .

Based on the fie ld investigation results, knowledge and document research

results by the trustee, and at the same t ime, drawing from the research

results of the survey design and resettlement teams of the project, the

fol lowing have been confirmed:

(a)There is no minority national ity vi l lage within the project area of

Guangdong Province. Therefore, the social assessment wil l not cover this

area.

(b)Zhuang and Yao are the two minority nat ionali t ies that have a t ime-

honored residence in the 3 c it ies and 7 counties/districts within the

Guangxi project area. But Yao vi l lages are located outside the 10 ki lometer

diameter of the route and therefore wi l l not be included in the social

assessment report.

(c)There is no Zhuang vi l lage within 10 kilometer diameter in the sect ion

between Guiping and Wuzhou. Therefore, this sect ion wil l enjoy less focus.

(d)There are 22 Zhuang vi l lages or mult i -nat ionali ty-resided (Zhuang and

Han) vi l lages within 10 ki lometer diameter in the section between Binyang

County of Nanning City and Gangbei District of Guigang City.

The trustee wil l put the emphasis of the social assessment on the 22

minority nat ionality vi l lages in the section between Binyang and Gangbei.

1.3.1.2 Investigation levels

The trustee conducted investigat ion on two basic levels in the target area:

vi l lages and governments. Investigat ion on the vil lage level covered

administrative vi l lages, natural vil lages, peasant households, and

individuals. Invest igation on the government level includes autonomous

region, city, county/district, Townships. The team also visi ted experts and

scholars f rom related institutes such as Guangxi National ity Research

Insti tute.

(I)Investigation at the vi llage level

10 .

Vi l lage invest igation itself also has two levels, including colloquia with

vi l lager representatives, vi l lage grassroots data investigation, and

household interview questionnaire and individual interview. Vi l lage

invest igation is mainly focused in the area between Binyang County and

Hej i Township on the west and the town Qintang of Guiguang city on the

east. The 22 minority national ity vi l lages to be impacted along the route

are al l located in this area. After considering the factors such as

administrative regional izat ion, l ivel ihood patterns, economic development

levels, nat ionali ty composit ion, degree and types of the impart, and past

experience, and upon consult ing the representatives from the local

governments, the team made f ield investigation in 8 vi l lages (namely

Dabang Vi l lage and Sanmin Vil lage of Heji Township, Fengming Vi llage

and Qiming Vi l lage of Qintang Township, Huangl ian Vi l lage and

Zhangtuan Vi llage of Huanglian Township, Daguo Vi l lage and Longling

Vi l lage of Qintang Township). The team had 8 colloquia with the vi l lager

representat ives, with a total of 94 participat ing vi l lagers.

The vi l lage-level colloquia invi ted vi l lage cadres, women, youth, elderly,

vi l lage teachers, elders of the vi l lages, religious people and others. The

main purpose is to learn about the natural resources, l ivel ihood, populat ion

and its composition, social composit ion and ethnic group relat ions, social

system and customs, economic status and development plan, villager’s

knowledge of the project design and plan during the preparat ion, past

experience, needs and suggestions for this project. The cadres and

representat ives helped distribute and collect the vi llage baseline

questionnaire.

Household interview investigation includes household questionnaire and

individual in-depth interview. In choosing the household and vi llage

samples, we take many factors into considerat ion, including family

composit ion, livelihood, economic s ituation, nationality, sex, experience,

attitude to the project. 91 questionnaires are distr ibuted and collected and

91 individuals are interviewed

(II)Investigations at the government level

Investigat ion at the government level take the form of colloquia with

leaders f rom related functional areas and organization, which include the

general offices, development and reform commissions/bureaus,

11 .

nat ionality(rel igion) commissions/bureaus, women’s federation, offices of

poverty alleviat ion of the autonomous region/city/country/district, and the

railway construction office set up by governments of all levels for the

project. Investigation with the Township government takes the form of

interview with the Township leaders in charge of the railway construction

within the jurisdiction. Content of the investigation on the government

level include:

(1)Challenges that the local governments face in the rai lway construction

tasks;

(2)Relat ions between the project and the local development needs and plan;

(3)Progress of related work by local government in the implementat ion of

the project, including laying down of related policies and regulations,

organization building, publicity campaigns and mobil izat ion, and

coordination with designers and owners;

(4)Successful experience and lessons from past projects and prevention

measures taken by this project;

(5)Villager opinions and requirements along the route collected by the local

government;

(6)Assist to collect related policy and regulation booklet, stat ist ics and

documents according to the document list provided by the trustee.

The invest igation by the trustee covered 3 cit ies, i.e. Nanning, Guigang and

Wuzhou, 6 counties/districts, i .e. Binyang, Qintang, Guiping, Pingnan,

Tengxian and Cangwu, and 13 Townships, i .e. Litang and Heji of Binyang

County, Qintang and Huanglian of Qintang District, Xishan of Guiping

city, Wulin, Da’an and Zhenlong of Pingnan County, Tanping, Tengzhou,

Tang u of Tengxian, Dapo and Longwei of Cangwu County.

1.3.2 Investigation procedure

The social assessment invest igation was executed on two-phrase basis by

the trustee.

12 .

1.3.2.1 Village Investigation

(I)Village investigation process and procedures

From Jan 20 to Jan 25, 2009, the trustee went to the basic vi l lage level to

conduct f ield investigat ion in the 22 minori ty nationali ty vi l lages that are

potent ial ly impacted adversely by the project. The purpose of this

invest igation is to veri fy the information obtained during screening period,

more comprehensively understand the basic information, social and cultural

characterist ics of minority nat ionali ty vi l lages within the project area, the

understanding and supporting of the project by the vi l lagers, opinions and

requests in the different phrases of the projects. Al l of this was conducted

via unlimited negotiation before the implementat ion of the project.

Having considered thoroughly the administrat ive regional izat ion,

l ivel ihood, economic development level, nat ionali ty composit ion, the

degree and types of impact by the project and past experiences and other

factors, the trustee selected 8 vi l lages as samples with reference to the

comments from the representatives from the local government, we

conducted f ield invest igation on a household interview basis. The

procedure, forms and results of the investigat ion is as indicated in the table

below.

Table 1: Investigation implementation summary in minority nationality villages for the Nanjing-Guangzhou Railway ProjectInvestigation method

County/district

Township Community

Nationality

composition

TimeColloquia

Householdinterview

Individualinterview

Samplecharacteristics

HuanglianCommunity

4%Zhuan

gMorning

Cadre5Villager 5Women 1Youth 0

Rich 3Medium 4

Poor 2

Male6Female3Cadre2

Re-settler 5

Combination area of town and country�open to theoutsideworld; rich project experience, impact by theland acquisition and .

HuanglianTownship

ZhangtuanVillage

100%Zhuan

g

21

Afternoon


Rich 2Medium 5

Poor 2

Male6Female3Cadre3

Re-settler 4

Multi impact by land acquisition, resettlement, andengrossment of road and river way; single-sourcelivelihood; rich project experience

DaguoVillage

98%Zhuan

gMorning


Rich 3Medium 5

Poor 3

Male10Female1Cadre1

Re-settler 5

Multi-sourceand fine livelihood; impact by landacquisition and construction, rich project experience.

QintangDistrict

QintangTownship

LonglingVillage

15%Zhuan

g

22

Afternoon


Rich 4Medium 7

Poor 3

Male13Female1Cadre1

Re-settler 3

Combination area of town and country, highcommercialization of agriculture, fairly rich, multiimpact by land acquisition, resettlement andconstruction, someproject experience.

FengmingVillage

50%Zhuan

gMorning

Cadre3Villager 10Women1Youth 1

Rich 3Medium 8

Poor 2

Male12Female1Cadre2

Re-settler 3

Livelihood is mainly from farming, animal husbandry,and doing work outside thevillage; major impact by Li-Zhan Railway cutting-up and stations , having leftover

problems, impacted by land acquisition and constructionof thisproject.

LitangTownship

QimingVillage

85%Zhuan

g

23

Afternoon


Rich 3Medium 12

Poor 2

Male17Female0Cadre3

Re-settler 7

No project experience, impacted by land acquisition andconstruction.

SanminVillage

30%Zhuan

gMorning

Cadre2Villager 6Women 0

Youth 2

Rich 4Medium 3

Poor 1

Male8Female0Cadre2

Re-settler 3

A lot of cultivable land, fine livelihood, impacted byland acquisition, resettlement, cross-village andconstruction, operations, someproject experience

BinyangCounty

HejiTownship

DabangCommunity

37%Zhuang

24

Afternoon


Rich 4Medium 4

Poor 2

Male10Female0Cadre2

Re-settler 3

Multi-sources of livelihood; 1 entirely Han nationalitynatural village (215 households) impacted by landacquisition and construction; someproject experience

1 .

Total 4 8 52% 4

94 persons: 27cadres� 67villagers, 6

women� 13 youth

91 households:26 rich ones, 46medium ones,19 poor ones

91 persons : 83males�8

females, 16cadres,

involuntary 33re-settlers

Covering villages of all types of economic status, projectexperience, nationality composition, degree of impact,

sizeof population.

The basic procedure of the vi l lage invest igat ion is:

(1)To explain the purpose of the investigation to the Township and vi l lage

cadres. They assisted gathering about 10 persons such as the cadres,

representat ives of impacted vi l lagers, representatives from rich, medium

and poor households, women representat ives, vi llage elders, youth

representat ives. The colloquia were held in the vi llage committee or in a

nice villager’s house. The colloquia were open. Vil lagers were encouraged

to speak up at any time;

(2)The trustee prepared paper and pens and other meeting necessit ies;

candies and cigarettes were also there to create a relaxed atmosphere.

(3)Leader Jia Zhongyi introduced the team members in the appropriate

language based on the linguistic competency and customs of the at tendees,

and then explained the background, goal, content, method and purpose of

the invest igation and also how the vil lage could learn about the

invest igation results. The attendees were also special ly assured that they

were not subject to any legal responsibil i ties due to their sta tement,

opinion and suggestion.

(4)The method is f lexible. The trustee would start with a topic most dear to

the attendee’s heart, and in the process, learn about the grass-root

information and customs, how much the villagers were informed about the

project. The trustee would listen to the past experience of the vil lagers,

analyze the potential positive and adverse impact of this project, and then

explain the measures and plans to offset the adverse impact. The vil lagers

would discuss the issues, voice their different opinions and even argue with

one another. The trustee would listen carefully to all of this;

(5)The trustee took careful note of the colloquia and asked the attendees to

review and supplement i t to their satisfaction as to the statement about

their opinions and suggestions;

(6)The attendees signed on the note and were given compensation for their

time;.

(7)The trustee left their contact to the cadres and attendees;

1 .

(8)The trustee asked the attendees to help to choose the households and

individual vi l lagers to interview. The attendees would also bring the trustee

to the chosen one.

(9)Thank the attendee and call i t a day.

(II)Household interview and individual interview

The main procedure of household interviews and individual interviews is as

fol lows:

(1)The cadres, vi l lage representat ives or youth led the trustee to the

interviewees’ homes.

(2)To explain the purpose of the visit to the head of the household or the

interviewees and give a gift .

(3)To explain the content, purpose of the quest ionnaire, ask for the

language and environment request of the vil lagers and also state the

confidential ity principle concerning the vi llagers and their privacy.

(4)Villagers finish the questionnaire by themselves or under the assistance

of the investigators. Any questionnaire asked by the invest igators will be

reviewed and verif ied by the vil lagers.

(5)To conduct semi-structured interview with villager, so as to learn how

much they had been informed of the project, to solicit their opinions and

suggestions and to listen to the vil lager’s suggested solutions to the

adverse impact of the project.

(6)To l isten to their joys and worries over marriage, family, relat ions

between neighbors, relat ions cadres and peasants, and what they saw and

heard when working in the outs ide world.

(7)To leave the contact information and say goodbye.

The trustee conducted quest ionnaire investigation with 91 households of

various types and interviewed 91 individual vi llagers of various kinds in 8

administrative villages.

2 .

(III)Results of village investigation

From vi l lage investigation, household visi t and individual interviews, the

trustee draws the fol lowing conclusion:

(1)There do exist 22 mult i-national ity (Zhuang and Han mixed)

administrative vi l lages residing along the project area. The percentage of

Zhuang populat ion ranges from 100% (Zhangtuan Vi l lage of Huangl ian

Township, Guigang City) to 4% (Huanglian Vil lage). According to the

memory of the vi l lage elders, this si tuation dates back to 5 or 6

generat ions. The only exception is Daguo Vi l lage of Qintang Township,

which was a 100% Zhuang vil lage and then became a Zhuang and Han

resided vil lage in 1950 when 10 Han migrant famil ies moved in to construct

the Pinglong reservoir.

(2)The 22 vi l lages have different condit ions and l iving standards. Per

capita annual income of the poorest Zhangtuan Vil lage is 2100 RMB Yuan.

The f igure for the medium-income Daguo Vil lage and Sanmin Vil lage and

for the fairly rich Longling Vil lage is over 4000 RMB Yuan and 5000 RMB

respectively. With each vi l lage, the economic condit ions of the household

also differ. But the differences between vil lages and between vi l lagers are

not due to ethnic factors but due to natural geological environment,

regional ization, resources, inf rastructure and the l ike.

(3)Zhuang population can speak both Zhuang language and local Chinese

vernacular, and speak Zhuang language mainly at home or in a mostly

Zhuang populated vi l lage. They speak vernacular, Hakka and mandarin with

guests. Aside f rom language, there are no pronounced difference between

Zhuang and Han vi l lagers, such as l i festyle, festivals, customs, bel ief, and

mindset.

(4)Zhuang nat ionality has been l iving with Han nat ionality in the same area

for a longtime. They have close communication, l ive in harmony with each

other and marry each other. There is no much nationali ty consciousness.

(5)All vi l lages, ei ther Zhuang or Han, have patri l ineal l ineages spanning

about 3 to 5 generat ions. The households in each l ineage are closely

related. They have the duty of helping each other on occasions of weddings,

3 .

burial ceremonies, house construction and the like. But this c lose

relat ionship also includes neighbors. It is not strict ly blood relat ion and

non-exclusive. Apart from this, there are no social organizations based on

nat ionality or ethnic groups.

(6)The vi l lages have no tradit ion of one blood line or ethnic group

occupying a specif ic reach of forest or burial ground or other natural

resources or cultural or geographic space. Since 1950, productive resources

such as cult ivable land, wildness, ponds have been uti l ized by the vil lagers

col lectively, and the ownership has always belonged to the state. Since

1980, the head of each household with vi llages of rural residence applied

for contract for the managerial right on behalf of the individual household,

and they enjoy long-term independent ut i l ization rights; (for details, please

refer to the related chapters on “land system”)

(7)Impact by land acquisi tion and resett lement is determined by the

relat ions between their land, houses and the railway route and facili ty

location. Therefore, Zhuang is not specially affected.

(8)There are no pronounced difference between Zhuang and Han local

population in terms of language, education, sense of safeguarding rights,

and social capitals. At the same time, since the current Chinese policies

and regulations safeguard the minority nationalit ies’ rights in terms of

language, culture, higher education, cadre cultivation, etc, and Zhuang is

the mainstream nationality enjoying autonomous rights in Guangxi, Zhuang

is not the disadvantaged or marginal group.

(9)Zhuang population of the villages under investigation were not

discriminated against or isolated either during colloquia or individual

interviews. They didn’t have more complaint about poverty than Han

population. Neither did they ask for special relief or compensation for the

Zhuang.

(10)Zhuang and Han populations in the villages under investigation say,

information on the Nanjing-Guangzhou railway construction project was

known to the residents along the rout in October 2008 at the latest through

government publici ty campaigns, vi llage committee meetings and

household interviews by the field survey team and the reset tlement team

from the designing departments. By the time of the second-phase field

4 .

invest igation in Jan of 2009, the entrenchment and wiring work of the

whole route had been f inished. Some vi l lagers partic ipated in the work.

Therefore, vi l lagers are wel l informed.

(11)The vil lages and vi l lagers being interviewed say, Nanj ing-Guangzhou

Railway is a major state construction project. It wi l l help improve the

general transportation condit ions, attract investment from outside, promote

local economic development and faci li tate the young people’s travel

outside. Though it does have adverse impact, but they believe the

government wil l give them reasonable compensation. So they accept and

support the project. At colloquia, the support is 100%. In household

interviews and individual interviews, the support is 96%, among which

support by Zhuang people is 100%.

1.3.2.2 Screening

(I)Screening process

On 4 to 10 September, 2008, deputy professor Jia Zhongyi and deputy

professor Zhao Jianli went to the project area in Guangxi and conduct

screening along the route. The purpose of the screening is to understand the

minority population, its distr ibution, relations to this project, social and

cultural characterist ics of minority nationali ties and their social

development sta tus, ethnic group relations, and the potential positive and

adverse impact of this project on the local minori ty population, and to tel l

whether the local minority nat ionali ties comply with the key characterist ics

of the indigenous peoples policy as defined by the World Bank (OP4.10),

and also to te ll whether it is necessary to draft the minority nationality

development plan. The screening is summarized in the following table:

Table 2: Summary of the screening process

Time Location Organization and person Investigationmethod

result Key leanings

Morning

Deputy Division Chief Zhuo, developmentand reform commission of theautonomousregion (female)

Colloquiaanddatacollection

2 files; a list of working contact Nanjing-Guangzhou railway is theNo. 1 project ofGuangxi in 2008. The local government paysmuch attention to it.

5Sept.

Afternoon

Nanning

Zhang Chuang, section chief of industry,development and reform bureau of Nanningcity (female)

Sameasabove 1 file; thechief deligated relatedwork to others

The local government hasbeen looking forward totheconstruction of the railway for a long time.

Morning

Binyang Deputy director Zhou of thegeneral office,director Xiao of thecivil affairs commission(female, Zhuang), director Wei of thedevelopment and reform commission, deputybailiff Huang of Litang Township (Zhuang),deputy bailiff Huang of Heji Township(Zhuang)

Colloquia 1 file; learned about the request oflocal government for thisproject, and general informationon thevillagesand ethnic groupsalong the route.

Theproject iswelcomed. They hopeLitang stationhas thepassenger transport facilities. Zhuang peoplehave lived along theroute for generations. Zhuangand Han livehere together in harmony and enjoy thesame level of prosperity. Zhuang people don’t have apronouncedly different culture.

6Sept.

Afternoon

Guigang Mr. Li, section chief of industry, developmentand reform commission, deputy director Xieof the civil affairs commission (Zhuang ofQintang)

Interview 5 files; learned about the requestof local government for thisproject, and general informationon the villages and ethnic groupsalong the route.

The local government has smooth communicationwith the owner and the designer. Zhuang and Hanlive together along the route in harmony, sharealmost the same lifestyle and customs and enjoy thesame level of prosperity.

Morning

Guiping Deputy director Li of the development andreform bureau, director Xie of civil affairscommission, deputy director Jiang of theconstruction bureau, deputy bailiff Huangof Xishan Township (Zhuang of ShilongTownship)

Colloquia 5 files; no minority nationalitiesthat have lived along the route forgenerations.

They hope the owner and the designer leave the localpeople a fair prospect of future development, raisethe compensation reasonably, and allocate anotherstretch of land for resettlement.

7Sept.

Afternoon

Pingnan Deputy director Lu of the general office,director Li of development and reformbureau, director Zhuo of civil affairscommission (Yao), Zhu Zesheng from WulinTownship, Liu Huiquan from Da’anTownship, Chen Qingmao from ZhenlongTownship

Colloquia 1 file; no minority nationalitiesthat have lived within theconstruction perimeters along theroute for generations.

The county government welcomes the project andhopes the designer and the owner leave the localpeople a fair prospect of future development, and seta one and only standard of compensation.

1 .

Morning

Tengxian Deputy director Wei of thegeneral officeandrailway construction office, deputy directorTang of thedevelopment and reform bureau,vicechairperson Huang of thepoliticalconsultativecommittee/civil affaircommission (female), deputy bailiff Zhu ofTianping Township (female), deputy bailiffHuang of Tengzhou Township, deputydirector Xu of Tangbu Township

Colloquia 3 files; no minority nationalitiesthat have lived along the route forgenerations.

Thecounty government enjoyssmoothcommunication with theowner and thedesigner.They hope to begiven another stretch of land forresettlement and haveaoneand only standard ofcompensation along the route.

8Sept.

Afternoon

Cangwu Deputy director Lin of thegeneraloffice/railway construction office, deputydirector Xu of thedevelopment and reformbureau, director Li of civil affairscommission, Chairman Li of People’sCongress of Dapo Township, Chairman Tongof People’s Congress of Longwei Township,

Colloquia No minority nationalities thathave lived along the route forgenerations.

They welcome the project. There have been manyconstruction projects in recent years and landacquisition and resettlement happened often. 3villages of Dapo Township now have no land tocultivate. The livelihood of the villagers needs tobe arranged on a long-term basis.

9Sept.

Morning

Nanning Feng Daiyu, deputy director of GuangxiNationality Research Institute (Yao); LiuJialiu, associate researcher (Wuzhou, Zhuang)

Interview Documents on history of localnationalities; learned about thebasic opinions of local scholarson relations between differentnationalities in middle and eastGuangxi

Zhuang, Han and Yao peoples have lived togetheralong the route for generations. Since mid MingDynasty, they interact with one another closely andlive together in harmony. They share similarprosperity and customs. There are no pronouncednationality characteristics.

As indicated in the above table, this screening mainly takes the form of

col loquia with related departments of al l levels of local governments, and

Township leaders along the rout. With the cooperation of the local

governments, we hold 5 col loquia with leaders from cit ies, counties and

Townships along the route, and 4 interviews. Attendees of the colloquia

include the cadres in charge of the preparation work for the project within

the local governments such as those from the development and reform

commission/bureau, rai lway construct ion off ice (general off ice), civi l

affairs commission, and Township government. 6 of them are of minori ty

nat ionalit ies and their ancestors have l ived there for generations. The

trustee l istens carefully to their opinions and suggest ions on the Nanjing-

Guangzhou railway construction project, and learn about the views and

opinions of the local residents on this project, distribution of minority

nat ionalit ies in the Townships and vil lages along the route, impact on them

by the project, special attentions that needed to be paid as far as the t ime-

honored minori ty nat ionalit ies along the route are concerned, att i tudes and

reaction of minority residents to past transportat ion infrastructure project,

past experience and lessons that this project should draw from, and also

leftover issues that can possibly affect this project adversely. With the help

of the colloquia attendees and interviewees, we col lect the related written

f iles.

(II)Result of screening

Through the screening, the trustee learns the fol lowing:

(1)Han, Zhuang and Yao are the national i t ies that have l ived for

generat ions in the administrative areas in Guangxi Region along the project

route. Yet, there are no Yao vil lages or Yao indigenous population within

10 ki lometers on either side of the proposed alignment, which is the area to

be affected by land acquisi tion, relocation and construction operat ions.

Zhuang is the only indigenous group here.

(2)Within the 10 kilometers of each side of the alignment, i t is clear that

there is no Zhuang Vil lage east of Guigang city (meaning vi l lages with

Zhuang as the main group or Han and Zhaung are mixed with Zhuang

households more than 5%, and l iving here since late 1950 when

registrations system started), and there are 22 administrative vi l lages

(Zhuang) between Guigang and Binyang where Han and Zhuang l ive

1 .

together. Among them, 5 vi l lages are in Hej i Township and Litang

Township respect ively in Binyang County, 5 vi l lages are in Huangl ian

Township of Qintang District and 7 vi l lages are in Qintang Township in

Guigang City. These 22 administrative vi l lages wil l be affected adversely

by land acquisi t ion and/or resett lement by this project to different degrees.

See Table 5-7.

(3)The percentage of Zhuang and Han populations in the 22 administrative

vi l lages dif fers. They have l ived together in this area for more than a

century and have in-depth reunif ication in both social and cultural aspects.

They share same li festyle and customs, marry each other, enjoy almost the

same level of prosperity in the same vil lage and l ive in harmony together.

(4)Almost al l Zhuang people sti l l speak their mother tongue Zhuang

Language. They speak Zhuang language at home, in natural vi l lages where

Zhuang is the majori ty population, and with neighbors of Zhuang

nat ionalit ies. But they speak Chinese vernacular mostly in social l i fe

(Cantonese or Hakka) and the youth tend to speak Chinese vernacular.

(5)Within the vi l lages, vi l lagers, either Zhuang or Han, have relat ive

groups based on patr i l ineal l ineages spanning less than 5 generations.

Within each group, the members have the duty of helping each other on

occasions of weddings, burial ceremonies, house construction and the l ike.

But this close relat ionship also includes neighbors. I t is not exclusively of

one nationali ty. On public affaires, neighbor quarrels, individual right

safeguarding, the authorit ies that vi l lagers turn to are vi l lage committee or

the complaint handling off ice, public security bureau, the justice and the

l ike. The relative groups do not interfere with affairs l ike this.

(6)Land, forests, r iver basin and other natural resources are owned by the

state and the vil lagers as a collective whole. Individuals with vi l lager

ident ity contract for the use right legally. There is no land or burial

ground that belongs to a particular ethnic group within the project area.

2 .

2. Related laws, regulations and review mechanism

2.1 Nationality identification and the definition of “minority nationality” in China

Since ancient t imes, there have been many national it ies l iving together

inside the borders of China. Early in the Qin Dynasty, Han l ived in the

middle of the land, and Rong, Di, Yi and Man l ived in the west, north, east

and south respect ively. The central governments of al l dynast ies had

adopted a soothing and tolerat ing pol icy towards the other nationalit ies

along the borders. In the non-Han areas, the governments respected the

local customs and ruled indirect ly. In the Yuan and Ming Dynasties and

early Qing Dynasty, the central government went beyond this policy of

appeasement and establ ished the “Tusi system”, in which the head of the

ethnic group was chosen from among their own people to govern the area

with polit ical, economic, cultural power among others. Due to this “Tusi

system”, the polit ical, economic, cultural and social characteristics of the

minority nationalities had been passed on over generat ions. In the mid- and

late Qing Dynasty, although the central government wanted to reinforce i ts

direct control over the borders and adopted the “centralizing” policy, it

didn’t succeed in gaining more direct control because the central

government had not much resources to spare due to the invasion of the

western powers. As a result, multi-nationalit ies and a variety of economic

and cultural patterns co-existed in China.

Since the founding of the new China in 1949, the ruling Chinese

Communist Party laid down the nat ionali ty policies of the new China based

on the ethnic theory and policy of Marxism, the historical experience and

current s ituation of China, and the political consultation with other

democratic part ies, nongovernmental organizations and representatives

from all walks of l ife. The new nationali ty policy of China is incorporated

in the document “the Common Guiding Principles of the Chinese People’s

Poli tical Consultat ive Conference” (passed on Sept. 29, 1949, referred to as

the Common Guiding Principles), the first document that worked kind of

like a consti tution. In this document, article 9 states: “All the nationalit ies

within the borders of China enjoy equal r ights and duties.” Chapter 6 of the

Common Guiding Principles defines the nationality policy. There are 4

artic les in i t, namely, article 50, 51, 52 and 53. Art icle 51 clearly says:

3 .

Regional autonomy is practiced in areas where people of minori ty

nat ionalit ies l ive in compact communities; in these areas organs of self -

government are establ ished for the exercise of the r ight of autonomy.

Autonomous organs shall be set up in accordance with the size of the

population and area. In the autonomous regions and in areas where multi

nat ionalit ies l ive together, al l national it ies in the area shal l have a

reasonable number of representat ives in the government organs. Art ic le 53

states: The people of al l national it ies have the f reedom to use and develop

their own spoken and written languages, and to preserve or reform their

own ways and customs. The state helps the people of al l minority

nat ionalit ies speed up their poli tical, economic, cultural and education. ”

The basic nationality policy was thus set down. But since China had never

defined, confirmed and identif ied nationalit ies within i ts borders in the real

sense, what kind of people’s community could be called “nationali ty”.

Aside f rom Han, how many other nationali ties were there? What were the

sizes of the other nationalit ies’ population? What was their distribution?

What were their characterist ics? These were the issues that needed to be

tackled immediately theoretically and in policies. So the Chinese

government started to identify nat ionali ties. Starting from 1950 and ending

in 1990 or so, identificat ion of nationali ties lasted nearly 40 years, with a

few interruptions in between.

The identif icat ion of nationalit ies was carried out by experts and scholars

of many principles such as ethnology, anthropology, sociology, history, and

linguistics. The first criterion in identifying nationalit ies is the definit ion

given by Stalin, that is, a nationality is a stable community formed in

history sharing a common language, the same region, a common economic

life and a common psychological quali ty as shown in a common culture.

But the Chinese scholars were not limited by Stal in’s defini tion, but

exerted much flexibility according to the actuali ties of China. In short, the

identif icat ion of nat ionali ties in China is to determine which nationality an

ethnic group (that identif ies themselves as a community) belongs to by

large-scale investigation of i ts l iving area, name, origin, language,

economy, material culture, ideological culture and ethnic self-identif icat ion

and with reference to history, l inguist ic documents. The results of the

invest igation and study and the naming of the nationalit ies were discussed

over respectively with representatives of each nationality and after gaining

4 .

the representat ives’ overwhelming consent, were then submitted to the

central government for approval.

The first step of the identif icat ion was to distinguish between Han

nationality and minori ty ones. The second step was to classify the

minorit ies into f 55 individual nationali ties. Although the 56 nationali ties

(including Han) had very different sizes of populat ion and enjoy different

levels of economic and social development, the Chinese government used

the term “nationali ty” referring al l of them. This is to manifest the

government’s principle that al l nationali ties are equal.

In the Chinese language, what does “minori ty nationali ties” means?

In short terms, the so-called “minori ty nationalit ies” are (1) those people

communit ies that are traditionally self-identif ied and identif ied by others

as not belong to the Han nationality; (2) those whose origin as non-Han can

be verified, and/or whose language and religion and other characterist ics

are pronouncedly dif ferent from those of Han people. These non-Han

nationalities each have their own names given by themselves or others and

commonly accepted by the whole community, and these names have been

approved by the central government as their official appellation But Han

people cover over 90% of the whole populat ion of the country and non-Han

people only cover the remaining less than 10%. That is to say, compared

with Han nationali ty, the other nationali ties are al l “minorit ies” either as a

whole or individually. Therefore, they are by habit referred to as the

“minority nationalities”. In China, the concept of “minori ty nationalities”

means nothing about discrimination or inequality. It is a term established

by tradit ional usage and refers to al l the other nationalit ies that are not

Han.

2.2 Chinese policies and regulations on nationalities

The economy of the compact regions where the minority nationalit ies live

was relatively under-developed due to geographic condit ion, historical

reasons, and poor infrastructure condit ion. Also, s ince they were minorit ies

in terms of population, they tended to be marginalized in poli tical and

social life. To ensure the equali ty between Han nationali ty and the minori ty

ones both in law and in the polit ical, economic and social l ife , upon the

5 .

founding the new China, the Chinese government laid down a series of

special policies, laws and regulat ions for the minority nationalit ies and the

compact regions where they l ived. The purpose was to provide the policy

and legal safeguard for the minori ty national it ies to actual ly enjoy the

equalit ies that the state had given them, and to help promote the speed of

their development. These policies have gained outstanding achievement

over the past half century.

The Chinese legal and regulatory system comprises three parts: constitute

law, basic law and other regulations.

(I) “The Constitution” (Promulgated in 1954 and amended in 2004)

The preamble of the Consti tut ion states: The People’s Republic of China is

a unitary multi-national state built up jointly by the people of all i ts

nat ionalities. Socialist relations of equali ty, unity and mutual ass is tance

have been established among them and will continue to be strengthened.

Chapter 1 art icle 4 stresses the equality of all nat ionalities. The state

protects the lawful r ights and interests of the minority nationalities and

upholds and develops the relationship of equality, unity and mutual

assistance among all of China s nationali ties. Discrimination against and

oppression of any nationali ty are prohibited; any acts that undermine the

unity of the nationalities or instigate their secession are prohibited. The

state helps the areas inhabited by minori ty nationalities speed up their

economic and cultural development in accordance with the peculiari ties and

needs of the different minori ty nationali ties. Regional autonomy is

practised in areas where people of minority nationalit ies live in compact

communit ies; in these areas organs of self- government are established for

the exercise of the r ight of autonomy. All the national autonomous areas

are inalienable parts of the People s Republic of China. The people of all

nat ionalities have the freedom to use and develop their own spoken and

written languages, and to preserve or reform their own ways and customs.

Article 30 defines he administrat ive division of the People s Republic of

China. is as fol lows: The country is divided into provinces, autonomous

regions and municipali ties directly under the Central Government;

Provinces and autonomous regions are divided into autonomous prefectures,

counties, autonomous counties and cit ies; Counties and autonomous

6 .

counties are divided into Townships, nat ionali ty Townships and towns.

Autonomous prefectures are divided into counties, autonomous counties

and cit ies. Among them, autonomous regions, autonomous prefectures and

autonomous counties are autonomous areas with legislat ive power.

Article 36 is about religion. Cit izens of the People s Republic of China

enjoy f reedom of rel igious belief. No state organ, public organization or

individual may compel cit izens to bel ieve in, or not to believe in, any

religion; nor may they discr iminate against ci t izens who believe in, or do

not believe in, any religion.

Article 48 is on women. Women in the People s Republ ic of China enjoy

equal rights with men in all spheres of l i fe, pol it ical, economic, cul tural

and social, and family li fe. The state protects the rights and interests of

women, applies the principle of equal pay for equal work for men and

women alike and trains and selects cadres from among women.

Article 112 states: The organs of self -government of national autonomous

areas are the people’s congresses and people’s governments of autonomous

regions, autonomous prefectures and autonomous counties.

Article 113 and artic le 114 state: The chairmanship and vice-chairmanships

of the standing committee of the people s congress of an autonomous

region, prefecture or county shall include a citizen or cit izens of the

nat ionality or nationali ties exercising regional autonomy in the area

concerned. The administrative head of an autonomous region, prefecture or

county shall be a ci tizen of the nationality, or of one of the nationalities,

exercising regional autonomy in the area concerned.

Article 115 states: The organs of self -government of autonomous regions,

prefectures and counties exercise the functions and powers of local organs

of state within their own jurisdict ion. At the same t ime, they exercise the

right of autonomy within the limits of their authori ty as prescribed by the

Consti tution, the law of regional nat ional autonomy and other laws, and

implement the laws and policies of the state in the light of the exist ing

local situation.

Article 116. People s congresses of nat ional autonomous areas have the

power to enact autonomy regulat ions and specific regulations in the light of

7 .

the poli t ical, economic and cultural characteristics of the nationali ty or

nat ionalit ies in the areas concerned.

Article 118. The organs of self-government of the national autonomous

areas independently arrange for and administer local economic development

under the guidance of state plans. In developing natural resources and

building enterprises in the nat ional autonomous areas, the state shall give

due considerat ion to the interests of those areas.

Article 119. The organs of self-government of the national autonomous

areas independently administer educational, scient if ic, cultural, public

health and physical culture affairs in their respective areas, sort out and

protect the cultural legacy of the nat ional it ies and work for the

development and prosperity of their cultures.

Article 121. In performing their functions, the organs of self-government of

the nat ional autonomous areas, in accordance with the autonomy

regulations of the respective areas, employ the spoken and wri tten language

or languages in common use in the locali ty.

Article 122. The state gives f inancial, materia l and technical assistance to

the minority national ities to accelerate their economic and cultural

development. The state helps the national autonomous areas train large

numbers of cadres at dif ferent levels and specialized personnel and ski l led

workers of dif ferent professions and trades from among the national ity or

nat ionalit ies in those areas.

Section 7, art icle 134. Cit izens of al l nat ionalit ies have the right to use the

spoken and writ ten languages of their own national it ies in court

proceedings. The people’s courts and people’s procuratorates should

provide translat ion for any party to the court proceedings who is not

familiar with the spoken or written languages in common use in the

locali ty. In an area where people of a minority nationali ty l ive in a compact

community or where a number of nationalit ies live together, hearings

should be conducted in the language or languages in common use in the

locali ty; indictments, judgments, notices and other documents should be

written, according to actual needs, in the language or languages in common

use in the locality.

8 .

(II)Law of the Peoples Republic of China on Regional National

Autonomy and related regulations

“The Common Guiding Principles of the Chinese People’s Polit ical

Consultative Conference” of 1949 and the Consti tution of 1954 both state

that autonomous region self-government shall be practiced in the compact

regions when the minority people live. This system was first tried out in

Inner Mongolia in 1947.In the mid 1950s, it was implemented in full in the

minority nationality areas. The mainland China now has 5 autonomous

regions, 30 autonomous prefectures, 120 autonomous counties, and over

1200 autonomous Townships. In 1984, the Chinese National People’s

Congress enacted the “Law of the Peoples Republic of China on Regional

National Autonomy”, which was amended in 2001. This law of regional

autonomy can be classified as basic law, lower than the Constitut ion, but

higher than the Criminal Law and other laws and regulat ions. The Chinese

government regards it as one of the three basic state systems, the other two

being the national people’s congress and the Chinese people’s poli tical

consultat ive conference. The law of regional autonomy restates and

elaborates on the r ights of the minority nationalit ies and the minority

regions given by the Consti tut ion, and special ly emphasizes the rights of

aboriginals in the minority regions. The most important artic les include:

Article 54 The resolutions� decisions� orders and instructions concerning national autonomous areas adopted by state organs at higher level should

suit the condit ions in these areas (Otherwise�these areas have the right to apply for temporary suspension).

Article 65 While exploit ing resources and undertaking construction in

nat ional autonomous areas� the state shall give considerat ion to the interests of these areas� make arrangements favourable to the economic construction there and pay proper at tention to the productive pursuits and

the l ife of the minori ty nationalities there.

Article 66, provision 3: Any organization or individual exploiting natural

resources in the national autonomous areas shall protect and improve the

living environment and the ecological environment and shall prevent and

control pollution and other public hazards .

9 .

To safeguard the implementation of the law of regional autonomy, the State

Council of China promulgated “Several Provisions of the State Council on

the Implementat ion of the Law of the People’s Government of China on

Regional Autonomy by Ethnic Minori ties” in 2005:

Article 5. Government organs and functional areas of higher levels shall

l isten to the opinions of the national autonomous areas and the nationality

affairs organizations when developing mid- and long-term economic and

social plans, support and help the national autonomous areas to construct

infrastructure, cultivate human resources, optimize economic structure,

exploit natural resources reasonably, enhance ecological construction and

environment protection, speed up the development of economy, education,

science, culture, health, sports and others, according to the characterist ics

and needs of the national autonomous areas, so as to achieve all-rounded,

balancing and sustainable development.

The above two law and regulation have given the minority nationalities and

the national autonomous areas the following rights:

1. The administrat ive head s of the national autonomous areas must be

chosen f rom the local minori ty people. The administrat ive head s of the

nat ional autonomous areas shall be chosen in the sequence that the name of

the nationality appear in the official name of the area and in the sequence

of the size of the populat ion of the nationalit ies.

2. The national autonomous areas enjoy special r ights given by the central

government in administrat ion funds, development funds, construction

projects, poverty alleviation funds and other economic benefi ts.

3. Education and medicine organizations of the national autonomous areas

can apply for financial support to the local civi l affair commissions. The

children of the minori ty people enjoy policy favor in terms of entrance

scores when applying for higher education. When facing serious diff iculties

in education and medicine, local residents can apply for subsidies to the

local civi l affairs commission.

4. Governments of the national autonomous areas have the right and the

duty to promote the use of the local national language. The minority

10 .

residents have the right to believe in the national rel igion and use the

nat ional language. This right is best practiced in legal proceedings.

5. The minority residents’ privileges are most practical ly manifested in the

marriage age limit, birth control policy, language, rel igion and lifestyle,

including national holidays.

6. Guangxi is one of the 5 provincial autonomous regions of China. Zhang

is the mainstream nationali ty in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. In

the 3 cit ies and 7 counties that this project covers, the majority of the

population are Zhuang and Han. Zhuang enjoys autonomous rights in this

area.

2.3 The definition of “minority nationalities” according to the World Bank policy

The World Bank has always been attaching great importance to the social

benefi ts of i ts investment projects, especial ly the protection of the rights of

residents affected by the projects. Minority nat ionali t ies and other

disadvantaged groups are given particular attent ion. The World Bank

drafted the operational policy OP4.10 (regional people) for this purpose.

Due to the complicated nature of indigenous peoples in the third world, and

the dif ferences in the defini t ion of minority people in different countries,

the World Bank does not provide a clear-cut def ini t ion of the indigenous

peoples. But according to the policy:

In this policy, the term “indigenous peoples” is used in a general sense,

that is a unique and disadvantaged social and cultural group with the

following characteristics:

(a) Self- identi fied as a member of a unique minority ethnic group. And this

sel f-identif ication is supported by others.

(b)They depend on the living area with unique geographic nature or the

land passed down by their ancestors, which are located inside the project

area, and on the natural resources of the living area or the land.

11 .

(c)They have a unique tradit ional culture and economic, social and

poli tical system, dif ferent from the mainstream society and culture.

(d)They have a language different from the off icial language of the country

or the local place.

If these people are, due to forced separation, deprived of the liv ing area

with unique geographic nature or the land passed down by their ancestors,

which are located inside the project area, they will quali fy for the

principles laid down in this policy. To determine whether this policy can

apply to a certain group, opinions of the experts may be needed (see para.

8).

According to the above, the “indigenous peoples” that the World Bank

policy focuses on have three characterist ics: (1) Self-identif ication. The

indigenous peoples have the self-consciousness of distinguishing their own

ethnic group from the mainstream ones. And the other peoples and ethnic

groups agree with this dist inguish. (2) Objective differences. The

indigenous peoples have their own tradit ional culture, economy, social and

poli tical systems, unique from the mainstream. And they have their own

unique language, different f rom the offic ial one. (3) The regional people

must be at tached to the living area or the land passed down from their

ancestor, which have unique geographic characterist ics. They are also

attached to the natural resources to the area or land mentioned above.

These are the basis of maintaining their t raditional culture and economy

and the social and polit ical systems. If the land and natural resources are

touched or occupied otherwise, the indigenous peoples wil l be deprived of

the basis of their uniqueness.

2.4 Comparison between China’s minority nationalities and the World Bank’s indigenous peoples

China’s minority nationalit ies and the World Bank’s indigenous peoples

have one thing in common: It is fi rst ly a matter of self-identif ication and

this identificat ion is also agreed to by others. But there some major

difference in the two defini tions:

12 .

(1)The World Bank’s indigenous peoples have a objective and fundamental

characterist ic, that is , they are a unique social cultural group, possessing a

tradit ional cultural, economic, social, and political system, which

distinguishes itself from the mainstream society and its culture. And

obviously, the World Bank stresses the current dist inction. But in China,

the minority nationalities are cal led minori ties, ei ther because they sti ll

possess a unique social culture in some degree, such as the Uygur, Tibet,

Li, Miao and the like, or because they used to have a unique social culture

and the uniqueness can be verif ied through his torical documents, rel ics and

information orally passed down from the ancestors, but it is no long

apparent now or have disappeared, such as Tujia, Manchu, Yu and others.

The others include those have been scattered into different parts of the

country or have lived together with other nationalities for a long time, and

hence have lost their uniqueness, such as Muslins in the southeast coastal

areas and minority people in the ci ties. In short, the World Bank stresses

the current characteristics and special si tuation of the indigenous peoples,

whereas China looks to the historical facts and the legal identi ty that can

be passed down through generations, but is not referring to how well they

are faring now.

(2)The World Bank stresses that the indigenous peoples are disadvantaged

groups. They are disadvantaged because of their small population and their

unique economic, social and poli tical systems. On the one hand, they find it

diff icult to share the opportunit ies of the mainstream society. On the other

hand, they wil l be easi ly ass imilated by the mainstream society and culture.

Therefore, they show disadvantage and vulnerabil ity in maintaining their

own uniqueness and in obtaining development opportunit ies. Whereas the

minority nationalities of China have their own representat ives on every

level of the state political l ife, enjoy autonomous rights in compact

provinces, prefectures, counties, and Townships, develop the national

economy and culture , get policy and financial favorable support from

higher governments and the state, as per the Consti tut ion of China and the

Law of Regional National Autonomy. The minority nationalities of China

are not disadvantaged groups ei ther in the state or in the local polit ical,

economic and social life.

(3)The World Bank stress that the indigenous peoples are attached to the

living area or land passed down from their ancestors and this area or land

has unique geographic characteristics. They are also attached to the natural

13 .

resources there. In other words, the indigenous people are concentrated in

the l iving area with unique geographic characterist ics or in land passed

down from their ancestors and they all re ly on the natural resources there

for l iving as a group, and thus are able to maintain their unique tradit ional

cul ture and social, economic or polit ical systems. In China, different

nat ionalit ies l ive together over vast areas while some l ive in individual

concentrated communities in small areas. On all levels of areas such as the

province, prefecture, county and Township, i t is seldom seen that one

part icular nat ionali ty or ethnic group l ive exclusively by themselves. Even

in vi llages, there are mostly sti l l several nat ionalit ies l iving together. And

by Qing Dynasty at the latest, most minority national it ies of China adopted

the private ownership in terms of land and other basic means of production.

Only some wildness, lakes, wood at the headwaters of rivers and certain

holy mountains or water were seen as owned by the vi l lage collectively. In

the 1950s, land resources were taken over by the state and since then have

been owned by the state and collect ively. The use r ight of the land owned

col lectively are also controlled col lectively. It was af ter the 1980s that i t is

contracted to the vi l lagers. That is to say, for the past century, the minority

nat ionalit ies of China do not possess and use the natural resources in their

l iving areas with the national ity or the ethnic group as a unit.

(4)The World Bank also indicates that the indigenous peoples usually have

a language dif ferent from the offic ial language of the country or the local

place, and also this is the current language situation, not history. The idea

here is complicated. It does not only means that the language of the

indigenous people is the communication tol l between members of the

people, the binding of mutual identif icat ion with one another, important

carr ier of the ethnic culture, and hence an important part of the tradit ional

cul ture that needed to be maintained and passed on by the people l iving

together. It also means that because of the dependence on the language,

most or some of the indigenous people lack the opportunity to learn and use

the off ic ial language and thus f ind it dif f icult to communicate with the

mainstream society smoothly. It is a hindrance to their r ight to know and to

part icipate. This language hindrance increases the degree of mutual

dependence upon one another among the members of the indigenous people

and manifested their disadvantaged posit ion when coming into contact with

the outside world. In China, i t is also one of the criteria for ident ifying a

minority nat ionality whether not or they have (use) a language dif ferent

from the off icial language of the country or the local place. But i t is not a

14 .

must and not necessari ly the current si tuation either. Most Manchu, Yu,

Tuj ia, Muslins, Qi lao, Bai, Hezhe, Daur and etc, and some of the Mongols,

Miao, Zhuang� Yao� Buyi and etc do not use the language as a cr iterion when identifying the nationalit ies, especially for those who l ive together

with other nationali t ies and those who are scattered into other parts of the

country.

2.5 Summary

In summary, the indigenous peoples that the World Bank stresses are very

dif ferent from the minori ty national it ies of China. The latter is a much

broader term than the former. Many minori ty national it ies of China do not

have the characterist ics that the World Bank cares. Therefore, the

indigenous people pol icy of the World Bank cannot be appl ied to the

minority nat ionalit ies of China in a simple manner. In-depth investigat ion

and analysis are needed to determine which of the minority nationali t ies of

China can meet the requirements of the World Bank operat ional policy OP

4.10?

15 .

3. Land system

3.1 The state basic land system

The basic land system of China is best defined by the Law of Land Administration of the People’s Republic of China (referred to as the Law of Land Administration thereinafter). The Law of Land Administration was enacted in June 1986 and revised three times since then, in 1988, 1998 and 2004 respectively. The latest version of the Law of Land Administration (2004 amendment) clearly states: Article 2 The People’s Republic of China resorts to a socialist public ownership i.e. an ownership by the whole people and ownerships by collectives, of land. In ownership by the whole people, the State Council is empowered to be on behalf of the State to administer the land owned by the State. No unit or individual is allowed to occupy, trade or illegally transfer land by other means. Land use right may be transferred by law. The State may requisition land owned by collectives according to law on public interests. The State introduces the system of compensated use of land owned by the State except the land has been allocated for use by the State according to law. Article 3 To cherish and give a rational use to the land as well as to give a true protection to the cultivated land are seen as a basic principle of land use in the country. The people’s governments at all levels should manage to make an overall plan for the use of land to strictly administer, protect and develop land resources and stop any illegal occupation of land. Article 4 The State is to place a strict control on the usages of land. The State shall compile general plans to set usages of land including those of farm or construction use or unused. A strict control is to place on the turning of land for farm use to that for construction use to control the total amount of land for construction use and exercise a special protection on cultivated land. "Land for farm use" refers to land directly used for agricultural production, including cultivated land, wooded land, grassland, land for farmland water conservancy and water surfaces for breeding; "land for construction use" refers to land on which buildings and structures are put up, including land for urban and rural housing and

16 .

public facilities, land for industrial and mining use, land for building communications and water conservancy facilities, land for tourism and land for building military installations. The term "land unused" refers to land other than that for agricultural and construction uses. Land should be used strictly in line with the purposes of land use defined in the general plan for the utilization of the land whether by units or individuals. Article 5 The land administrative department of the State Council shall be unifiedly responsible for the administration and supervision of land in the whole country. The setup and functions of land administrative departments of people’s governments at and above the county level shall be decided by the people’s governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities under the direct jurisdiction of the central government (hereinafter referred to as "municipalities" for short) according to the relevant provisions of the State Council. Article 8 Land in urban districts shall be owned by the State. Land in the rural areas and suburban areas, except otherwise provided for by the State, shall be collectively owned by peasants including land for building houses, land and hills allowed to be retained by peasants. Article 9 Land owned by the State and land collectively owned by peasants may be allocated to be used by units or individuals according to law. Units or individuals using land shall be responsible for the protection, management and a rational use of the land. Article 10 In lands collectively owned by peasants those have been allocated to villagers for collective ownership according to law shall be operated and managed by village collective economic organizations or villagers’ committee and those have allocated to two or more peasants collective economic organizations of a village, shall beoperated and managed jointly by the collective economic organizations of the village or villagers’ groups; and those have allocated to Township (town) peasant collectives shall be operated and managed by the rural collective economic organizations of the Township (town). Article 11 People’s government at the county level shall register and put on record lands collectively owned by peasants and issue certificates to certify the ownership concerned. People’s government at the county level shall register and put on record the use of land collectively owned by peasants for non-agricultural construction and issue certificates to certify the right to use the land for construction purposes.

17 .

People’s government at the country level shall register and put on record uses of land owned by the State by units or individuals and issue certificates to certify the right of use. The State Council shall designate specific units to register and put on record State-owned land used by central government organs. Certifications of ownership or use right of wooded land and grassland and the uses or of water surface and beach land for breeding purpose shall be managed according to related provisions of the "Forest Law of the People’s Republic of China", the "Grassland Law of the People’s Republic of China" and the "Fisheries Law of the People’s Republic of China". Article 12 Changes of owners and usages of land, should go through the land alteration registration procedures. Article 13 The ownership and use right of land registered according to law shall be protected by law and no unit or individual is eligible to infringe upon it. Article 14 Land collectively owned by peasant shall be contracted out to members of the collective economic organizations for use in crop farming, forestry, animal husbandry and fisheries production under a term of 30 years. The contractees should sign a contract with the correspondents contractor to define each other’s rights and obligations. Peasants who have contracted land for operation are obliged to use the land rationally according to the purposes agreed upon in the contracts. The right of operation of land contracted by peasants shall be protected by law. Within the validity term of a contract, the adjustment of land contracted by individual contractors should get the consent from over two-thirds majority vote of the villagers’ congress or over two-thirds of villagers’ representatives and then be submitted to land administrative departments of the Township (town) people’s government and county level people’s government for approval. Article 15 Land owned by the State may be contracted out to units or individuals for farming, forestry, animal husbandry and fisheries operations. Land collectively owned by peasants may be contracted out to units or individuals who are not belonging to the corresponding collectives for farming, forestry, animal husbandry and fisheries operations. The contractees and contractors should sign land use contracts to define each other’s rights and obligations. The contracted term for operation is to be agreed upon in the land use contracts. Contractors for the land operation are obliged to protect and use the land rationally according to the usages specified in the contracts. Whereas a land collectively owned by peasant is contracted out for operation to ones not belonging to the corresponding collective organizations, a consent should be got

18 .

from the over two-thirds majority vote of the villagers’ congress or over two-thirds of the villagers’ representatives with the resulted contract being submitted to the Township (town) people’s government for approval. Article 16 Disputes arising from the ownership or use right of land shall be settled through consultation among parties concerned; should consultation fails, the disputes should be handled by people’s governments. Disputes among units shall be handled by the people’s government at and above the county level; disputes among individuals or between individuals and units shall be handled by Township level people’s government or people’s governments at the county level or above. Whereas parties concerned refuse to accept the decisions by related people’s government the dispute may be brought before the people’s court within 30 days after the notification on the decision is received. No party shall change the status quo of the land before the disputes over ownership and use right are settled.

3.2 Rural land system

China rural land system is clearly defined in the Law of Land Administration, i.e. the land resources in rural areas are owned collectively. The ownership of land in rural areas belongs to the villagers collectively, but the land use right was transferred to individual household through contract with remuneration linked to output since 1980. The Chinese government laid down laws to safeguard long-term legal possession of land in rural areas by peasants. “The Law of the People's Republic of China on Land Contract in Rural Areas” (effective since March 1, 2003) defines: Article 4 The State protects� in accordance with law� the long-term stability of the relationship of land contract in rural areas. Article 9 The State protects the legitimate rights and interests of the owners of the collective land and the right of the contractors to land contractual management�which no organizations and individuals may infringe upon. Article 10 The State protects the circulation of the right to land contractual management� which is effected according to law� on a voluntary basis and with compensation. Article 20 The term of contract for arable land is 30 years. The term of contract for grassland ranges from 30 to 50 years. The term of contract for forestland ranges from 30 to 70 years; the term of contract for forestland with special trees may� upon

19 .

approval by the competent administrative department for forestry under the State Council� be longer.

Article 24 After a contract goes into effect� the party giving out the contract may neither modify nor revoke the contract due to the change of the representative for the party giving out the contract or the responsible person concerned� or due to the split or merger of the collective economic organization. Article 26 During the term of contract� the party giving out the contract may not take back the contracted land. Article 27 During the term of contract� the party giving out the contract may not readjust the contracted land. Article 32 The right to land contractual management obtained through household contract may� according to law� be circulated by subcontracting� leasing� exchanging� transferring or other means.

Article 42 For the purpose of developing the agricultural economy� the contractors may� of their own free will� jointly pool their rights to land contractual management as shares to engage in cooperative agricultural production.

3.3 Land system of the project area

Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is a provincial administration area of regional national autonomy with Zhuang as the mainstream nationality. Article 4 of the Law of Regional National Autonomy states: The organs of self-government of national autonomous areas shall exercise the functions and powers of local organs of state as specified in Section 5 of Chapter III of the Constitution. At the same time, they shall exercise the power of autonomy within the limits of their authority as prescribed by the Constitution� by this Law and other laws� and implement the laws and policies of the state in the light of existing local conditions. On the issue of land resources management, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, based on related laws, has promulgated the following: Provisions of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Implementing the Land Administration Law of the People’s Republic of China (amended in 2006), Regulations of administration by the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Rural Land Contract Agreement (enacted on May 29, 1999), Regulations of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Agriculture Environment Protection (amended on June 3, 2004), Regulations of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Land Supervision (enacted on May 28, 1996) and others. The purpose is to articulately define the issues on the ownership and

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use right of the land resources in rural areas, models of exploitation and use, acquisition, compensation standards and administration supervision. These regulations are reiteration and elaboration of the state laws and provisions and keep all the principles and basic concept.

3.4 Summary

By carefully going through the related legal documents on land system, we can see the public ownership of land in China. There is no land that can be passed down from the ancestors. And there is no land or other natural resources that are possessed by a nationality or an ethnic group. The land in rural areas are owned the village collectively. In areas where only one nationality lives or where one ethnic group is concentrated, collective ownership appears to be group ownership. But the actuality is the land is owned by the village collectively and the land use is contracted by individuals legally on a long-term basis. In China, different nationalities live together over vast areas while some live in individual concentrated communities in small areas. In Townships, administration and natural villages, there are mostly several nationalities living together. Therefore, all the land and natural resources are owned collectively by the members of the villages. No land or natural resources are owned exclusively by one nationality or ethnic group.

4. Minority Nationalities

4.1 Association of the project to minority nationalities

4.1.1 General introduction to the minority nationalities in Guangxi Region

Guangxi is one of the 5 provincial-level autonomous regions of China. Guangxi has 14cities, 113 counties (12 of them are autonomous, and 3 of them enjoy autonomy benefits), 1321 Townships (58 of them are autonomous). The region has a high concentration of Zhuang and has the largest population of minority nationalities. 12 nationalities have lived together in the region for generations namely Han, Zhuang, Yao, Miao, Tong, Mulao, Maonan, Muslin, Jing, Li, Shui and Gelao. By then end of 2003, the region had a population of 48.57 million, among which 18.5214 millions are of minority nationalities, covering 38.13% of the total population.85.79% of the minorities are Zhuang, i.e. 15.89 million, compactly living in 6 cities including Nanning, Liuzhou, Laibin, Baise and Hechi. Yao people, 1.5002 million, cover 8.1% of the minorities population, distributed mainly in 6 cities including Liuzhou, Guilin, Hezhou, Baise, Hechi and Laibin. Miao, 470 thousand, covers 2.52% of the minorities population, distributed mainly in counties/autonomous counties like Rong Shui and

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Longlin. Tong, 320 thousand, covers 1.73%, compactly living in 3 autonomous counties, namely Sanjiang, Ronghui and Longsheng. Mulao, 170 thousand, covers 0.92%, compactly living in Hechi City. Maonan, 70 thousand, covers 0.38%, compactly living in Hechi city. Muslins, 31 thousand, are distributed mainly in Nanning, Liuzhou and Guilin. Jing, 21.5 thousand, are compactly living in the Wanwei, Wutou and Shanxin Isles in Jiangping Township of Dongxing city. Only Guangxi has Jing nationality. Li, 7.2 thousand, are distributed mainly in Longlin, Napo and Xilin counties/autonomous counties. Shui, 13.5 thousand, are mainly distributed in Rongshui, Yizhou, Huanjiang and Nandan counties/autonomous counties (cities). Gelao, 2.8 thousand, are mainly compactly living in Longlin Ge autonomous county.

4.1.2 Zhuang ethnic minority nationalities in counties along the

project line

In the project area, namely cities and counties like Binyang,Guigang, Guiping, Pingnan, Tengxian, Cangwu and Wuzhou, the minority nationalities that have lived there for generations are only Zhuang and Yao. Judging from the statistics, persons of other nationalities have moved into this area because of work or marriage. Binyang County has a minority population of 200 thousand, which is 20% of its whole population. Among the minority population, 98% are Zhuang, mainly distributed in Litang, Heji, Wangling Townships. In the construction area of the project (ie. 10 kilometer diameter along the railway route), there are no Yao people who have lived there for generations. The railway crosses Litang and Heji Township. Zhuang and Han people live together in 5 villages of Litang Township (namely, Maozi, Fengming, Qiming, Xinxu, Longsheng) and 5 villages of Heji Township (namely, Pingqiao, Dabang, Sanmin, Xinan, Yanshan). There are 4 thousand Yao people living compactly in Bailian administrative village of Zouxu Township. But it is not in the project area. In Guigang, Zhuang is the only minority nationality who has lived there for generations. They are distributed in Qintang and Huanglian Townships along the route. In all the 12 administrative villages that the railway crosses, Zhuang and Han live together. In Guiping, the population of minority nationalities who have lived there for generations is 120 thousand. 95% of them are Zhuang. And about 6000 of them are Yao. Yao are distributed in Zijingzhenmushan and Yuanan administration villages, both of which are outside the project area. Zhuang are mainly distributed in Shilong and Mengxu Townships in the north of the city. In the 30 villages of the 8 Townships along the route, there are no Zhuang who have lived there for generations.

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Pingnan County has a minority population of 92596. 81463 are Yao, 10800 are Zhuang and the other 333 have moved in because of marriage or work. Zhuang and Yao are the nationalities who have lived there for generations and they are distributed in Malian Yao Township, Guoan Yao Township, Dapeng Township (which enjoy autonomous benefits) south of the Dayao mountain in the north of the county. There is aZhuang natural village in Zhenlong Township. There are no minorities within the project area along the route who have lived there for generations. Tengxian has a minority population of over 6000, mainly distributed in Dali Township. Over 400 of them are Zhuang and the rest are Yao. There are no minorities within the project area along the route who have lived there for generations. Cangwu County has a minority population of about 5000. Yao and Zhuang have lived there for generations, mainly distributed in 4 administrative villages. Yao villages include Shanping of Liupu Township, Daochao and Mupi of Shizai Township. Sihua of Guangping Township is Zhuang village. There also exist 10 other minority nationalities of very small population, who have moved in because of marriage or work. There are no minorities within the project area along the route.

4.2 Rural resources and livelihood

The project area is an important agriculture area of Guangzhou. The rural residents mainly rely on the land for livelihood, which takes the form of farming and animal husbandry mainly due to the lack of gathering, fishing, hunting and forestry resources. Rich agriculture resources promote the rapid growth of the population. There are many immigrants in this area. High population density leads to poor land use ratio per capita. Currently, cultivable land per capita is between 0.5 and 0.8 acres. Villages of different locations have different amount of cultivable land. And the proportion of paddy land and dry land also varies. On the whole, 60% of the land is paddy land and 40%is dry. A few villagers open up some small stretch of land in the front or behind the house or in the wasted corners of the land and grow green onion, ginger, garlic, melons, etc. Undeveloped wilderness and other utilizable land resources are little. Which crops to grow depends on whether the land is paddy or dry. In paddy land, hybrid rice is most commonly seen, yielding two crops a year with a yield per unit of 400-600 kilograms. The market price of rice is 1.8-2 RMB Yuan. The cost per acre is around 500 RMB Yuan (including the cost of seeds, fertilizer, pesticide, tractor ploughing fees, irrigation fees, etc) Some villagers grow rice at the first crop in the spring to provide food for the family (average need per capital is 400 kilograms of rice) and grow cash crop in summer, such as chufa, locus roots and vegetables, whose value is higher than rice. In dry land, sugar canes and corns are most commonly seen. Some soybeans and peanuts can also be seen. Villagers grow them for the oil for the family or to sell for cash. A few villagers grow potatoes and cassavas. The project

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area is an important sugar can production location. The local government encourages the villager to grow sugar canes. The sugar manufacturers sign contract with the villagers. Net income from one acre of sugar cane is around 600 RMB Yuan. Farming seasons for the villages along the route are: from Lantern Festival to early February of the Chinese lunatic month (peanuts, corns, and sugar canes); February (ploughing, harrowing, rice transplanting); May (field caring); June (summer harvest and summer ploughing), July to September (cutting off sugar can leaves, field caring, and surplus labor working in neighborhood towns); October (harvest); November to February of next year (reaping sugar canes and surplus labor doing temporary jobs in other places). Pig breeding is the most important part of animal husbandry. Villagers raise both pigs and sows. The price for pig feed and grice has risen. And the work needs a lot of manpower. Since many strong laborers are working outside, hands are short, especially during the busy farming seasons. Therefore, almost half of the villagers are no longer raising pigs. Only households with hands to spare can afford to raise pig all year round. About one fourth of the households raise no work animals. Work animals are mainly water buffalos and there are also some scalpers and horses. Most households raise chicken, ducks and geese. These animals are for the family’s table on festivals. A few household sell poultry for petty cash. In the mid and late 1980s, the surplus labors in the rural areas began going to Guangdong to work. Working out of home becomes the main source of income for most households. The age of the peasant works ranges from 17 and 18 to 40 or so. The destination is usually Guangdong. 90% of the peasant workers from the project area go to Guangdong. The rest are in the Yangtze Delta such as Shanghai and Zhejiang. They mostly work in private-owned factories, and foreign companies, and mostly in sections such as electrical toy manufacturing, garment manufacturing, food processing, and construction. The average salary is some 1500 RMB Yuan. Young people with little working experience and female works earn less. 5% of them earn their living by contracting construction projects, contracting cultivation land, wholesaling smallware and the like. The annual income of these people is around 30 to 50 thousand RMB Yuan. Two or three turn rich with assets of the value of more than 1 million RMB Yuan. The income structure of the villagers is roughly: 30%-50% farming, 40-50% working out of home, and 5-10% others. Difference is large between villages and villagers. Villages close to towns and with convenient transportation conditions, develop cash farming usually. In these villages, relatively few work out of home. Farming, animal husbandry and others bring in a large proportion of the income. Such villages include Longling and Daguo of Qintang Township, and Dabang of Heji Township. The closed-up villages distant from the town rely on working out of home mostly, such as Zhangtuan of Huanglian Township, Qiming of Litang Township. Whereas Sanmin of

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Heji Township and Fengming of Litang Township have relatively plenty of cultivation land, and farming and animal husbandry bring in a large proportion of the villagers’ income. Among the expenses, general consumption covers 40% of the total, production cost covers 20%, and socializing expenses cover 5-10%. Education expenses vary. Some households have no education expenses. Some pay 50% of their total expenses on education. And a few are even pay their children’s high school or higher education on debts. Medical expenses cover 10%. All villagers in the project area take part in the new rural cooperation medical fund developed by the government. Treatment of serious diseases is basically no longer a problem. The heaviest burdens of the villagers are houses and weddings of their children. It usually takes more than 10 year to save enough money for a house. The wedding of a child, especially a son, will often cost years’ savings of the whole family. (Please see table 3 below for the rural livelihood structure of the project area.)

4.3 Culture and livelihood of Zhuang society

4.3.1 General introduction to Zhuang

According to the statistics of China’s 5th census in 2000, the population of Zhuang is 16.1788 million, among which 22.37%, that is 3.6197 million, are urban residents and 77.63%, that is 12.5592 million, are rural residents. Zhuang people are distributed in all the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government. Aside from Guangxi, provinces with more than 100 thousand Zhuang population include Yunnan and Guangdong. Those with more than 10 thousand Zhuang population are Guizhou, Hainan, Hunan and Hebei. By the end of 2007, there are 16.50 million Zhuang people in Guangxi, 33% of the Guangxi’s population, and 90% of the whole Zhuang population. They are mainly distributed in Nanning, Liuzhou, Baise, Hechi, Laibin, Congzuo, Fangchenggang, Guigang and Qinzhou cities. Zhuang has a long history. They were the aborigines of South China. The mainstream opinion in the academic field is that Zhuang is stemmed from the ancient “Yue” in the south. Zhuang is especially close to the “Xiou” nad “Luoyue”, both branches of Yue. Zhuang has more than 20 branches such as Buzhuang, Bunong, Buyi. In 1950, they were given one name “Zhuang”. Traditionally, the main livelihood of Zhuang is farming. They are good at growing rice and raising poultry. Fishing, hunting and gathering are relatively under-

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developed. Livelihood patterns and economic development level of Zhuang are almost the same with those of Han in the same area. They usually choose their living area in plains with nice irrigation conditions and valleys with rich natural resources. In plains and hills, they often live together with the Han people, and occasionally live by in small compact natural villages. In mountains, they often live together with Yao, Tong and Miao, and occasionally live in small compact administrative and natural villages. Zhuang people in the same village usually have both blood and regional relations. They take care for one another in production and in daily life. But the blood lines are notclan-like. Monogamy is practiced in marriage. It is the custom for the bride to live in her own family until before the birth of her child. They marry with Han and other nationalities in the neighborhood. Nuclear families and extended families are most common. Zhuang people have their own language, but speak Chinese vernacular mostly when communicating with other nationalities. Zhuang language belongs to the Zhuang-Dai branch of Zhuang-Tong tree of Sino-Tibetan family. It has the northern dialect and the southern dialect. Their ancestors created the block words of Zhuang in imitation of the Chinese characters. They are used for recording the lyrics of songs. In the 1950s, the central government appointed experts to coin Zhuang words with Latin letter. In Guangxi, there are fixed Zhuang language TV and radio programs, and newspapers, magazines and other publications. Zhuang culture and art are rich and diversified. Zuoyanya fresco is Zhuang’s artistic treasure created two thousand years ago by their ancestors. The singing parties on festivals and on ordinary occasions are called “Gexu”. The fame of Gexu travels far. Zhuang’s traditional houses are houses projecting over the water and one-story houses of brick walls and tile roofing. They do not possess pronounced national characteristics. In the 1980s, multi-story building of concrete and bricks came into fashion. The traditional clothing of Zhuang are trousers and short-sleeve shirts made of dark cyan cloth spun, woven and dyed by themselves. They now usually buy ready-made clothes from the market. National clothes are seldom seen. Major festivals include: Spring Festival, March the Third, Zhongyuan Festival (or Ghost Festival), etc. They are polytheists, worshiping demons and ancestors. Burials often take two ceremonies. The folk believe in Fengshui. Taoism and Buddhism also enjoy some popularity.

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Table 3: Summary of resources and livelihood as per field investigationPopulation of the village(persons) Resources(acres) Industry Income (Yuan)

VillagePopulation household

Personswithlaborability

Percentageof Zhuang

Personsworkingoutside

theregion

Cultivableland

paddyland

Dryland

farming husbandry othersMonthlyincome

Annualnet

incomeper

capita

Huanglian 5170 1100 2400 4% 1100 2300 1700 600

Rice,sugarcane,corn

Pig, grice business 1400 2250

Zhangtuan 2590 440 1300 100% 400 1200 800 400

Rice,sugarcane,corn

pig / 1300 2100

Daguo 6400 1450 3200 98% 1800 4200 3200 800

Rice,sugarcane,potato

Pig, grice,scalper,water

buffalo

Handcraft,business

1500 4000

Longling 6337 1520 3500 15% 1000 3650 3500 150

Rice,lotusroots,water

chestnut,vegetable

Multi-dimensional:

Pig, duck,fish

Handcraft,business

1600About5000

Fengming 6580 1370 4000 50% 1370 5800 3700 2100Rice,sugarcane,

/ / 1500 2400

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lotusroots

Qiming 4258 990 1800 85% 500 6100 2100 4000

Rice,sugarcane,

vegetable

Pig, grice / 1600 3800

Sanmin 5326 1200 2700 30% 2000 7200 3600 3600

Rice,sugarcane,

vegetable,longan

Pig, waterbuffalo

/ 1500 5000

Dabang 3051 725 1600 37% 400 3056 1800 1250

Rice,sugarcane,

vegetable,tobaccoleaves

Pig, grice,scalper,water

buffalo

Business 1300 3056

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4.3.2 The livelihood of Zhuang people in the project area

The Zhuang population in the project area is about 330 thousand. Most of them live together with the Han people. They only live compactly in 10 and plus natural villages. Their lifestyle, customs, economic status and production skills are almost the same with those of Han people. We will describe the economy and cultural status of Zhuang people in the project area by the example so Daguo and Fengming villages. (I)Daguo Village1

�Population and society�

Daguo village comprises 8 natural villages, with over 1450 households and 6400 villager, who are divided into 42 production groups. Daguo village has 3300 adults with labor capacities and 63 CPC members. It used to be a 100% Zhuang Village. Han people moved in as part of the resettlement of the Pinglong Reservoir (1958) project. Now 80 Han immigrants live together here with the Zhuangs. Family names of the village include: Huang, Wei, Zeng, Yi, Chen, Li, Meng, He, Lu, Qin, etc. Huang is the largest one. Meng, He and Wei follow. There is no kinship ancestral temple in the village. There are no large kinship clans either. On Tomb-sweeping Day, each family will sweep the tomb of their own ancestors, instead of all the kinship doing this as a big family. The families of the same name and of the same ancestor do help one another more readily. But other villages and the neighbors also come to help. The young people marry at an older age. They do not want to have many children, boys or girls. After giving birth to one or two babies, they will have the sterilization operation. The typical family has 3 or 4 and if larger, 5 or 6 members. Grandparents live together with the family. When choosing the life partners, they attach more importance to mutual affections and hardworking quality than their nationalities. Public affairs of the village are handled by the village committee. Disputes among the villagers are also settled by the village committee. The members of the village committee are selected by the villager representative meetings as per the provisions of the Organic Law of the Villages Committee (promulgated in 1998). Those issues that the village committee cannot solve, will be transferred to the Township government. When the parties concerned do not accept mediation, they can choose to go through the legal procedures at the local justice. �Resources and livelihood�

The land area of the village is over 5000 acres, including paddy land and dry land. There is no forest, wildness or grassland. The area of paddy land is 4200 acres and that of the dry land is 800 acres. There are a few stone mountains in the

1 The data are drawn from the 1st-hand information gathered during field investigation on Jan 22nd 2009.

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neighborhood, difficulty for plants to grow. The other year, a businessman from other areas wanted to open a quarry there producing stones, lime and cement. The villagers agreed after discussion and contracted the mountain to the business. Before the liberation, i.e. before 1950, most of the land in the village belonged to a few landlords. The average villagers either only have a little land and barely made a living, or had no land at all and worked for others. After the liberation, the government distributed an equal share of land to each peasant for them to manage themselves. In 1957, the policy of cooperative society was put into force and the ownership of the land was taken by the collective. After the autumn harvest in 1980, the land was measured and allocated to each household through production-related contracting. The allocation is based on the number of heads in each household whose livelihood were in the rural area. And each head got an equal share, male or female, old or young. Since then, each household has been working on their own land. No adjustment has been done. When the senior person dyed or the daughters married off to other villages, their share was still in this household. And his household will end up with more land for each head. But for the household with more sons and no senior persons, the sons grow up, marry and have children, and consequently, there will be less land for each person. The paddy land is mainly used to grow rice. Sugar canes used as fruit are also grown in paddy land. Corns, peanuts and melons are grown in dry land. The yield of one crop per unit is 500-700 kilograms or so (including 18 fine types such as the early indica, oily indica, Guihua indica, Tailand). Two yields are produced each year. The price of dry whole grain is 2.8 Yuan per kilogram, and that of rice is 4 Yuan per kilogram. After the rice is harvested, potatoes are grown, yielding 1.5-3 thousand kilograms (using non-till technique; the price is 0.4-0.5 Yuan per kilogram). The cost of one acre paddy land for one yield is: pesticide8-100 Yuan, fertilizer 100 Yuan, seeds about 50 Yuan and mechanical ploughing 80-100, water fees 28 yuan per year, and reaping fees 80-100 Yuan. The cost of one acre dry land involves less pesticide cost, about 40 Yuan every one yield, and the rest are almost the same with those of the paddy land. The cost of growing corns is less than that of peanuts because peanuts are more likely to be harmed by pests and thus cost more. The typical household also feed pigs, and more often sows. Since pig feeding needs a lot of manpower, those with fewer adults of labor capacities cannot feed pigs. The growth cycle of pigs for meat is about 4-6 months. Raising one pig will earn a few hundred Yuan. Piglets are usually sold after 90 days, weighing 25 kilograms or so. The price of one kilogram of piglets is 6 Yuan (2007-08). One brood has 10-12 piglets. The income for each brood is around 1500 Yuan. Villagers also raise cattle, more often water buffalos and some scalpers. They are used to plough the land. Aside from this, villagers also usually feed chicken, ducks and geese. Net annual income per capita in this village is around 4000 Yuan. Most part of this income is earned by those working out of home, whose monthly income is 1500 Yuan or so on average. Usually, men are paid better than the women. But men also spend more. Women earn less but are more thrifty. The houses in the village are mostly of 2 or above stories. 15% households are still living in houses of one story made of bricks and tiles. There are 60 household living

30 .

on government subsidies, 10 households enjoying the five guarantees, 5 orphans. In total about 100 persons are enjoying subsidence allowances. The actual number of persons needing the allowance is 300. More than 1800 persons of the village are working out of home. They left home after the land was allocated to each household. More left home after 1990. They work in different industries such as manufacturing, construction, transportation, vegetable planting, etc. �Culture and customs�

This village attaches much importance to education. More than 10 students from this village are enrolled by universities each year, 15 in 2004, the best in history. 60% of the young people have finished high school. Illiteracy is basically the past. The most important festival is the Spring Festival. The holiday celebration is to watch the young playing basketball. Sometimes, two teams from their own village compete and sometimes this village team plays with the neighboring villages. On other occasions, the young usual do no live at home, and therefore there less activities going on.The villagers also regard the Ghost Festival (Zhongyuan Festival) as important. It is another big occasion. The local farming activities are usually arranged according to the lunatic calendar. Once the Spring Festival is over, the young people leave home to look for jobs elsewhere. Those who stay at home begin to prepare for the spring ploughing. First it is the sugar cane. Peanuts, soybeans and corns are grown in February. Rice seeds are sowed in early march, and then transplanted in the end of the month. From April to June, it is the so-called leisure time. The work at the field is general management. Those between 20 and 50 at home do temporary jobs in the neighborhood. From the end of June to early August, it is harvesting (peanuts, corns, rice, etc) first and then ploughing again. From mid August to mid October, it is leisure and general management again. People do temporary jobs in the neighborhood when they have the time. At the end of October, it is harvesting again and vegetables and potatoes are planted. They will grow in the winter. From the mid November to the Spring Festival, villagers again have time to spare and do temporary jobs. No one wears traditional clothes, not even before the liberation. The villagers speak the Zhuang language at home. But the local Zhuang language is a little different from that of Wuming and Liuzhou. But they can understand each other. There are no religious people and no temples or other religious facilities in the village. Each household has a memorial tablet for their ancestors inside the house. On festivals, villager burns incense and provide sacrifice before the tablet. On Tomb-sweeping Day, each household sweeps the tombs of their ancestors. When an old man dies, the first burial is temporary. After 3 or 4 years, their remains will be collected and buries a second time. If the burial ground is within the boundary of a construction site, the tomb will be relocated. There are no fixed burial grounds in the village. Villagers usually look for a place of all “fengshui” to bury the dead.

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(II)Fengming village2

�Population and society�

Fengming village has 1370 households and 6580 villagers, who live in 6 natural villages and are divided into 42 production groups. 60% of the population are adults with labor capacities and 63 CPC members. Zhuang and Han people each cover 50% of the total population. Family names of the village include: Lu, Liu, Gu, Wu, Zhang, Wei, Huang, Qin, Su, Lu, Shi, Chen, etc. Lu (about 200 households), Liu (about 150), Gu (about 150) and Wu (about 150) are among the largest ones. There is no kinship ancestral temple in the village, whether Zhuang or Han. In 2000, the natural villages set up a coordination committee on their own, which include all names in the village. The responsibility of the committee is to organize affairs such as road maintenance, bridge construction, digging water channel, wedding and burial ceremonies, etc. External affairs are dealt with by the village committee. �Resources and livelihood�

The land area of the village is over 5800 acres, including over 3700 acres of paddy land and the rest being dry land. The woodland is ecological public welfare forest and is managed by the forestry bureau. Each village has one or two fishing ponds, with a total area of dozens of acres. The paddy land is mainly used to grow rice, lotus roots, green onions (some household grow green onions in the latter half of the year). Two yields are produced each year. The yield per unit for rice is 400 kilograms or so, that of the lotus root is about 1500 kilograms (the wholesale price in 2008 is about 1 Yuan) (one yield each year). The yield of green onion per acre is about 2000 kilograms (The purchase price at local place is 1.6 Yuan per kilogram in 2008. Judging from the local experience, with a price of 6 Mao per kilogram, there will be some benefits. ) The dry land is used to grow corns (Yield per acre is 350 kilograms. Two yields for each year. The price is 1.5 Yuan per kilogram.), peanuts (In small quantity. They are grown for the oil. Each acre produces 250-300 kilograms of dry peanuts. The price of peanut oil is 16-20 Yuan per kilogram.), and sugar canes (The average yield of each acre is 4 tons. The purchase price is 280 Yuan per ton). The production cost of each acre for rice is about 450Yuan (fertilizer, pesticide, mechanism ploughing, seeds, plastic film, water fees and manpower cost), that for lotus roots is 2000 Yuan, that for peanuts is 200 Yuan and that for corns is 150-200 Yuan. Farming seasons: After the Spring Festival, to grow peanuts, corns, and sugar canes; February, to plough; from mid March to mid April, to transplant rice; June, summer harvest and summer ploughing; July to September, cutting off sugar can leaves; October, autumn harvest; From November to February of next year, reaping sugar canes. Sugar canes need care the whole year around. There is nearly no leisure time. Working out of home: On average, each household has one person working out of home. But it has not been very stable in recent years. People come back and go away.

2Based on the first-hand information collected during the field investigation on Jan. 23, 2009 by the trustee.

32 .

The monthly income of working outside is around 1500. Those with a lot of experience earn more. The net income per capica is 2000 on a monthly basis. �Culture and customs�

Han and Zhuang peoples have lived together in the village for many years. They marry each other. They are either relatives or friends. Zhuang people speak Zhuang language at home and most speak Hakka in social life. The young speak the Chinese vernacular, Hakka and Mandarin. They speak less of the Zhuang language. Their lifestyle and customs are similar. There are no distinctive differences between the two nationalities. There are no believers of Christianity, Catholics, Buddhism or Taoism and no religious facilities in the village. Each household has a memorial tablet for their ancestors inside the house. On festivals, villager burns incense and provide sacrifice such as fresh fruit and home-cooked meal before the tablet. On Tomb-sweeping Day, each household sweeps the tombs of their ancestors, squibbing firecrackers and offering sacrifice. When the dead are buried, it is unlucky to remove their remains again. “Fengshui” is important. If absolutely necessary, they will first choose another place and move the remains of the dead after a ceremony. It is the same with the customs of the neighboring villages.

4.4 Relations and comparison between different nationalities in the project

Zhuang is the aboriginal of the project area. Han moved here from the central plains of China starting from Qin and Han dynasties as part of the Lingnan development plan of the governments. There were also merchants and poverty-stricken people who migrated to Guangxi for a living. The two ethnic groups have lived together here for a long time. The present pattern was formed in late Qing and the early time of the Republic of China at the latest. After studying the public appraisal, local documents, academic research and confirmed by field-investigation, we have verified that the two nationalities have always been living in harmony, and the villages and villagers communicate with one another closely. They marry each other. The sense of being of different ethnic groups is weak. People seldom attribute the status of the village, household or persons to the factor of ethnic background. There is no discrimination and prejudice against any ethnic group. Cultural amalgamation has also gone deep. The difference between the two nationalities is no longer obvious. From the comparative angle, the biggest difference between Zhuang and Han people is that Zhuang has its own language, Zhuang language. Zhuang language is spoken at home and in natural villages where Zhuang residents are the majority or the only nationality. Zhuang people speak the local vernacular, Hakka or mandarin during external communication. In aspects of livelihood, customs and religious belief, Zhuang and Han are almost the same. As for land system and grassroots political and organic system, they are totally the same. In short, over the past half century, Zhuang people in the project areas have blended into the mainstream society and culture. Their uniqueness as a different nationality is melting away.

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4.5 Summary

In summary, the trustee believe, Zhuang people in the project area are regarded as the minority nationality in China, but their livelihood, population character, social structure, political system and culture are not different from those of Han people, but have blended into the local mainstream society and culture. They don’t comply with the definition of the “indigenous people” described in the World Bank OP4.10. This project will not impact them differently than the Han people here.

5. Poverty and Gender

5.1 Poverty in the project area

5.1.1 General introduction

Guangxi is a relatively under-developed province in China in terms of economy. 28 counties in it are priorities of the state’s poverty alleviation work, 21 counties are priorities of the region’s poverty alleviation work. The poorest areas include the autonomous counties in the north, west and northwest of Guangxi, and the counties along the karst mountain area such as Baise and Hechi. By the end of 2005, 860 thousand were barely fed or clothed, and 3.26 million are below the poverty line, which is 7% of the total population. In 2008, the number of people receiving the state subsidence allowances was 1.628 million, 4% of the total population. According to the statistics of the governments of all levels, the number of people in the region who qualify for the five guarantees is 339.8 thousand3.

The project area is a relatively rich place in Guangxi compared with other rural areas in the region. The rural residents can meet their basic needs. Although the income per capita in some villages is about 2000, there are few who are barely fed and clothed. According to the data obtained by the RAP team through field investigation, there are 10395 poverty-stricken households in the project area, with about 50 thousand population. The percentage of poverty-stricken population is less then 1/10,000. That is to say, poverty is not a major issue here.

Table 4: Disadvantage people in the villages being affected along the Nanjing-

Guangzhou railway route

ProvincePrefecture (city)

County (district)

Persons enjoy the five guarantees

Disabled persons

Poverty-stricken households

Households with women as the head

Gangbei District

274 581 1479 1287 Guangxi Guigang

Guiping city

844 1201 2940 3033

3 To meet the basic needs of the households enjoying five guarantees, the autonomous region provide each one of them a monthly subsidy equal in value to 15 kilograms rice, 30 Yuan cash and 0.5 kilogram food oil.

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Pingnan County

353 295 984 775

Qintang District

199 405 1600 494

Nanning Binyang County

135 281 582 525

Cangwu County

243 389 702 983 Wuzhou

Tengxian County

1598 2317 2108 804

Total 3 7 3646 5469 10395 7901 �Note: The data in table 4 were collected and sorted by the RAP team through field investigation. Special thanks to RAP.�

5.1.2 Analysis of the causes of poverty

According to the information learned by the trustee during field investigation, the causes of poverty for this part of the population are: (1)They have little cultivation land per head. The food that their land produces cannot is not enough to support the whole family. They have no grains left to feed animals for cash. No grains, and therefore no cash. No cash and less grain. It is a vicious circle. Little cultivation land—lack of food—difficulty in feeding animals—little investment in the land—poor yield—less food. They have little cultivation land because their family has grown fast since the land was allocated to each household based on the contract system with remuneration linked to output. The new members of the household have not been allocated a share. This phenomenon is common in the rural areas. According to the statistic analysis of the data, the expenses on food for households in the project area cover 20-30% of their total income. Even with the income from working out of home, a large part of their income is used to feed the family instead of being invested in reproduction. (2)They have few adults with labor capacity. In the project area 30-50% of the household income comes from those working out of home. Some of the households have no manpower to carefully grow their land, not alone to work out of home, because the members are either too old, two young, ill or disabled. There are at least 2 or 3 such households in each village. They are among the poorest. (3)They become poor because of the large expenses on medicine or education. Among the expense of the households in the project area, medicine and education cover 25% of the total on the average, and all in cash. They become a heavy burden. The state is vigorously promoting the new cooperative medical system and the compulsive 6-year or 9-year education. The above situation is expected to be alleviated recently.

5.2 Association of poverty to nationalities

In the project area, poverty is not associated with minority nationalities.

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Generally speaking, there is no inner link between the nationality structure and the economic status and residents’ income of the villages. According to the investigation results by the trustee on the situations of the 8 administrative villages (see table 10 below): Zhangtuan Village of Huanglian Township of Guigang city is a 100% Zhuang village and its income per capita is about 2100 Yuan. Huanglian village’s majority population are Han people and its income per capita is also only about 2200 Yuan. The neighboring Daguo village of Qintang Township is almost a 100% Zhuang village, but its income per capita is about 4000 Yuan. The majority population of Longling village in the neighborhood are Han people and the income per capita in this village is 5000 Yuan. The differences between the 4 villages and the 2 Township are due to their locations. Huanglian Township has almost no industry at all. There is only one small town with 20 thousand population and a passing second-tier road. Its radiation effect is limited. The net income per peasant in this Township is only about 2200 Yuan. In Huanglian village on the borders of the town and Zhuangtuan village 3 kilometers away from the town, traditional farming is the main livelihood. Working out of home is an addition. But since the villagers have always been doing traditional farming, they are only qualified for jobs with low technical requirement and hence with less income, such as simple operations in tailoring and electrical toy manufacturing production chains, or for the physical work on construction sites. Whereas Qintang district government is located in Qintang Township. The Township has convenience transportation conditions by railway, roads and river. The urban population is over 100 thousand. There are more factories and companies here. The second and third industries are well developed here, which promote the commercialization of agriculture. The net income per peasant in this Township is 4500 Yuan. Daguo and Longling, taking advantages of their closeness to the town, develop cash farming and the benefits are ok. Some villagers run restaurants, stores, wholesale vegetables, provide transportation service, drive taxis in the town. They have many sources of income. Those who work out of home are mainly renting the local farming land to grow fruit and vegetable for sale in Guangdong and other places. The others drive taxis, run shops, contract construction projects in big cities. So they have high income. Both Daguo and Zhangtuan are Zhuang villages, but the income per capita of the former is twice of that of the latter. The income per capita of Huanglian is also only half of that of Daguo. Although the nationality structures of Daguo and Longling are quite different, the incomes are close to each other. As for the income of the individual household, there is on obvious difference between Zhuang ones and Han ones. At the colloquia, the cadres and villager preventatives all tell us that there are no much difference between Zhuang households and Han ones when talking about rich, medium and poor households. When analyzing the causes of poverty, what they speak of is basically what is written above in section 5.1.2. Poverty has nothing to do with nationality.

5.3 Women

5.3.1 Women qualities and traditional division of labour

According to the results of field investigation, women in the project area, especially working women, are generally less educated than the men. The traditional role for women is doing household chores, taking cares of the old and the young, and working together with men in the field. They are expected to do little outside the household. If

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their husbands are home, the women do not generally volunteer to participate in village affairs, such village councils or gatherings. In the past two decades, with the rise of labor and service economy, men between 20 and 50 and unmarried women have been either working out of home or doing temporary jobs during leisure seasons. Housewives are not only doing all the household chores, but also doing most of the farming work. Women farm and manage the household, whereas the men earn cash working out home. This has become the general division of labor between men and women. In the project areas, there are no distinct differences between Zhuang and Han women in their general qualities, division of labour, roles in the family and social status.

5.3.2 The project and women

Given the model of “husbands managing outside affairs while wives managing internal affairs”, the project should pay particular attention to and emphasize on the participation of women in all phases of the project, without any constraints of information sharing. This is not only because of the traditional division of labour and lack of pro-activity, but also because women stay home engaged in hours chores, but may be more sensitive to negative impacts of the project, such as construction disturbances, change of access road and safety for older people and children, Therefore it is suggested,

¾ The project will promote and advocate for women to participate and make sure women are present at information sharing sessions.

¾ The project should make sure that women participate in the consultations during the project preparation, implementation and operation. Their views on the method of participation should be respected.

¾ The project should put more emphasis on the vocational training. Local governments in the project areas should start training programs and consider the particular needs of women and make corresponding arrangement. Special training should be arranged for women if necessary.

¾ Local governments, when considering participation of women, should listen to the women’s union and seek their advice.

Because of the little difference between Han and Zhuang women in social roles and personal qualities, the above recommendations for women also apply to Zhuang women.

5.4 Summary

In summary, there are almost no differences between Zhuang and Han peoples in the project area in terms of production and living skills, and economic status, and in aspects like income per capital and the size of poverty-stricken population. There are no obvious differences either between Zhuang and Han women in terms of social status, roles and situation. It is confirmed that Zhuang nationality has blended into the mainstream society and culture. The social, cultural, system and political factors that could isolate Zhuang people and place them at a disadvantage do not exist.

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6. Project impact analysis

6.1 Project benefits

The field surveys and investigations indicate the project will bring about the following positive impacts to the local areas (1) The project is a railway of high capacity and high speed, both freight and passenger transport. Stations will be built at different locations along the route. It will bea fast, secure, convenient and reachable transportation means for the surplus laborers along the route to travel to Guangdong and the coastal areas to earn a living. This will alleviate the tight demand of land resources by the large population. (2) With convenient transportation means, those working out of home can return to help during the busiest farming seasons. This will reduce of possibility of leaving some or all the land unused due to the lack of manpower, or the possibility of missing the right timing and having to give up some of the farming activities. With this railway, the limited land resources will be fully utilized. (3) The railway will bring more people and more resources flowing into the area, creating more business opportunities and attracting investment. This will promote the development of the local economy and develop the second and third industries, offer more jobs and entrepreneur chances. Consequently more peasants will be less dependent on the cultivable land. (4) Better transportation and prosperous market will stimulate the commercialization and specialization of agriculture along the route. Villagers will gain more benefits by farming. (5) The support facilities of the infrastructure and the prosperity of the local economy will add value to the limited land resources of the peasants and increase their wealth. Aside from this, when farming becomes profitable, the peasants will be motivated to explore more ways to more efficiently utilize the land. The development of rural areas in the suburbs and the prosperity of peasants there provide a successful example for all. Field investigations indicate, through focus group discussions with villagers, household surveys or individual interviews, that Zhuang and Han people in local areas have the same expectations for the benefits under project. This also indicates the closeness in their existing living conditions, life experiences and cultural backgrounds.

6.2 Adverse impact

In the interactions with local Zhuang and Han villagers, they have also expressed the following concerns:

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(1) The project involves permanent acquisition of some cultivable land in the project area. More land is needed for house sites for resettlement. All this will reduce the absolute quantity of usable land. The tight demand for land by the population will bemore obvious. (2) The land to be acquired by the project has been contracted to individual household. The degree of dependence of the households on the land varies. But the flexibility of the compensation policy is limited. The village as the collective cannot readjust the arrangement of the land to balance the allocation of risk. This will increase the livelihood risk of those highly dependent on land for a living. (3) The economy in the project area is currently under-developed. The production value of cultivable land is limited or the added value is large. Compensation is calculated based on past yield and the current capacity of the local finance is very limited. As a result the compensation that the villagers receive shall be lower than it should be.

(4) With the decrease of the total area of cultivable land, the local households need to send more people to work out of home or earn a living through means other than farming. The labor market is very sensitive to the economic status, especially in the industries of low technology content that the villagers from this area are engaged in. The decrease of the total area of cultivable land adds to the risk of the villagers’ livelihood. (5) With the decrease of cultivable land, the villagers will pay more attention to the maintenance and production of the land. Boundary and irrigation water sources will become more sensitive dispute issues between the villagers and between the villages. Mismanagement will directly interfere with the normal production activities and the life of the residents. (6) The project needs some cultivable land temporarily. If this land is not restored in a nice manner and produces less in the coming years, the villagers will burden the loss again. (7) If the project does not restore the damaged farming infrastructure that in a reasonable manner or provide substitute during the construction or after the completion, it will directly effect the production activities and benefits of the villagers adversely. (8) To minimize land use, the project will try its best to limit land acquisition to the minimum. But since the railway will cross the cultivable land, inevitably, after the acquisition of most of the land, the left are all small stretches unfit for farming any more. Or when the big stretch of land is incised by the railway, the villagers need to cross the railway to and fro when farming on this piece of the land. If this is not taken into account, the villager will also burden some loss. (9) Flood hazards are often in the project area. If the waste of the project and other facilities are mismanaged, they will interfere with flood passage, drainage, irrigation and thus affect the cultivable land and crop yield adversely.

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The above concerns over negative impacts under the project vary in terms of priority in attention and focus due to differences in areas and village experiences. But regardless of Han and Zhuang, their concerns are basically the same. This indicates the level of acculturation of Zhuang into the main social groups and cultures, and Zhuang villagers have no ethnic difference with Han villagers in their ability in assessing external impacts.

41 .

Table 5: Impact of permanent land acquisition by the project on the villages of minority nationalities along the routeUnit: acre

Areaof cultivable land� County/district Township Village totalsubtotal Paddy

landDryland

Vegetablefield

Gardenplot

woodland grassland pondother

Constructionland

Unused land

Xinxu 355.2 130.85 32.95 95.4 2.5 0 184.95 41.8 0.95 0 6.15 2.5Maozi 78.144 28.79 7.25 20.99 0.55 0 40.69 9.20 0.21 0 1.35 0.55Qiming 85.248 31.40 7.91 22.90 0.6 0 44.39 10.03 0.23 0 1.48 0.6

Fengming 92.352 34.02 8.57 24.80 0.65 0 48.09 10.87 0.25 0 1.60 0.65

LitangTownship

Longsheng 99.456 36.63 9.23 26.71 0.7 0 51.79 11.70 0.27 0 1.72 0.7Subtotal 710.4 261.7 65.9 190.8 5 369.9 83.6 1.9 12.3 5

Yanshan 149.141 99.03 27.81 70.36 0.85 0 38.28 1.58 3.25 0 0.95 6.05Sanmin 157.914 104.85 29.45 74.50 0.9 0 40.54 1.67 3.44 0 1.01 6.41Huiliang 166.687 110.68 31.08 78.64 0.95 0 42.79 1.77 3.63 0 1.06 6.76Dabang 193.006 128.15 35.99 91.06 1.1 0 49.54 2.05 4.20 0 1.23 7.83

HejiTownship

Pingqiao 210.552 139.8 39.26 99.34 1.2 0 54.05 2.23 4.58 0 1.34 8.54

��

Binyang

Subtotal 877.3 582.5 163.6 413.9 5 225.2 9.3 19.1 5.6 35.6Total 1587.7 844.2 229.5 604.7 10 0 595.1 92.9 21 0 17.9 40.6

Daguo 422.55 335.34 201.04 134.3 0 17.76 0 27.95 0 0 20.51 20.98Yaoshan 225.36 178.85 107.22 71.63 0 9.47 0 14.91 0 0 10.94 11.19Longling 239.445 190.02 113.92 76.10 0 10.07 0 15.84 0 0 11.62 11.89

Guluo 253.53 201.20 120.62 80.58 0 10.66 0 16.77 0 0 12.31 12.59

QintangTownship

Liuwu 267.615 212.38 127.32 85.06 0 11.25 0 17.70 0 0 12.99 13.29Subtotal 1408.5 1117.78 670.12 447.67 0 59.21 0 93.18 0 0 68.38 69.94

Kuixin 110.67 83.90 44.05 39.85 0 1.18 0 5.58 0 0 0.21 19.80Zhenshui 102.765 77.91 40.90 37.01 0 1.09 0 5.18 0 0 0.19 18.38Panchen 118.575 89.90 47.19 42.70 0 1.26 0 5.98 0 0 0.22 21.21

Huanglian 86.955 65.92 34.61 31.31 0 0.92 0 4.39 0 0 0.16 15.56Jushi 94.86 71.92 37.76 34.16 0 1.01 0 4.78 0 0 0.18 16.97

Yaoling 134.385 101.88 53.49 48.39 0 1.43 0 6.79 0 0 0.25 24.04

HuanglianTownship

Zhangtuan 142.29 107.87 56.63 51.24 0 1.51 0 7.18 0 0 0.27 25.46

Qintang

Subtotal 790.5 599.30 314.63 284.67 0 8.41 0 39.87 0 0 1.50 141.42

��

Total 2199 1717.09 984.75 732.34 0 67.62 0 133.05 0 0 69.88 211.359

Table 6: Impact of temporary land acquisition by the project on the villages of minority nationalities along the routeUnit: acre

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Cultivable landty County/District Township Village TotalSubtotal Paddy

landDryland

Vegetablefield

Gardenplot

Woodland Grassland PondOther

Constructionland

Unusland

Xinxu 260.55 88.95 0 88.95 0 0 171.6 0 0 0 0 0Maozi 62.532 21.348 0 21.348 0 0 41.184 0 0 0 0 0Qiming 67.743 23.127 0 23.127 0 0 44.616 0 0 0 0 0Fengming 57.321 19.569 0 19.569 0 0 37.752 0 0 0 0 0

Litang

Longsheng 72.954 24.906 0 24.906 0 0 48.048 0 0 0 0 0Subtotal 521.1 177.9 0 177.9 0 343.2 0 0

Yanshan 52.479 12.257 0 12.257 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 40.22Sanmin 55.566 12.978 0 12.978 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 42.58Huiliang 58.653 13.699 0 13.699 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 44.95Dabang 67.914 15.862 0 15.862 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 52.05

Heji

Pingqiao 74.088 17.304 0 17.304 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 56.78

anning

Binyangcounty

Subtotal 308.7 72.1 0 72.1 0 0 0 236.6tal 829.8 250 0 250 0 343.2 0 236.6

Daguo 53.24 47.608 25.058 22.55 0 0 5.632 0 0 0 0 0Yaoshan 58.08 51.936 27.336 24.6 0 0 6.144 0 0 0 0 0Longling 41.14 36.788 19.363 17.425 0 0 4.352 0 0 0 0 0Guluo 43.56 38.952 20.502 18.45 0 0 4.608 0 0 0 0 0

Qintang

Liuwu 45.98 41.116 21.641 19.475 0 0 4.864 0 0 0 0 0Subtotal 242 216.4 113.9 102.5 25.6

Kuixin 96.6 32.802 0 32.802 0 0 3.304 0 0 0 0 60.49Zhenshui 103.5 35.145 0 35.145 0 0 3.54 0 0 0 0 64.81Panchen 89.7 30.459 0 30.459 0 0 3.068 0 0 0 0 56.17Huangliancun 69 23.43 0 23.43 0 0 2.36 0 0 0 0 43.21Jushi 110.4 37.488 0 37.488 0 0 3.776 0 0 0 0 69.13

uigang QintangDistrict

Huanglian

Yaoling 138 46.86 0 46.86 0 0 4.72 0 0 0 0 86.42

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Zhangtuan 144.9 49.203 0 49.203 0 0 4.956 0 0 0 0 90.74Subtotal 690 234.3 234.3 23.6 432.1

Total 932 450.7 113.9 336.8 0 49.2 0 432.1

Table 7: Impact of resettlement by the project on the villages of minority nationalities along the routeArea of rural residential houses to be removed

(square meters)city County/district Township Village Households

removedPersonsremoved

Total Bricksand

concrete

Bricksand

timbers

Earthand

timbers

Lightlystructured

houses

Factoryand

companyhouses

Schoolhouses

C

r

Xinyu 2 7 188 159.8 9.4 18.8Maozi 20 65 4166 3541.1 208.3 416.6

Fengming 11 40 2998 2548.3 149.9 299.8Litang

Longsheng 1 4 96 81.6 4.8 9.6Subtotal 34 116 7448 6330.8 372.4 0 744.8

Yanshan 10 36 1451 1233.35 72.55 145.1Huiliang 12 42 4089 3475.65 204.45 408.9

Xinmaxiang(group)

2 7 1128 958.8 56.4 112.8

Laoshibei (group) 7 25 1283 1090.55 64.15 128.3Heji

Laomaxiang(group)

23 72 7438 6322.3 371.9 743.8 646

Nanning

Binyang

Subtotal 54 182 15389 13080.65 769.45 0 1538.9 0 646Total 88 298 22837 19411.45 1141.85 0 2283.7 0 646

Daguo 26 83 4686 3983.1 234.3 468.6Yaoshan 20 65 2772 2356.2 138.6 277.2

Guigang Qintang Qintang

Tongling (farmergroup)

22 71 4908 4171.8 245.4 490.8

44 .

Longe(farmergroup)

20 73 4693 3989.05 234.65 469.3

Liucun (farmergroup)

10 42 2756 2342.6 137.8 275.6

Pangwu (farmergroup)

11 43 1707 1450.95 85.35 170.7

Liwu(farmergroup)

17 56 4514 3836.9 225.7 451.4

Guanpu(farmergroup)

6 20 947 804.95 47.35 94.7

Changtang(farmergroup)

4 18 1207 1025.95 60.35 120.7 7669

Huili(farmergroup)

5 23 505 429.25 25.25 50.5

Subtotal 141 494 28695 24390.75 1434.75 0 2869.5 7669 0

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6.3 Analysis of the differences of impact by the project on the nationalities

Between the Zhuang and Han people in the project areas, there are no obvious differences in terms of the project impacts, either positive or adverse or in the degree, scale and pattern of impact. As for the potential adverse impact, the land acquisition and resettlement are directly associated with the route and the positioning of the railway. The association between the location of the houses and cultivable land, and the route is accidental. In addition, Zhuang and Han people live together. Their houses and the land they contracted are mixed together. The possibilities of the Zhuang and Han people being impacted by land acquisition and resettlement are the same. At the same time, since the land system along the route is all the same. And the livelihood, working skills, incomes and economic status of Zhuang and Han people are also almost the same. Therefore, the adverse impact that the project has on them cannot have obvious differences, and their capacities and measures to counteract the impact cannot be different either. As for the impact of the project has on the local transportation and water resource facilities and the impact on the environment and daily life by the construction work, there cannot be difference between the two nationalities either, because the local residents are basically the life in terms of customs and lifestyle. During the field investigation, the trustee finds that the residents all raise similar hopes, requests, suggestions and concerns, at colloquia, and at household and individual interviews. This confirmed the fact that Zhuang and Han people do not have obvious nationality differences. In the same token, the positive impacts of the project on the villages and villagers along the route, mean the same to both Zhuang and Han people, including better transportation conditions and employment opportunities to be brought about by the local economic development. The Huanglian village (Han) and Zhangtuan village (zhuang) of Huanglian Township are relatively poor because of their disadvantaging location, whereas Daguo village (Zhuang) and Longling village (Han) of Qintang Township develop faster because they enjoy better location conditions. This is a good proof that Zhuang and Han are the same in seizing external opportunities for their own development.

6.4 Summary

This chapter compares Zhuang and Han nationalities in terms of the potential positive and adverse impact of the project on them. The conclusion is that because China has a uniform land system and because Zhuang and Han people in the area are almost the same in aspects of land system, livelihood, economic development, working skills, customs, etc, they are the same in terms of taking the potential adverse impact, seizing the opportunities, counteracting the adverse impact. Zhuang people are not disadvantaged by its identity as a minority nationality.

46 .

7. Stakeholders

7.1 Stakeholder identification under the project

Based on the feasibility study document compiled jointly by China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group Co. Ltd., China Railway Engineering Design Consultation Group Co. Ltd and China railway 4th Survey Design Group Co. Ltd., the project identify the following parties/groups as of interest in the project: Ministry of Railways: owner of the project, the investor, the borrower of the World Bank loan. Nanjing-Guangzhou Railway Co. Ltd. (Referred to as N-G Company): the organization that the Ministry of Railways set up for the execution of the project construction. Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region: one of the owners of the project. Its investment is the local funds for land acquisition, resettlement and resettlement. Governments of the cities, counties/districts, Townships: responsible fore the actual implementation of land acquisition, resettlement and resettlement. The World Bank: the main provider of the loans invested in the project. Local population in the project area: including Han and Zhuang ethnic minority population and the affected people. Construction team: the contractor of the construction work of the project

7.2 Analysis of the parties

7.2.1 The Ministry of Railways

The Ministry of Railways is the highest administrative authority in charge of railway transportation construction and management. In this project, the Ministry of Railways is the investor and the borrower of the World Bank loan. It also supervises the construction of the project. It will set up the NG Company to construct the Nanjing-Guangzhou railway and to manage its operations. The Ministry of Railways is a state administrative organ. Its administrative behavior represents the will of the state and is disciplined by the state legal system. The Chinese Constitution and the Law of National Regional Autonomy are the basis and guideline for the Ministry of Railways to exercise its administrative functions. Its goal is to construct the project in a scientific and reasonable manner within the framework of the state policies and legal system. It will not make any discriminating policies or take any such measure as far as the residents of different nationalities in the area are concerned.

47 .

7.2.2 NG company

The company is a dedicated organization set up by the Ministry of Railways for the construction and operations of the Nanjing-Guangzhou railway project. Its responsibilities include: bid tendering for the construction of the project; supervision of the construction activities by the contractor; to coordinate the local governments of all levels and related organization to complete the land acquisition, resettlement and resettlement work; operation and maintenance of the railway after the completion of the project From the social assessment perspective, land acquisition, resettlement, resettlement and construction are among the major activities within its responsibilities. All these are closely related to the welfare of the villagers in the project area. On the one hand, it must carefully exert its supervision power and keep a close eye on the safety and standardization of the contractor’s construction activities, and protect the production and living facilities of the villages and villagers along the route. If the facilities are occupied by the construction, they should be returned to the original status at the earliest time and reasonable compensation shall be paid. If damaged, they need to be restored with quality and in a timely manner. On the other hand, the company shall consciously be supervised by the Ministry of Railways , the local government and the residents along the route. The purpose is to ensure the company shall exercise its functions according to the state and local policies ad regulations. Also the company shall consciously respect the principle of negotiation based on unlimited information ahead of time, and handle the issues related to the benefits of the residents along the route during the different stages of the project construction and operations. The goal is to safeguard the benefits of the residents in the project area and to build a nice public image for the project at the same time. The activities of the NG Company shall be supervised by the Ministry of Railways, the local governments and the residents along the route. The precondition for the NG Company to carry on the project construction smoothly is to well handle the relations between the project construction and the production and living activities of the residents along the route, and to maintain the normal social order in the area along the route. Since the impacts by the project on the Zhuang and Han people along the route are almost the same, and there are no differences between the two nationalities in terms of the organic forms, legal means and actual capacities of safeguarding their own rights and benefits, NG company shall not make any discriminating policies against any nationality in compensation and immigrant resettlement.

7.2.3 Guangxi Autonomous Region Government

The autonomous region government is one of the investors of the project, its share being the investment from local budget in land acquisition, resettlement and resettlement. It is also a beneficiary of the project. It is not only responsible for the cost of land acquisition, resettlement and resettlement, and the smooth progress of the construction activities by the contractor in its jurisdiction, but also the important duty of safeguarding and developing the rights and benefits of the villages and villagers in the area. Therefore, it must try its best to coordinate the relations between the contractor and the residents along the route, to solve the possible disputes between them, to distribute 100% of the compensation fees for land acquisition, resettlement

48 .

and resettlement to the relevant households in a timely manner, and to allocate new house sites for the resettlement in the appointed time. The autonomous region government shall strengthen its coordination function and to negotiate a competent solution to the sensitive issue of compensation standard, which concerns the benefits of all companies and residents to be affected. As for the leftover issues possible to interfere with this project, the autonomous region government needs to pay much attention to them, hold discussion with all related parties and bring forward a solution, so as to clear the road for the local grassroots governments. The trustee learns from field investigation that in the past two decades the autonomous regional government has implemented or assisted to implement many major projects such as railways, roads, HV power transmission lines, oil pipes, etc., and has accumulated rich experience. It set up a provincial/regional railway construction office to meet of needs of the preparation work. This office will continue to contribute to the project because it has built a team familiar with and experienced in the relevant work. Guangxi is a provincial-level administrative unit, with Zhuang as the mainstream nationality. According to the Law of national regional autonomy, the chairman of the autonomous region government, the director of the peoples’ congress and other head of the regional authorities are chosen from Zhuang people. That is to say, on the regional government level, the Zhuang people in the project area have their representative and spokesman. Therefore, they shall not be discriminated against in this project.

7.2.4 The city, county/district and Township governments

The governments of the cities, counties/districts and Townships are all beneficiaries of the project, and they take many major responsibilities as the local governments, including the implementation of land acquisition, resettlement and resettlement, the distribution of compensation, the maintenance of the normal order of construction progress in their jurisdiction, coordinating for the disputes rising during the construction, maintaining the local social order and safeguarding the rights and benefits of he local enterprises and residents to be affected by the project, etc. They have limited power but huge responsibilities. No one would like to be in their shoes. Therefore, one the one hand, they shall perform their duties with justice according to the state and local policies and regulations; on the other hand, they will do coordination, intermediation, and dispute settling work because they are familiar with both the local customs and the laws and regulations. In addition, they have a deep understanding of the policies, too. During field investigation, the trustee finds that the local government so all levels, especially the cadres sent by them to assist the work of the project, are all very familiar with the project and foresee the potential risks and difficulties in their duties. They have a deep understanding of the opinions and requests of the local people and know well the residents of the villages to be affected by the project. They also have the trust of the residents. This is an important condition for them to contribute to the project.

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The local governments are the local organs under the autonomous region. They exert their power according to the state laws and are controlled by the autonomous region. At the same time, Zhuang nationality has its representatives in each of the local governments. These representatives can bespeak the will and request of Zhuang nationality, and safeguard the rights and benefits of their nationality. Therefore, the Zhuang residents in the project area are not marginalized.

7.2.5 The World Bank

The World Bank is the provider of the loan for the project. But the contributions to the project by the World Bank are not the loan only. They help the owner in pushing the construction forward smoothly. To reduce the risk of the loan, the World Bank set up adedicated project team, supervise and direct the preparation, implementation and operation management of project based on the operational policies and rich international experience of the Bank. The World Bank insists that its security and safeguard policies be implemented all through the project, which contributes to the project by enhancing the policy and operational standardization and reducing the potential risks. The indigenous peoples’ policy of the World Bank bespeaks its emphasis of respecting the rights and benefits of the minority nationalities. It will not allow discrimination against the minorities, let alone exercise such discrimination.

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7.2.6.1 Local population in the project areas refer to both urban and rural residents in the project areas. They can be further grouped into urban/rural residents, urban dwellers, employees in enterprise and institutions, Han and ethnic minority population and people affected under the project. They would benefit from the improved transportation and local development. At the same time, some of them would also be subject to the adverse impacts of the project construction.

Project field investigations indicate that local population along the project

alignement, particularly the Han and Zhuang people have had experiences under similar earlier projects and are generally aware of the project impacts, both positive and negative. They have confidence in local governments and responsible officials and hope to resolve all possible conflicts and grievances through consultation. They also believe the village committees can represent their opinions. The understand government and legal procedures of grievance redress. They generally understand and support the project. Issues that they pay more attention to include whether compensation can be delivered timely and in full amount, whether house plots can be allocated timely and appropriately, whether their living standard can be maintained and improved, whether relevant information can be timely disclosed and their opinions are respected and adopted, whether the project would leave behind any problems to their livelihoods etc.

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Fengming Village in Litang Township of Binyang County and Zhangtuan Village in Huanglian Township of Guiguang City have raised issues that should be given priority attention. They are summarized below from field investigation notes.

(I)Fengming Village (Han and Zhuang mixed) Lizhang railway was built in 1970 and Fengming station was built in the village.

The railway went through the village, not only cutting the village in half, but also separating the productive areas into two parts. There is only one access opening to the other sied, 1.8 meters wide. There are dozens of trains coming and going everyday, and most of the time the red light is on. This access opening is not only for livelihood of the villagers in this village, but also for several villages around here. Otherwise, they have to go around for a few more kilometers. During the passing time, traffic and people would rush, often causing jams. Children going to school will cross the railway and sometime they climb through under the trains, very dangerous. In busy seasons, the railway administrations do not consider the situations in the village and the number of trains does not reduce. Sometimes, trains at the stations are too long, blocking the access opening. Villages are very anxious. With speed acceleration, trains are longer and faster, the impacts are bigger as well. Every village committee has discussed this issue with the railway administration and local government, but it has not been resolved yet.

Picture Village report to Yuling railway Picture 2- Village Report to Nanning

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Picture 3 Access opening at Fengming Village

Picture 4- Railway blocked access opening, villagers passing with difficulty

(II) Zhangtuan Vilalge(Zhuang) Zhangtuan River lies in front our village. Though its flow is small, it could be big and rapid in rainy season, and often threaten the village and the farm fields on both sides. Water level could rise up over the knees. It is a big problem for us. We hear a railway bridge will be built with one support pier in the river. We are concerned that such design could affect flood release. Township government and the village have both reported the problem. We are wondering the design has been adjusted. All villagers are concerned about this issue and hope it can be properly addressed.

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Picture 5- Zhangtuan River.

Picture 6 – villagers and the SA team on site visit

It needs to be explained that the issue of pier at Zhangtuan Village is not common, but needs attention. It is hope that the design institute could discuss with the villagers and reach a design scheme that can mitigate the risks and address villagers’ concern. As the SA understands, this type of problems occasionally appears in railway designs in projects before 1980.

7.2.6.2 Ethnic minority population in the project areas Ethnic minority population. Their opinions, wishes and request are the same as

the other groups. They don’t specifically highlight their own special issues for the

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project owner, government and spcialists’ attention. And they are not of the view that this project could impact particular interest of their ethnic group. Neither do they believe they are the vulnerable groups in local politics and communities.

7.2.6.3 Adversely affected population Local population affected through land acquisition and resettlement. The SA

team has paid particular attention to this group, both urban and rural, particularly the affected ethnic minority groups. The SA team has covered these groups through meeting, discussions and individual interviews. Apart from general issues of attention, they are particularly concerned over compensation rates, timely and sufficient delivery of compensation funds. Allocation of house plots (area, site, cost and procedures), timing for construction of new houses and whether they can maintain or improve their livelihoods etc. There are no differences in the questions and requests between Han and Zhuang groups.

7.2.6.4 Other vulnerable groups They include the poor, old, women, young and disable. They would receive

special attention. It needs to be explained. (1) most of the young and strong labourers in rural areas are working outside.

The team was not able to meet with their representatives. (2) given the high percentage of young labourers working outside, over 50% of

the participants in the discussions are middle or old aged people. The project report did not specifically record the number of old participants.

(3) generally women do not make decisions in the family in the project areas, and they have heavy chores. Some communities did not have women representatives participate in the discussions. But the team noticed that views, wishes and requests of those women who participated in the discussions are more or less covered by male villagers.

The team found through field investigations that old people and women pay

more attention to land acquisition, relocation, and whether construction and future operation could cause inconvenience to their production and livelihood activities, whether they are likely to relocate away from their relatives and friends, whether there would be any risks for children going to school and playing, whether land acquisition could impact their future life, and whether widowed people would have difficulties in restoring life with the compensation.

The team has noticed that the project owner and local governments have given consideration to the above issues. Railway construction and operations have minimized the safety risk through technical design, standardize construction, monitoring, improving lighting signals and fences and education measures in local areas.

7.2.7 The construction contractor

At the present, the project is at the preparation stage. The owners indicate that a qualified contractor will be selected to do the construction work of the project though

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public bidding according to the relevant policies and regulations of the state and the related departments, and the supervision and control over the contractor shall be strengthened. The owners also indicate, they shall ask the contractor to give priority to the qualified surplus manpower from the project area in recruiting and to the enterprises and products of the villages along the rout in purchasing raw materials. The construction activities of the contractor are under the supervision of the Ministry of Railways s and the governments of all levels in the project area, under the control of related policies and regulations of China and at the same time, monitored by the residents along the route. Since Zhuang and Han residents are the same in terms of the potential positive and adverse impact on them by the construction, the capacity of raising appeals, and the capacity, measures and means to safeguard their own rights and benefits, the potential relations between the contractor and the Zhuang and Han people are also almost the same. There is on need and no possibility to adopt different policies for the different nationalities when dealing with the residents along the route.

7.3 Summary

When combining the analysis of the parties of interest, the trustee believes: Although in this project, the interest relations between the different parties and the residents in the project area are complicated, the parties do not have the motivation and the tendency to infringe upon the rights and benefits of the Zhuang population in the area and to disadvantage the Zhuang residents. Nor will the relevant laws and policies of China allow such things to happen.

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8. Conclusion and recommendation

8.1 Information exposure and support by the residents

The governments of all levels and the residents along the route have been looking forward to the project for a long time. In January 2007, the Ministry of Railways, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region and Guangdong Province jointly drafted “the examination report of the feasibility study of the Nanning-Guangzhou Railway construction.” After this, the governments at all levels started to publicize the project to the society through various means such as TV, radio, newspaper and the official websites of the governments. In 2008, the survey and design, resettlement and social assessment teams had board contact with the villages and villagers along the route through various means. The local government, resettlement team and the social assessment team adopted the negotiation method of the limited information exposure and talked with the villages to be affected. As a result, the whole population in the project area gained a deeper understanding of the project. The villages and villagers in the project agree to and support the project vigorously. When the social assessment trustee was conducting field investigation, the support rate is 100% at the colloquia with villager representatives, and it is 96% at household and individual interviews.

8.2 The indigenous peoples’ policy of the World Bank (OP4.10) does not apply to this project

This report analyzes the policies and criteria that China uses in identifying “minority nationalities” and then compares them with the relevant provisions of the World Bank of indigenous peoples’ policy. It makes comparative study of the land system, cultural tradition and current status, livelihood, social and political system of Zhuang nationality and their relations with the mainstream society and culture. This report also discusses and analyzes the association between poverty and social sex, the impact on different nationalities by this project, and the relations between the residents of the project area and the related parties of interest. Based on this, the trustee makes the following conclusion: The Zhuang people in the project area have been highly blended into the mainstream society and culture. They do not have obvious national characteristics and are not disadvantaged in this project. They do not comply to the definition of “indigenous people” described in the World Bank’s operational policy OP4.10. Therefore, the trustee suggests there is no need to draft the minority nationalities development plan for the Zhuang people.

8.3 The RAP drafted for this project also applies to the Zhuang people

The RAP of this project has made in-depth investigation and study of the potential positive and adverse impact of the project, and after combining the economic and social development status of the project area, the relevant state policies and regulations, and the wish and request of residents along the route, put forward the policies and measures for compensation and resettlement. The trustee believes that the

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statistics and data that RAP used are reliable, its analysis are reasonable, and the basic conclusions are credible, and the solutions and measures RAP suggested to alleviate and compensate for the adverse impact and to reinforce the project’s benefits, are targeted and feasible. RAP also applies to the Zhuang residents in the project area.

——the end——

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