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China Other Important Sectors
Transportation, the postal system, and telecommunications
employed over 12 million people in 1985. Long-distance
transportation was carried primarily by railroads, inland
waterways, and highways. The government-run railroad network was
the backbone of the freight system, and rail lines extended to
nearly all parts of China. In most areas, however, the rail system
had too few feeder lines and was inadequately integrated. Much of
the rail system had been improved in the 1980s; many heavily used
stretches were converted to double track or upgraded, and several
key new lines were constructed to relieve congested areas. Most
locomotives in use in the early 1980s were picturesque but outdated
steam engines. By 1987, however, several railroad districts had
converted entirely to more modern and efficient diesel or electric
locomotives, and domestic production of modern engines was
supplemented by imported models. Within their limitations the
railroads functioned fairly efficiently and made intensive use of
the rail network. In 1986 the railroads carried 874.5 billion
ton-kilometers of freight, 45 percent of the national freight total
and a 7.8 percent increase over 1985. They also carried nearly 1.1
billion passengers, 20 percent of the national total. Despite
reasonably good performance, the ability of the economy to move
goods between cities and regions was severely limited by
deficiencies in the system, and improvement of the railroads
continued to be a high priority for state investment
(see Railroads
, ch. 8).
Inland navigation grew more quickly than the rail system and in
1986 carried 827.8 billion ton-kilometers of freight, nearly as
much as the railroads. The principal inland waterway was the Chang
Jiang and its tributaries, which constituted the major artery
linking the industrial and agricultural areas of central China and
the southwest to the great port and industrial center of Shanghai.
Improvements to the water routes enabled larger and faster modern
vessels to use them, extended their navigable length, and reduced
the amount of time they were closed each year. In addition to
modern vessels, the lakes, rivers, and canals were plied by
thousands of motorized and nonmotorized traditional craft of all
sizes
(see Inland Waterways
, ch. 8).
Local road networks were extensive, but many were narrow and
unpaved, and all were overcrowded with trucks, jeeps, buses, carts
pulled by tractors and animals, bicycles, pedestrians, and grain
laid out to dry by local farmers. Owing to rapid increases in the
volume of private and work-unit trucking, highway freight traffic
was the fastest growing major portion of the transportation system
aside from ocean shipping. In 1986 highway freight traffic totaled
259.6 billion ton-kilometers, an increase of 47 percent over 1985,
and 80 percent of the volume was carried by vehicles that were not
managed by state highway departments. In 1986 buses served 4.3
billion passengers for relatively short trips
(see Highways and Roads
, ch. 8).
Civil aviation provided important links both to isolated areas
of the country and to foreign nations. It carried, however, only a
small fraction of total freight and passenger traffic
(see Civil Aviation
, ch. 8).
The service sector expanded quickly during the reform period,
making up for major deficiencies that had developed in the
preceding quarter century. In the 1950s and 1960s, services were
regarded as nonproductive and were therefore neglected. During the
Cultural Revolution, they were relentlessly attacked as "remnants
of capitalism." By the late 1970s, the service trades, such as food
service, barbering, laundering, tailoring, and repair work, were
seriously understaffed and were far from able to meet the needs of
the population. Furthermore, they were all concentrated in large,
inefficient state-owned units. The service occupations requiring
advanced training, such as health care, education, and legal
services, were decimated by the breakdown of the education system
during the Cultural Revolution decade.
Revival of the service sector was a well-publicized goal of the
reform program. Legalization of private and collective enterprise
quickly led to the appearance of tinkers, cobblers, tailors,
barbers, and small food-service stands, particularly in the free
markets. Between 1978 and 1985, the number of people engaged in the
service trades, retail sales, and catering grew from only 6.1
million to over 25 million, of whom 21 million were in collective
or individual enterprises. In 1986 the government further
stimulated the growth of the sector by leasing to private
individuals or groups a large number of small, state-owned, service
establishments, including restaurants, repair shops, and barber
shops, that had consistently been operating at a loss under state
management.
Other service sectors that employed significant quantities of
labor included health care, education and culture, and government
administration. These sectors were important to the national
economy and employed over 25 million people.
China produced nearly all of its own medicines and medical
equipment, but most hospitals were poorly equipped by Western
standards. A more serious shortage was the relatively small number
of doctors and other highly trained medical personnel. In 1985 some
4.3 million people worked in health-care institutions. Of these,
1.4 million were doctors--including 336,000 doctors of traditional
(rather than Western) medicine, 637,000 were nurses, and 1.4
million were midwives, laboratory technicians, pharmacists, and
other technical personnel. The number of doctors of Western
medicine grew by over 35 percent between 1978 and 1985, and renewed
contact with the West opened training opportunities in Europe, the
United States, and Japan.
Only a little over 10 percent of all Chinese received free
medical care. Free care was provided to government workers,
military personnel, teachers, college students, and workers in
state-owned enterprises. A portion of the medical expenses incurred
by their dependent family members was covered by the work units.
Most rural towns and villages operated voluntary cooperative
medical systems
(see Health Care
, ch. 2).
Educational and cultural institutions employed 12.7 million
people in 1985. This total included 871,000 teachers and staff in
institutions of higher education, an increase of 68 percent over
the number in 1978, reflecting the intensive reconstruction of the
education system in the 1980s. There were nearly 8 million people
working in government administration in 1985.
Data as of July 1987
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