LIFE IN PEOPLED CHINA 55 with the principle, "to each according to his work", which characterises the development of the socialist economy at this stage. 15 This meant that with the upward revision, which came in-to effect on October 1,1977, those who bencfitted got about 10 percent more than their original pay Forty-six per cent of workers had their wages raised by one grade on the present scale, while the remaining had an upward adjustment. Despite this, it is recognised in Party and State publications that some imperfections and irrationalities exist in the wage system that need to be eliminated through wage reform afier summing up the results of investigation throughout the country. For recent explanations of the rationale behind the eight-grade wage system, as well as behind the increases, see Peking Review, May 5, 1978, pp 13-14, p 21, and Hsinhua News Bulle-tin. May 9, 1978,pp 13-14. H Numerous Chinese and foreign accounts offer this estimate. See, for example, Peng Kuang-hsi, Why China Has No Inflation, Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1976, pp 10-11. 1) "China's Price Policy Explained" Hsinhua News Bulletin, July 24, 1978, pp 14-15. i3 Peng Kuang-hsi, opcit., p 19. 17 Ibid, p 19. 18 The rights of the Chinese worker in old age are enshrined in Article 50 of the Constitution of the Peopled Republic of China: "Working people have the right to material assistance in old age, and incase of illness or disability. To ensure that working people enjoy this right, the state gradually expands social assistance, public health services, co-operative medical services, and other services." See Documents of the First Session of the Fifth National People9 s Congress of the People's Republic of China, Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1978, p 168. 19 For more on the position of women in China, see New women in New China, Foreign Languages Press, Peking 1972, Ruth Sidel, Women and Child Care in China, Penguin Books Inc, New York, 1976; the sources listed in Note 4. so For example, see Hsinhua News Bulletin, June 17, 1978, p 20. 21 Stewart Dill McBride, third of his three articles on China, circulated by the Christian Science Monitor News Service (undated). Me Bride was one of a party of a dozen American journalists who toured China in the summer of 1978. 23 Source material on this obscurantist wave includes: interviews and discussions we had during our visit with academicians, students and cadres at Peking University, Tsinghua University, Futan University, the Agricultural Academy ofKwangtung Province, and Number Nine Middle School, Soochow; Hua Kuo-fcng, ^Unite and Strive to Build a Modern, Powerful Socialist Country!^—Report on the Work of the Government delivered at the First Session of the Fifth National Congress on February 26, 1978, Documents^ or e\^n Languages Press, Peking, 1978, pp 77-84; Chi Hsin, The Case of the Gang of Four, Cosmos Books Ltd, Hong Kong, 1977; Teng Hsiao-ping, Speech at the National Educational Work Conference on April 22, 1978, published in Peking Review, May 5, 1978. >n Mao Tsetung, in "The Chinese Revolution and the Chinese Communist Party", 1939, estimated that modern industrial workers in China (excluding the large number in small-scale industries and handicrafts and urban shops) numbered 2.5 million to 3 million. See Selected Works bf Mao Tsetung, Vol II, p 324. Premier Chou En-lai revealed, in 1971, that the industrial work force (including workers in rural industries) had risen to 30 millions. See Quarterly Economic Review of China, Hong Kong and North Korea: Annual Supplement 1977, Economist Intelligence Unit, London, 1977, p 9. 24 This is based on an estimate made by the Economist Intelligence Unit, op cit. 2* This general estimate is accepted by the Economist Intelligence Unit,o/» cit,, p 11. See also John G Gurley, China9 s Economy and the Maoist Strategy, Monthly Review Press, New York, p 216.