Wang, 13, lived with his grandparents in a small village in Hebei, China, 440 kilometers south of Beijing. Sunday March 10, early in the afternoon, he informed them that he was going out to play with friends. But several hours later, the teenager has not returned and his cell phone no longer rings. His body was finally found the next morning in an abandoned greenhouse, his face swollen, visibly hit by blows from a shovel.

Quickly, the exploitation of video surveillance images led to suspicion of three students from his college, while several testimonies came to affirm that they had been harassing the victim for several months. Although the three young people were arrested and taken into custody, no charges have yet been brought against them. 

Since then, the affair has caused great emotion and has had a strong impact in the press and on Chinese social networks, reviving an old debate: the fate of "children left behind", according to a time-honored Chinese expression. 

Wang, like the three students suspected of his assassination, is in fact one of some 67 million young people, according to a report published jointly in April 2023 by Unicef ​​and the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics, left in the care of their grandparents or close relatives by their parents who left to look for work elsewhere. 

“And his brutal death highlights all the concerns of a part of society around juvenile delinquency, school bullying, but above all the fate reserved for these young people and the problems they face on a daily basis,” explains Chen Xiaojin, associate professor at Tulane University in New Orleans and author of a forthcoming book on the issue.

Controlled migration

“Since the end of the 1980s and the reforms initiated by former leader Deng Xiaoping to promote Chinese growth, the countryside has been emptied of its working-age population,” recalls Camille Ségales, China specialist at the Center for international studies from Sciences Po and researcher within the European project Dealing with a Resurgent China. “Thousands of Chinese migrate every year to industrial areas or big cities in search of jobs and with the hope of a better future.”

And all families find themselves faced with the same dilemma: to take their children with them or not. “For a long time, the conditions were not at all right to leave with your child. It was mainly men who went to work and they stayed in dormitories and earned very low salaries,” continues the specialist. “Today, things have evolved and more and more parents are deciding to leave with their children, but the latter often find themselves living in very precarious living conditions.” 

Especially since these financial obstacles are compounded by the “hukou” system. Between the family record book and the residence certificate, this document was established by Mao Zedong in the 1950s to control internal migration flows. On each "hukou" is indicated the identity of the person, their place of birth and a mention of "rural" or "urban". However, only the "hukou"" ubrain normally gives the right to live "in town", to acquire housing at a subsidized price, to send one's children to school in town, to benefit from medical insurance or still unemployment compensation in the event of dismissal. “This system has become more flexible since the beginning of the 2000s, but it continues in particular to slow down access to public schools for the children of 'rural' migrants,” continues Camille Ségales.

“Faced with this, many families prefer to leave their children in the village, often with their grandparents. Others juggle between the two systems from one year to the next,” he concludes. In total, according to the Unicef ​​report, 138 million Chinese children are affected by internal migration, or 46% of those aged 0-17. Among them, 71 million migrate with their parents and 67 million are therefore “left behind”. 

Psychological disorders

“Many voices have been raised for several years denouncing the consequences on their education and their mental health,” continues Chen Xiaojin. Beyond the absence of their parents, whom these children often only see once or twice a year, grandparents often do not have the sufficient level of education to help them with their schooling. Several studies have also highlighted their increased risks of developing “psychological disorders” such as depression and anxiety, of being victims of abuse and harassment, but also of falling into delinquency. 

In 2015, the death of four brothers and sisters left to their own devices in a village in Bijie prefecture, one of the poorest in the country, who had committed suicide by swallowing pesticides, or again, in 2012, the The death of five children from carbon monoxide poisoning after setting fire to a trash can to keep warm had already caused great emotion in the country. 

“All the children left behind are certainly not as unhappy as these stories or these speeches might suggest,” nuance Camille Ségales. “But since the beginning of the 2000s, public opinion has been bombarded with a discourse on the 'harmonious society', where it is reminded that Chinese prosperity owes a lot to its migrants and its work. The fate of these children is therefore perceived as a real injustice."

Reforming the “hukou”

"We are not paying enough attention to the mental health of young people in the countryside. Similar cases will happen again", denounced several Internet users in recent days on the Weibo platform after the drama in Hebei. 

“This accident is just the tip of the iceberg. All these children need better psychological support,” Shuang Lu, a sociologist at the University of Florida and specialist in these issues, told CNN. . “But in the long term, the only viable solution is to tackle inequalities between the countryside and the cities,” she insists. 

But despite the strong impact of these cases, measures aimed at bringing the children of migrants and their parents closer together are struggling to take hold. “The observation is ultimately quite similar to what we can experience with immigration in France. We need these migrants for our economy, but we are still reluctant to share our social rights and pay for them,” summarizes Camille Saltweed.

In certain small towns that need to attract labor, it is now possible for a migrant – if he works and pays his social charges – to request local status and benefit from related social services. , in particular access to educational establishments for their children. But in big cities like Beijing or Shanghai, this remains almost impossible. “With the same speech that we hear elsewhere: this is where public services are most developed. They therefore fear a massive influx if they relax regulations too much,” concludes the specialist.

The France 24 summary of the week

invites you to look back at the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you! Download the France 24 application