Trust among Chinese 'drops to record low'
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E-mail China Daily, February 18, 2013
Ma Jinxin, 27, of Beijing, said he learned about the difficulty of building trust with a stranger at a railway station.
Ma said he had returned to Beijing after a business trip and needed to call a friend but his cell phone was dead. He asked a man at the station if he could borrow his phone, but "the guy refused and asked me to look for a public phone", Ma said.
"I think we tend to become suspicious about any stranger who asks for help because we were taught to do so at school and at home.
"When we see people begging on the street, the first thought that occurs to us is that they are cheaters."
Shi Aijun, director of the residential committee at Yulindongli community in Beijing's Fengtai district, said mistrust among people leads to some challenges in her work.
"It's difficult to persuade people to open their door for the census and answer surveys that require them to give personal information," she said.
"However, I think this phenomenon is very normal in cities as people live in a so-called stranger society and when you explain yourself clearly, most people will trust you and cooperate."
When respondents were asked to name institutions that they generally trust, about 69 percent said government, 64 percent public media, 57.5 percent non-governmental organizations, but only about 52 trusted commercial organizations.
The study also found that mistrust among different social groups, particularly between government officials and ordinary citizens as well as doctors and patients, has grown.
An official from Daqing, Heilongjiang province, who spoke to China Daily on condition of anonymity, said forced demolition in China's urbanization is one of the social issues that has resulted in tension between governmental officials and ordinary people.
"In terms of demolition, some residents assumed that parts of their compensation have been embezzled by local officials, so they resort to petition to seek higher subsidies, while some local officials treat them as troublemakers and do everything possible to stop them," he said. "Then mistrust grows stronger."
Wang Junxiu, who co-edited the blue book from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the low level of trust in China has led to many problems such as the waste of resources.
To improve trust, Wang urged the government to work harder to ensure all powers are under close watch and punish people who operate scams.
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