I think China is discussing all kinds of possible changes in their legal system. Workers' rights are what they are building on now.
We were working with the migrant workers in Shanghai, and we tried to help the students to get an education. We paid for their school fees. They were not under the government education system, which is free. We helped them to build a high school. We paid the school fees to educate the migrant workers. But when we suggested to the government that they should give more rights to migrant workers, we found that they were already discussing it in their people's council. Also, the prime minister was concerned about migrant workers in the city.
For the Chinese, the way is to give honour to the migrant worker. That means food, TV, and the press. They give honour to the migrant worker and show that they have contributed much to society. All the high-rises were built by the migrant workers. But the students are underprivileged; their children are underprivileged. So they also honour the children of the migrant worker on TV and ask them to sing songs. They can be a good performers. They are people with good ability. The first thing the Chinese government did was provide the propaganda to help the migrant people to be respected by society.
They want to take away the restriction that the people from the rural area cannot study in the city. They have a restriction. If you cannot get a certificate from the city, you cannot enter the school system. If you are from the rural area and you have no registration in the city, then you are not allowed to enter the school system, which is free. There is discussion within the government and in the press about removing this restriction. I think that within a few years new legislation will come out that will give migrant workers the same rights as the citizens in the city. So they are going to change.
There is one more thing. When I first worked in the rural areas, we tried to help the students to get an education, because during that time they still had to pay school fees. I suggested to the central government that they should get free education. Learn from Canada. Then it changed. About two years ago, it changed. The government passed a bill stating that all children could have five years of free education. We had a sponsorship program to help the students in the rural areas, and then we had to change our policy, because they can have free education. We don't need to bring funding to help them. All our funding will be for food or accommodation, those kinds of things. We don't need to pay the school fee.
So our funding changed. Our policy changed to give funding to the high school students, because they have three more years that they have to pay for their education. And then we changed our work. We want to help them. Now we need not help those five years. We have three years of high school and then four years of university. But soon we discovered that the government was going to give more grants and loans to the university students. So we had to change our policy again. As a charitable organization, we want to find how to help the students to get a better education.
I find that China is changing. Every time we see these problems, we tell the government to do something, and then they change.
Also, I've found from working among the poor that they have a big problem if they get sick. They have to pay a lot to the hospital for medical advice. If they're poor, they have no funds to pay for this kind of thing. We try to help. I've written suggestions to the government. The policy is in the process of being changed, and it might be that poor people might be able to pay a small amount of money for insurance, just like in Canada. Then they can get free medical advice and treatment.
Actually, I learn from the Canadian system, and then I try to tell the Chinese government that you can change it this way or that way. I've found that they really work on it. I think they are really learning from Canada. I hope Canada can have more dialogue with China, then we can help them to reform.
The final reform that China needs is to change to a democratic society. There needs to be more effort on this in the dialogue.