“Beggar” Renamed “Dispersed Personnel,” Critics Say “Waiting for the Rich” Fits Better

In November last year, the CCP authorities launched a major sweep in Beijing under the pretext of ensuring safety, targeting and expelling the "low-end population." The image shows CCP-hired enforcers conducting the sweep, resembling the SS forces used to clear out Jewish populations. (Provided by a netizen)

[People News] On April 24, 2026, Shi Chunfeng, spokesperson for the Legislative Affairs Commission of the National People's Congress, announced at a press conference that the draft of the Social Assistance Law, now in its third review, plans to change the term 'vagrant beggars' to 'dispersed personnel'.

This announcement ignited a frenzy online. In a time that boasts of achieving a moderately prosperous society and Chinese-style modernisation, hundreds of thousands of marginalised individuals are being dynamically erased from legal terminology, yet they cannot be erased from reality.

A 'disperse' resolves a thousand beggars, revealing the literary purgatory of the illusion of prosperity.

The Communist Party's explanation is grandiose: with the progress towards a moderately prosperous society and Chinese-style modernisation, the number of vagrant beggars has significantly decreased. The current beneficiaries of assistance are primarily 'temporarily distressed individuals, such as those who are lost or without stable employment'. Therefore, the term 'dispersed personnel' is deemed more accurate, neutral, and concise. This modification 'does not involve any adjustments to the content of the assistance system'.

However, netizens are perceptive. The phrase 'a disperse resolves a thousand beggars' quickly went viral, becoming a sharp satire of this wordplay. By simply erasing the term 'begging' from legal documents, those groups that tarnish the image of 'prosperity' seem to be 'dynamically cleared' from official records. Internet users mockingly suggested: since a change is necessary, why not make it more comprehensive? 'Waiting for the rich' is more appropriate, and 'preparation for flexible employment' better reflects government concern…

The word games employed by the Chinese Communist Party have created an alternative literary purgatory, where the grim and harsh realities of society are packaged as seemingly normal life, rewritten into a narrative of brightness that is painless, unremarkable, and even counter-cyclical. From the early days of the regime, the influx of farmers into cities was labelled as 'blind flows,' attributing the suffering to the public's ignorance. In the 1980s, this terminology shifted to 'vagrant beggars,' leading to the implementation of forced resettlement and deportation. Following the reform and opening up, large-scale unemployment was rebranded as 'downstream diversion' and 're-employment projects.' More recently, the high youth unemployment rate has been downplayed as 'flexible employment' and 'slow employment.'

Nevertheless, these word games cannot alter the harsh reality. Data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs indicates that by 2025, the number of individuals in need of assistance, including vagrants and beggars, is expected to reach 625,000. Another report noted that over the past year, a total of 709,000 'temporarily distressed individuals' received aid. In a country that claims to have achieved a moderately prosperous society, it is alarming that each year, 600,000 to 700,000 people still face hunger and lack stable housing. Is this what is meant by 'significantly reduced'? The homeless are visible everywhere—under overpasses in Guangzhou, on the streets of Shenzhen, and in parks in Wuhan. Former migrant workers, caught in the waves of weak domestic demand and economic downturn, struggle to find jobs for extended periods, often retreating into the shadows of the city and surviving by scavenging or taking on occasional odd jobs.

The homeless cannot escape the iron fist of stability maintenance.

The Chinese Communist Party's rebranding of 'vagrant personnel' sharply contrasts with its harsh methods of maintaining stability. Across parks and public spaces nationwide, anti-sleep devices are routinely installed on lounge chairs. Some feature timed water sprayers, while others have sharp protrusions or automatic tilting mechanisms, all aimed at preventing anyone—especially the homeless or those without shelter—from lying down and resting in public. These devices are cold and efficient, stripping the lower-class population of their most basic right to shelter.

When authorities discover a homeless person, they are often forcibly apprehended and treated as mental health patients or unstable individuals, sent to psychiatric hospitals, detention centres, or directly deported. The CCP's logic for maintaining stability is straightforward and ruthless: any transient population that exists outside of strict surveillance is viewed as a potential threat and must be completely eradicated from public sight. Measures such as park patrols, street cleaning, and grid management, which are presented as initiatives for improving people's livelihoods, have effectively become tools for low-level expulsion and social control. The homeless are not regarded as individuals in need of help, but rather as political blemishes that disrupt the city's appearance and social stability, necessitating a 'dynamic zeroing out.'

The horror of live organ harvesting: a dark, inhumane scheme that turns homeless individuals into human body parts.

Even more disturbing is the likelihood that these apprehended homeless individuals may become stock materials for the CCP's live organ harvesting operations. Reports from mainland websites and informed sources have repeatedly revealed that artificial caves in the desolate mountains of Sichuan, Tibet, and other regions, as well as abandoned military air raid shelters, are suspected secret detention sites.

In earlier years, cases emerged in places like Xingyi, Guizhou, where doctors were accused of killing homeless individuals to harvest their organs. A compassionate 35-year-old homeless man, known as "Lao Da," was unexpectedly shaved bald, had his beard removed, and underwent blood type testing. Soon after, all his organs were extracted, and his body was discarded into a reservoir, shocking the local community. Following the incident, local authorities arrested only one doctor from a private hospital, who received a light sentence, and the case was quickly closed. A member of the 'red second generation' disclosed that the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) organ harvesting practices have long expanded from targeting Falun Gong practitioners to various groups and corners of society, including the homeless. The alarming correlation between the national missing persons and the organ transplant industry has turned this crime into an open secret.

The cold-hearted rhetoric encourages the hungry to "be proactive"

Another section of the draft is equally ironic. The CCP has stated its intention to "help socially assisted individuals with labour capabilities to demonstrate their proactivity," encouraging them to "help themselves, become self-reliant, and escape from difficulties." While this may sound like motivational advice, it carries a heavy dose of sarcasm in the current economic climate of China.

With factory closures, a collapsing real estate market, export restrictions, and declining domestic demand, unemployment rates remain high. How can a homeless migrant worker be expected to be proactive? Should they deliver already saturated takeout orders or apply for non-existent jobs? This reasoning essentially shifts the burden of social assistance away from the government. It suggests that if you are still homeless, it is due to a lack of proactivity, hard work, or effort on your part. The CCP has engineered an economic downturn, yet expects the victims to generate warmth through their own "proactivity."

Public sentiment mocks, and lies unravel.

In response to such an absurd renaming, the creativity of Chinese netizens has once again surged. They not only mock the term 'dispersed personnel' but also suggest more 'sophisticated' alternatives: 'waiting for the rich personnel', 'flexible begging', and 'half-time status'. This collective ridicule represents the public's final act of resistance, using humour to cope with information suppression and oppressive power.

The public has seen through the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) linguistic tricks, and the crisis of legitimacy facing the CCP is becoming increasingly difficult to hide. If a major nation feels the need to legislate a name change to eliminate beggars, it only underscores the fact that this country has lost its sanity. The CCP mistakenly believes that by controlling the definitions of names, it has seized the truth.

As the public's awakening coalesces into an unstoppable force, the iron curtain of CCP deception will inevitably be pierced, and the illusion of a prosperous era will ultimately collapse.

(First published in People News) △