Southeast Express, May 4, 2010

How are China's schoolchildren to be kept safe? "Party, government leaders take charge of school security," reads the headline of today's Southeast Express. The Xinhua article inside reports on Politburo member Zhou Yongkang's remarks on the "major political task" of ensuring that schools are safe.

The paper also describes some concrete measures that the city of Fuzhou will implement:

• "Three withouts" vendors and loiterers will be requested to stay at least 50 meters away from the school. If they do not comply, security guards shall make an immediate report to the authorities in charge;
• A unified, city-wide network will aggregate information about safety conditions including attendance figures, the names of absent students, their reason for being absent, and the names of people in charge of school facilities;
• 66 schools in Fuzhou will install mobile stoplights outside their gates so that students can cross the road safely.

The article neglects to inform the reader what is meant by "three withouts" (三无).

One possible interpretation is the version used in the now-defunct Custody and Repatriation policy. In the 1980s, the policy was aimed at handling the problem of urban beggars and vagrants, and its "three withouts" referred to the helpless, homeless, and those without the ability to lead their lives (即无依无靠、无家可归、无生活能力的人).

Policy documents issued in the 1990s mentioned "three documents," an ID card, a temporary residence permit, and a work permit (身份证，暂住证，务工证), and redefined "three withouts" to mean people without legal documents, without a fixed residence, and without a proper job or income. (无合法证件、无固定住所及无正当工作或经济收入的人员). The practice was frequently abused by local authorities and was finally abandoned after the infamous case of Sun Zhigang, who died in custody in 2003 after being detained for not carrying his papers.

However, another mention of "three withouts" in the mainland media today refers to something entirely different. The Peninsula Morning News reports that Dalian has issued a provisional definition of "three withouts":

"Three withouts" comprises people residing in the city who are unable to work, who have no source of income, and who have no one legally-obligated to provide support, or whose legally-appointed supporter is unable to work, without income, and who is underage, disabled, or elderly.

If that definition doesn't seem to apply in this case, Baidu's Q&A service provides some other alternatives:

Q: What are "three withouts individuals"?

A:

1. No source of income, no ability to work, no legally-appointed guardian (standard answer).
2. No ID, no temporary residence permit, no employment permit (non-resident).
3. No skills, no accreditation, no specialty (laborer).
4. "New three withouts" refers to the modern community of people who have never used, or for the time being do not use telecommunications tools: beeper, mobile phone, or land line.
5. No money (low income), no time, no friends.
6. No money, no house, no work.
7. No heart, no lungs, no liver. [没心，没肺，没肝, i.e. heartless and useless]

There are many others, but I won't list them all.

The term actually goes back thousands of years. As quoted in the Book of Rites, Confucius also identified "three withouts": music without sound, ritual without form, and mourning without clothing (无声之乐，无体之礼，无服之丧，此之谓三无).