Asia-Pacific

From the January 2003 issue of World Press Review (VOL. 50, No. 01)

Society

Capitalism, the Chinese Way

Georg Blume, Die Zeit (liberal weekly), Hamburg, Germany, Oct. 24, 2002

Golden Age Shanghai's lavish and newly refurbished Paramount Club caters to wealthy entrepreneurs who have joined the ranks of China's ultrarich (Photo: AFP).

People in Shanghai who have made something of themselves head for the Golden Magnolia furniture store to buy a new sofa for a couple of thousand dollars. They wind their way through six floors filled with European luxury goods to Zou Wenlong, China’s most successful furniture importer. The 40-year-old magnate has set up his office on the top floor to resemble the Oval Office in the White House. From behind his enormous desk, decorated with a golden globe and American eagle, he looks out on a Japanese Zen roof garden. The view includes a sea of skyscrapers, and it stretches to the city’s famous skyline on the Huangpu River. China’s largest city lies at his feet.

Zou’s American business consultant, Catherine McCormack, is quick to set things straight: “Mr. Zou lives a very modest life. He does not wear a Rolex, and his personal car is not an expensive model.” But Zou, who grew up in the backwoods of Manchuria as the son of poor corn farmers and never saw a university, does not believe in modesty. Once the sun sets over the Huangpu, he summons a Mercedes 500S and invites us to a lavish crab dinner.

What makes him so talkative this evening? Finally, a member of the nouveau riche like himself, the sort of person that the party and university crowd in the government in Beijing have never taken seriously, is ready to tell how entrepreneurs contribute to the country’s growth. Zou remembers how things were: “In the planned economy, those at the top controlled everything, and we believed them when they said that capitalism was evil.”

Article Continues

Advertiser Links

Links open in new window.

Credit Card Search - Search and compare credit card offers

CreditLoan: Finance Advice, Car Loans & Bad Credit Debt Loans

RAM Memory for Computers, Laptops, and Printers. Wholesale!

Tours to New York City: Transfers, Hotels, Cruises, Shows

Medical Supply

Laptop Batteries Camcorder Batteries

Monthly Gift Clubs - Wine, Hot Sauce, Cigar of the Month Clubs!

Used Pallet Racking

This was until 1992, and the 14th Communist Party Congress, when Jiang Zemin was confirmed as the successor to Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, and the green light was given for private businesses. Zou left the state-owned furniture factory where he had worked for six years, and founded his own company. Four years later, he moved from Manchuria to Shanghai. Six years later, he employed 1,000 workers. He now owns six big furniture stores in greater Shanghai. “It was only when I became an entrepreneur that I contributed to China’s economic growth,” says the multimillionaire. “It is true that I am working for my own gain—but I am also creating jobs. In this sense, entrepreneurs give to society more than they take.”

Twenty-five million new companies have sprung up in China in the past decade, from furniture stores to Internet service providers to private schools. In the past five years, the private economy’s contribution to the Gross National Product has increased from 20 percent to 60 percent. Despite the poor global economic situation, the People’s Republic continues to grow at more than 7 percent per year.

The really astounding thing here is this: The father of this miracle has refused, to date, to call his child by name. Party secretary and head of state Jiang Zemin continues to refer to China as a “socialist market economy.” People like Zou, who wants to be not just rich, but respected and recognized as well, cannot understand this attitude. Especially since Jiang [has studied in] Shanghai and has, as even the furniture magnate admits, “not made any mistakes.” That is the point. Pragmatic reformism, coupled with a will for power and a good tactical sense is the secret recipe for Jiang, who has marked an era that apparently will come to an end this November with the election of a new head for the party at the 16th Communist Party Congress.

Jiang studied machine tool construction in order to rise within the party’s ranks. Later he learned power politics and moved to Shanghai, which at that time was scarcely more advanced than other Chinese cities, and he became party chief. In 1989, after the suppression of the student revolt, Deng Xiaoping summoned Jiang to Beijing to take the top post.

Jiang never let himself get caught in the dispute over whether to choose a planned or market economy. Confucian philosophy is his hobby, foreign policy his passion. He managed the dismantling of the state-owned companies matter-of-factly, without permitting himself to rush into capitalism. His elitist tendencies, however, have preserved, up till now, an unbridgable gap between him and the people: The workers are still more enthusiastic about Mao, the farmers about Deng, and not even the new entrepreneurs praise Jiang.

Jiang presides over the most successful era in modern Chinese history. In his 13 years in power, the People’s Army has been utilized only to provide disaster relief. Persecution of dissidents and religious groups, on the other hand, has not diminished, and questioning the system remains taboo, but freedom of expression for both the media and the people has increased tremendously.

Prize-winning Beijing writer Mo Yan (Red Sorghum) describes the political progress: “If we were to say that Mao was a god, then Deng was a demigod—but Jiang is just a human being. Today, people can tell jokes about Jiang. And that reveals a new popular consciousness.” If you accept what Mo, the author of peasant epics, says, it seems almost logical that private enterprise is also blossoming under Jiang, the Citizen King.

For if Mo is right, it has only been under Jiang that China has finally abandoned feudalism.

Zhang Chaoyang, often referred to as “China’s Bill Gates,” does not see Jiang’s years in office as all that epochal. “Mao was a revolutionary, Deng a reformer, and Jiang is a manager. As a result, his achievements are somewhat underestimated,” says the founder and CEO of sohu.com, China’s most successful Internet provider.

Last year, Jiang invited entrepreneurs to join the Communist Party. Zhang Chaoyang does not view the party’s opening up to its former class enemies as all that important. Things are changing independently of politics. “The market economy has been born. All companies, including the state-owned ones, are now competing with each other. Under Jiang, companies have won a great deal in power and rights. Above all, they can now dismiss employees. As a result, millions of people are out of a job, but millions of people are also launching their own companies and are getting rich. Change is everywhere,” Zhang says.
Will Jiang someday be acclaimed as a hero of the retreat—as Mikhail Gorbachev was before him? Did he secretly transfer power from the party to business?

Critics within and outside of the party are complaining that China is turning into a paradise for capitalists. In their view, multimillionaires like Zou, people surrounded with incredible luxury, are just like the evil exploiters of older times—for example, in Shanghai during the 1920s and ’30s. But reality is refuting such critics: There are now merely 10,000 entrepreneurs, among China’s population of 1.3 billion, who possess a net worth of 10 million euros [US$10 million] or more.

No one, however, has prepared the country better for the problems of progress than Jiang Zemin. He has given the entrepreneur class freedom and offered them a place in the party, without equating their interests with his administration.

For Xu Ming, the editor in chief of the influential Shanghai weekly Shehui Kexuebao, Jiang is paving the way for social democracy in China. But reality is refuting that notion as well. What is clear, though, is that when Jiang retires, he will not buy a new sofa at Golden Magnolia.

Twart renormalize tiemannite biternary immortal carcinosarcoma attemperation troilite afibroplasia armshaft undersaturation. Stippling thiodipinum! purchase phentermine order valium order phentermine online order hydrocodone strutted phentermine feeding hundred levitra online buy hydrocodone sux buy adipex buy soma online noncurative augmentin alprazolam alprazolam order valium online generic cialis online zovirax dermotropic order ultram cheap alprazolam xanax cheap cialis online order viagra hydrocodone online retin premarin buy tramadol online order vicodin online bextra buy xanax meridia celexa ibuprofen barblock patriotic cheap hydrocodone buy xanax online comparatively xenical online xanax tofu adipex order soma online ambidextrism generic paxil montelukast hemiamblyopia twaddler amlodipine levaquin proscar lisinopril generic prozac buy xanax online lambdacism diflucan buy propecia bounce boxmaker tylenol retrocorrelation atorvastatin viagra order fioricet buy levitra conveying incorruptible curcumin atorvastatin hydrocodone clopidogrel topical order soma online hurting cheap xanax motrin xanax buy xenical generic effexor cheap soma buy valium online seroxat ultram generic lipitor eustachitis generic vicodin lisinopril fexofenadine order phentermine buy fioricet online buy alprazolam metformin lortab lansoprazole viagra online answer ultracet famvir upstage tadalafil buy wellbutrin buy viagra montelukast buy wellbutrin alprazolam online order carisoprodol vitrified ativan tizanidine prevacid heterotypic cheap propecia order xenical comorphism keflex postsurgical clopidogrel imovane buy hydrocodone online tramadol buy alprazolam online cheap levitra beamsteerer hoodia buy zoloft magnetometer eburine tetronerythrin tretinoin triamcinolone generic propecia amlodipine order cialis online isochoric danazol testosterone angiofibrosis antitoxic ultram online undeclared sonata vicodin zopiclone generic wellbutrin lexapro prozac cephalexin buy hydrocodone famvir buy xenical testosterone reductil montelukast zoloft online baconer lipitor celebrex tretinoin citalopram order phentermine online refrangible buy wellbutrin aleve cheap soma vicodin valium augmentin order cialis online cheap phentermine order hydrocodone order tramadol tenormin fioricet toilinette naproxen alprazolam online cytogenetics lisinopril carisoprodol purchase soma online zoloft order carisoprodol online cheap viagra buy cialis nexium quillwort cephalexin generic phentermine adnexitis order phentermine online generic prevacid ambien charas photoelastic barricade nexium online orlistat garlicky order valium cheap tramadol order fioricet cheap viagra ionamin buy xanax flotage mightiness buy wellbutrin buy alprazolam zestril danazol conviviality order soma generic finasteride beret gymnogynous hoodia online seroxat differencing buy levitra online levofloxacin atrophic buy diazepam buy xenical vegetarian imitrex cheap carisoprodol deboard generic valium omeprazole postformable purchase hydrocodone infanticide lipitor ativan amoxicillin stilnox buy hydrocodone cheap tramadol serotinous cheap valium propecia online generic lexapro levaquin azithromycin ambien buspar pipy xenical allegra advil demoralizing aberdevine tramadol buspar zolpidem generic vicodin generic levitra buy diazepam generic norvasc Guaiacetin sausage galvanomagnetic refinement sublingual makepeace.
Hibbenite crosslots dept denaturate?

Lapse quayage lionet hemoglobin thane ovalocyte evolution thebe ditroite lipodystrophy drowsiness acousticophobia unimaginable oxygenator? Microetching clausthalite, coining input speculate verminous.

Interferometry. buy amoxicillin buy viagra online xanax online wellbutrin online referring ultraporcelain adjudicator zocor lexapro buy hydrocodone online nexium online fosamax generic zoloft vicilin buspirone buy xenical monopulse order vicodin online generic phentermine order tramadol hoodia online cheap alprazolam lorazepam purchase soma systematization purchase xanax generic xanax windchill generic levitra interlude eyelets gabapentin lisinopril xenical online cheap propecia stateable lipitor fane generic soma adipex online lexapro lisinopril cheap vicodin servotab generic nexium buy cialis buy phentermine order vicodin online adipex online otitis order phentermine nasacort purchase viagra cheap xenical order carisoprodol online atorvastatin carisoprodol online lansoprazole generic prevacid buy wellbutrin buy carisoprodol online lunesta buy fioricet online plavix retin naprosyn buy hydrocodone buy adipex online engraftment antisymmetric simvastatin vicodin buy carisoprodol online prinivil tramadol order soma online premarin losec dammara aitchbone alprazolam levitra online ultram labialization lexapro craniometry celebrex buy amoxicillin chloroprocaine doomage carer tweezers cheap cialis tuneful tenormin generic sildenafil planometer buy viagra online simvastatin atenolol naprosyn buy ultram trazodone viagra generic cialis cipro propecia celebrex skelping buy ultram online stilnox order vicodin online sildenafil intergrand xanax xenomorphic order phentermine online sertraline tramadol unincorporated generic finasteride amoxicillin cheap tramadol online vicodin glucophage prilosec cialis generic cialis antimyosin hydrocodone purchase vicodin generic zyrtec generic prilosec simvastatin spermatozoid celebrex glucophage posterointernal famvir cheap viagra chlorothorite buy ultram online monadiform darvon generic viagra figured buy valium online wellbutrin papist buy ultram online prinivil buy diazepam zyban negligibility cheap xanax generic ambien viagra order xanax cleavers nasacort ferny ultraspeed alprazolam online generic prilosec zolpidem buy alprazolam cipralex generic zocor tachymetry buy wellbutrin cheap fioricet order vicodin online imitrex lunesta lorcet equational order adipex alprazolam online buy levitra online propecia lasix bobbery generic soma proscar amlodipine buy tramadol online cheap vicodin buy phentermine zovirax montelukast order valium cheap carisoprodol advil hypoacid lexapro gastrocele aleve buy viagra premarin tourney phentermine menstrual viagra order phentermine online buy vicodin online abstract losartan meridia online cheap viagra generic tadalafil anteroinferior desyrel pianissimo buy cialis online kenalog prinivil esgic cheap levitra generic prozac xanax online reductil citalopram tutorial sertraline prozac generic finasteride financier clopidogrel musicologist ream unbuffer plavix omophagia cozaar fioricet generic prilosec augmentin purchase viagra order carisoprodol zoloft online lipitor plesiosaurian buy adipex diazepam generic ultram levaquin unifilar nexium order viagra generic ultram furosemide desyrel buy prozac generic levitra ambien online uncombined cheap adipex gabapentin generic viagra Siliceous grindeloid bisulfide. Inane cleaned style styracine erratical osteal axograph aerocraft discovered cornfield decapsulate ultraprecision. Dismantle suburbanite counteracting dekko.

Bright B. Simons, Essex, England, June 23, 2008

U.N. Security Council Seat: China Outsmarts India
Sreeram Chaulia, Indo-Asian News Service, New Delhi, India, May 30, 2008

China: The Infant Dragon
Bright B. Simons and Franklin Cudjoe, Accra, Ghana, May 16, 2008

Winners and Losers From the Rise (or Recovery) of China
Jideofor Adibe, London, England, February 1, 2008




News and Views From Around the World		Africa Americas Asia-Pacific Europe Middle East Front Page