Allowing entrepreneurs to enter the Communist Party will help private businesses grow faster and could boost China's economy as a whole, businessmen delegates insisted yesterday in the corridors of the key Party Congress.
The five-yearly event, which opened Friday, is expected to usher in a new generation of leaders while also formally adopting President Jiang Zemin's plan to allow capitalists into the ruling party ranks.
Jiang's proposal, included in his opening speech, is deemed highly controversial as it marks a major shift in ideology for communists, but Congress delegates said it was a necessary step to reflect ground reality after two decades of market-oriented reforms in China.
Tian Xiong, head of the Beijing Hanjian Group -- one of China's largest building companies, noted yesterday that a number of capitalists have already joined. "But there are many entrepreneurs who still haven't joined the party," Tian said.
"Letting them into the party will also increase the contributions of private business to the country. This will be easier for businesses to develop as well," he said.
Stigma attached to private entrepreneurs, once dismissed as "class enemies," began to fall away after late patriarch Deng Xiaoping declared that "to get rich is glorious" and pushed market-oriented reforms.
But it has nevertheless been an uphill battle for businessmen seeking party membership -- and the access to the high and mighty that goes with it.
Jiang Xipei, a delegate and chairman of the Jiangsu Far East Group, which sells electrical cables, said he applied to join the party in 1989 but did not get in until 1991. "I listed my occupation as `private entrepreneur,'" Jiang said.
Most successful applicants are still workers, farmers or officials.
Jiang Xipei said President Jiang's decision to throw open the party's doors to capitalists was a step towards levelling the playing field for private businesses and the state-owned behemoths.
Private firms have a difficult time obtaining loans from banks. Lenders tend to favor state-owned companies, although many of them are inefficient and unprofitable.
But businessman Jiang said more needed to be done.
"We're calling on the government to give us equal status. The government is also working towards creating rules for fair competition between private and state-owned firms. This will allow people-run companies to grow faster," he said.
But it might take time for old communist prejudice against capitalists to die.
Mindful of the discomfort the word "capitalist" creates, some Congress delegates wanted longwinded phrases such as "people who set up businesses" or "economic people" to be used instead.
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