Mon, Mar 03, 2003 page11

• Chinese businessmen press for reform

  As the China's National People's Congress prepares to approve a new group of leaders, the nation's growing legion of entrepreneurs will be looking for big changes

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  Both an unapologetic capitalist and a Communist Party member, Lin Xuejia (林學杰) is representative of the sweeping and often contradictory political changes underway in China.

  As founder of the Fujian Newland Computer Co (福建新大陸電腦) in the southeastern city of Fuzhou, Lin will look on with special interest as the nearly 3,000 members of China's National People's Congress prepare to approve this week the transfer of power to a new group of leaders headed by Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).

  "I hope that the leadership changes will bring about further reform and laws, and especially pay attention to private enterprises," said the wealthy entrepreneur.

  

  A worker inspects a rack of screens at the Newland Computer Co workshop in Fuzhou, China, last month. The founder of the Fujian Newland Computer Co, Lin Xuejia, is representative of the sweeping and often contradictory political changes underway in the Middle Kingdom.

  PHOTO: AFP

  The 43-year-old self-made businessman is testament to the market forces at work throughout China's fast-changing economy and the growing role of private enterprise in an increasingly affluent and modern nation.

  As a party member he is an example of how the Communist Party of China has repositioned itself as the ruling group that represents not only the nation's workers and peasants, but also the very group that was once the sworn enemy, the private businessman.

  Attentive and energetic, Lin speaks the no-nonsense language of an executive driving a multi-million dollar enterprise in China's fragmented and cut-throat high technology industry.

  Multinational mentors

  "It's hard to maintain an absolute advantage in PC manufacturing. We've got a lot of work to do because of the wide gap between us and the multinationals," Lin says of his 600 million yuan (US$72 million) company.

  "But we do seek the comparative advantage by selling our products according to niches of particular industries."

  He talks fluidly on the subject of recent price wars among the Chinese computer manufacturers and the pernicious influence such competitive behaviour has had on the market.

  "This is not good for orderly competition. We need to change this situation in the industry itself," he says.

  And he is full of suggestions on how market reforms should be implemented, but the overarching principles on how best to put forth these changes, he says, are the party's domain.

  Lin's curious brand of market know-how laced with party rhetoric is indicative of how China is trying to chart a course somewhere between market economics and an authoritarian government that still has the last word on anything political.

  Only a few months ago, party membership would have been near impossible to attain for the majority of China's growing ranks of entrepreneurs.

  In November at the 16th National People's Congress delegates approved an amendment to its charter enshrining President Jiang Zemin's (江澤民) pet "Three Represents" theory as party ideology.

  It said: "The Communist Party ... represents the development trend of China's advanced productive forces, the orientation of China's advanced culture and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people."

  "Advanced production forces" is shorthand for a burgeoning class of newly rich Chinese who have prospered under market reforms and who are increasingly calling for policies that protect their wealth and recognize their role.

  But many entrepreneurs like Lin have actually been members for years. Most were cadres who moved from the state-owned enterprises into the private sector with the tacit approval of party leaders.

  Lin himself worked for a state technology institute before he went into business, or as he phrased it, "answered the call of our nation that the reform of science and technology should be our top priority."

  While analysts believe that the official nod to allow entrepreneurs into the party solidifies and legitimizes the private sector, it also poses a significant danger.

  "The party risks becoming the party of the established wealth, of the upper class, one that is less concerned with social redistribution wealth," said David Zweig, a political analyst at Hong Kong University.

  "It helps the economy, but doesn't help welfare."
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