Reason Number 40 - Party Capital & Sino-Cash

Fault Lines On The Face Of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never Be Great’ - Excerpt 77

“Perhaps the biggest admission of the failure of Chinese Communism came in 2002, when then-president Jiang Zemin delivered the keynote speech for the 16th Party Congress.

Jiang said that ‘the CPC should admit into itself advanced elements of other social strata who accept the Party’s program and Constitution, work for the realization of the Party’s line and program consciously and meet the qualifications of Party membership following a long period of test, in order to increase the influence and rallying force of the Party in society at large,’ reported media.

Behind these rather bland, anodyne words lies something truly startling, for the ‘advanced elements of other social strata’ that Jiang was keen to allow into the Party were in fact private businessmen – in other words, capitalists, in this case Chinese citizens with cash. The most exclusive working club in the world opens its door and finds a long line of rich citizens salivating to get in. Men with money welcomed by men with power.”

Fault Lines On The Face Of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never Be Great’ - Excerpt 78

“But perhaps the real reason behind admitting businessmen into the Party was less altruistic and more to do with control and greed. In today’s China, the Party wishfully attempts to control everything. Rather than persecuting private businessmen as it once did, it now welcomes them with open arms – after all, it is new money that provides the fuel for the economic engine, and new money is the new god in China. 

A clear example of the change in official attitudes to businessmen is illustrated by the case of Yin Mingshan. Yin, said state media around the time of these changes, is ‘listed in Fortune magazine as one of the top 50 millionaires in China, is chairman of the Chongqing-based Lifan Hongda Industrial Group and vice-chairman of the General Chamber of Commerce of Chongqing Municipality. He is also a member of the National Committee of the CPPCC.’

What media failed to mention was that for much of Yin’s life he was ruthlessly persecuted by that same Party. He was expelled from high school in 1960 for making ‘rightist’ remarks and, three years later, he was jailed. He remained a social outcast, spending many years laboring on a farm until 1979, when the Party informed him his punishment had been a ‘mistake.’ He did not receive any apology for the nearly two decades of his life that the Party had wasted. However, when he built his firm into one of the nation’s leading motorbike manufacturers, the Party was suddenly keen to hear what he had to say. Money and success mean far more to today’s communists than morality, and indeed more that individual freedom itself. 

While maintaining lip-service to socialist goals, the government embraces any political strategy that will either enrich its members or cement its grip on power. The vast majority of Chinese citizens, those that are not Party members, those with limited finances, have just fallen farther behind.”