Growing a new social stratum
Huang Wei

IN 1972, then 18-year-old Sun Farong was a worker with the Chang’an Automobile Group based in Chongqing Municipality. Although she worked for an automotive company, she functioned more as a tailor. She cut the steel into various shapes, repeatedly performing these simple and boring tasks. At the time, her favorite book was Quiet Flows the Don by Russian writer and 1965 Nobel Laureate Mikhail Sholokhov, which chronicled the early days of the socialist revolution in Russia.
This year, serving as the head of the Chongqing City Bar Association and a professional lawyer with 15 years of experience, Sun was elected a delegate to the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Among the 2,217 delegates to the 17th National Party Congress held from October 15-21, Sun is one of the three lawyer delegates and one of the 18 delegates from the “new social stratum,” which has caught the attention of the public. Evolution of a concept
Chen Xiqing, deputy head of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, believes the formation and development of the new social stratum is the result of the adjustment of China’s basic economic system, economic structure and industrial structure along with the deepening of China’s reform and opening-up efforts. “It is commonly known that before reform and opening-up, Chinese society was composed of two classes (the working class and peasant class) and one social stratum (the intellectual stratum),” Chen said.
The concept of a “new social stratum” first emerged in former Party leader and the then Chinese president Jiang Zemin’s speech to mark the 80th anniversary of the founding of the CPC in 2001. He said that since reform and opening-up began in the late 1970s, a “new social stratum” had emerged and many of its members have contributed greatly to society through honest work and lawful business. This new concept was elaborated at the 16th National Party Congress held in 2002. It was defined that people from this new social stratum are all builders of socialism with Chinese characteristics. At the congress, the CPC amended the Party Constitution and for the first time allowed “advanced members from other social stratum” to apply for membership in the CPC. Moreover, the Party Constitution also defined the responsibility of Party organizations in non-public sectors.
According to the report to the 16th National Party Congress, the new social stratum evolved from the developing socialist market economy after reform and opening-up. The “new social stratum” includes private entrepreneurs, technicians and managerial-level staff in private or foreign-funded companies, the self-employed and employees in intermediate organizations. But a clearer definition of the “new social stratum” did not come until July 2006 when the CPC Department of the United Front issued an opinion that put six categories of people under the term’s canopy. These people are parts of new economic organizations and new social organizations, namely, start-up personnel and technical personnel in private technology firms, managers employed by foreign companies, individual business people, private entrepreneurs, employees in intermediary agencies and free professionals.
It is estimated that more than 150 million people in China fall into this broad category. They control or manage total capital assets of 10 trillion yuan. They contribute, directly or indirectly, nearly one third of the nation’s tax revenue, and attract over half of the newly added labor force. Coming to limelight
A decision by the Sixth Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee in October 2006 further required that delegates to the 17th National Party Congress must be advanced members of the Party. Meanwhile, new rules required the selection of “a certain number” of Party members from the new economic and social organizations to the 17th National Party Congress. The Chongqing City Bar Association, headed by Sun Farong, is made up of 3,236 professional lawyers, and is considered a typical new social organization. Sun joined the Communist Party 31 years ago. She quit her job as a partner of a law firm and gave up the annual salary of over 1 million yuan to head the association from April 2005.
“From my point of view, a lawyer’s responsibility is to speak for the public and safeguard the legitimate rights of the people,” said Sun. All member lawyers are devoted to providing legal aid to the people. The association has set up centers to protect children and farmworkers’ rights. The association formed a legal consultation group of over 1,000 lawyers to take turns providing free legal consultation to the public. “As a delegate to the National Party Congress, my job is to transfer the voices from the grass-roots to the Party Congress,” said Sun.
According to the 21st Century Business Herald, 18 members from new economic organizations attended the 17th National Party Congress. Zhou Haijiang, President of Hongdou Group in Jiangsu Province, is one of them. It was reported that three delegates came from the private sector in Jiangsu, one of the most affluent provinces in China.
“It is a great honor for me to be elected a delegate to the National Party Congress,” said Zhou, adding that attending the National Party Congress helps him to study and understand the guidelines of the Party so as to come up with a better plan for the development of his company. The Hongdou Group, with total assets surmounting 1.1 billion yuan, was started as a small cotton workshop in 1957. It developed into a township knitting factory in 1983. Zhou’s father, Zhou Yaoting, was the leader of the factory. At the end of 1987, Zhou Haijiang quit his job as a civil servant and joined the factory which was at the brink of bankruptcy.
In 2004, Zhou Haijiang took his position as president of the Hongdou Group, a private business with 10 large subsidiaries, over 100 factories and one listed company. In February 2005, Zhou became the first textile entrepreneur in the Forbes’ wealthiest people list.
The 41-year-old Zhou joined the CPC when he was in college. Zhou said the five years between the 16th and 17th national Party congresses were the most important period for the development of the Hongdou Group. In the five years, the group’s sales revenue grew five times from 2.8 billion to 14.3 billion yuan. Zhou said after years of dedication, the Hongdou Group had found its own way of development. Where does the opportunity for private enterprises come from? He explained, “The biggest opportunity comes from the guidelines of the ruling party. If private enterprises can fully understand and implement the policies, they can solve their problems during the course of development in a better way. In addition, most cadres nurtured by the Party are highly qualified.”
There are 14 Party branches in Hongdou Group, and 100 percent of the group’s high-level managers are Party members. Mean-while, 80 percent of the middle-level managers from its subsidiaries are also Party members. Liang Wengen, a decade older than Zhou, is a heavyweight from Hunan Province. He joined the Party in 2004. In the 2006 Forbes China’s wealthiest men listing, Liang, as chairman of Sany Heavy Industry Co. Ltd., was ranked 59th with a fortune of 3.3 billion yuan. He was a member of the 8th, 9th and 10th National People’s Congress. This year, he appeared on the high-level political stage as a delegate to the 17th National Party Congress. Liang said that since the 16th National Party Congress, Sany Heavy Industry has made great achievements. Liang attributed this success to good government policies and the national development environment.
“When private entrepreneurs were elected delegates to the National Party Congress, the first direct impact is that the world will know that private entrepreneurs are able to join the Communist Party, which helps to enhance the brand recognition of our company,” Liang said. Liang said that currently Party members account for one eighth of Sany Heavy Industry’s employees and that they have become the backbone of the company. According to statistics from the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, by the end of June 2007, there were 187,000 private enterprises with scale, with 164,000 having established Party organizations. By the end of 2006, there were 2.863 million Party members from the private sector, and 810,000 self-employed people engaged in industry and business were Party members. Attention and pursuit
QQ.com, a major domestic website, introduced the new social stratum as “representatives of advanced productive forces.”
Analysts noted that the new social stratum involves people from every field and sector of the Chinese economy, giving them the ability to express concerns from private enterprises to Party leaders at all levels. Meanwhile, by attending the important political platform, they are able to grasp the political direction of the ruling party.
Wang Jianlin, Chairman of Wanda Group in Dalian, was the only delegate from private enterprises based in northeast China. At a penal meetings during the 17th National Party Congress, he called for private enterprises to engage in social undertakings and help build a harmonious society. Wang, controlling 30 billion yuan in fixed assets, is entering the cultural field from his original real estate industry. “We are building the largest cinemas in China,” said Wang. “In the past, private enterprises were not allowed to do business in the cinema and cultural industry.”
“Private enterprises are the result of reform and opening-up,” said Zhou Haijiang. “If the reform and opening-up policy changes, the future of private enterprises will be in trouble.” Zhou said President Hu had stated clearly that the opening-up policy will remain unchanged. “We should stick to the reform and opening-up policy,” Zhou said, adding it is the most important policy guiding China today.
Zhou said the report to the 17 National Party Congress stated clearly that the ruling party would continue to encourage the development of private enterprises. “It will be a new starting point for Chinese private enterprises and we will be able to face a bigger development opportunity,” Zhou added.
Zhang Ruimin, President of Haier Group, has been a Party delegate during four Party congresses. He was elected this year an alternate member of the CPC Central Committee. “At present there are mounting challenges facing various companies, challenges such as innovation,” he said. “I suggest the Party pay attention to problems relating to social credit, business moral and how to set up a better market system.” Zhang told Beijing Review that the terms “scientific development” and “harmonious society” are interrelated. But for a company, if it suffers losses, how can it contribute to building a harmonious society? Zhang stated that it is paramount that people achieve self-actualization in a society. “In Haier, even the average worker can receive training from Haier University,” Zhang said. “If an employee invents something, we will name the invention after that person so that the inventors get the respect they deserve for their creativity and are encouraged to make better inventions in the future,” Zhang said. As a successful private entrepreneur, Zhang has been thinking more about the social responsibility of enterprises. “The primary purpose of the CPC is to serve the people whole-heartedly,” he said. “Its eternal pursuit is for the entire nation to live a better life. In order to achieve this goal, entrepreneur Party members must play an important role.

(The Daily Mail-Beijing Review  Articles Exchange Items)

Malaysia: Normalising the unacceptable
Farish A Noor

THE dangerous thing about sectarian politics is how it becomes normalised so easily and quickly. Taking a leaf from the book of Speer and Goebels, the old Fascist maxim proves itself true time and again: Once the public is made to realise that they are impotent and unable to affect change, the ruling elite can hoist almost anything upon them.
One affront leads to another, and the common tactic is to follow-up a public outrage with yet another that is even more outrageous. Hence when politicians issue their sexist slurs and the media reacts to them, the tactic often favoured by some is to reply with a racist slur even more unpalatable to most right-minded adults. We have seen this strategy employed so often by now: The rise of the extreme Hindu right in India was a case of leap-frogging from one insulting comment against Muslims, Christians and other minorities to the next. Likewise the shift to the right that is seen in Europe today was occasioned by extreme right-wing politicians vying for media attention and out-doing themselves by playing to the gallery.
Malaysia of course is no exception to the rule and during the past five decades the tone and tenor of Malaysian politics has been set by the standards of racialised communitarian politics that is divisive to the country. Again and again we have seen Malaysian politicians come to power by playing the race — and now increasingly religion — card above all else, pandering to their own communities at the expense of the rest. And over the past three years in particular the country has witnessed the rising of its politiical temperature thanks to the amateurish pyrotechnics of loud politicians standing on the soapbox to play to the communitarians in their midst. The precedent was set three years ago when the leader of the Youth Wing of the ruling UMNO party — Hishamuddin Onn — brandished a keris — the traditional Malay dagger — in a symbolic act of defiance that many regarded as frothy bravado and little else.
At this year’s General Assembly of the UMNO party the leaders of the UMNO Youth Wing were once again seen playing with their toys in public, claiming that their gesture was intended to symbolise
Ironically, the spin-doctors of UMNO have been hard at work to justify the symbolic unsheathing of the keris and the hysterical screaming and yelling of slogans that often follows. Cognisant of the fact that the juvenile antics of the party’s leaders are under scrutiny, at this year’s UMNO assembly the leaders of the party went to great lengths to explain how and why the keris was unsheathed and brandished in public on stage. The UMNO party’s deputy leader Najib Razak went as far as claiming that the waving of the keris should not be interpreted by the non-Malays as a declaration of war, but rather as the party’s defence of the Malay race. Where, pray tell, is the difference?
No matter how hard the spin-doctors of UMNO try to pass off this episode as another harmless escapade in the party’s sorry history, the fact remains that racial and communal tensions are high in the country at the moment. While the ethno-nationalist Malay communitarians of UMNO claim that their party is merely there to defend the Malay race, the fact remains that this defence of ‘Malayness’ is couched in terms of a rhetoric and discourse of Malay supremacy. Furthermore the non-Malays of Malaysia are left with the stark reality that while UMNO caters primarily to Malay demands, dozens of Hindu temples have been demolished all over the country and the non-Muslim NGOs of Malaysia are increasingly vocal in their defence of the rights of non-Muslim citizens.
But UMNO’s hotheads have been caught in a trap of their own making. During a previous assembly the very same leader of UMNO Youth was challenged by an UMNO delegate who asked him : ‘Now that you have unsheathed the keris, when will you use it?’ This is the real context against which such puerile and shameless theatrics are being enacted: of a party that is becoming increasingly insecure, defensive and unsure of its future, edged and goaded by irresponsible politicians who have let the genie of communitarianism out of the bottle and are now unable to put it back in. One is reminded of the likewise violent symbolism of the extreme right wing BJP and RSS in India, whose leaders brandished Indian swords before their supporters and potential voters, and who later claimed that they were not responsible for unleashing the racial and religious terror that swept across states like Gujarat. Malaysia’s politicians would do better to grow up and behave like matured adults who can deal with real issues such as corruption, abuse of power and the crisis of confidence in the judiciary rather than playing with knives on the stage. The growing income disparity in Malaysia, the low ranking of Malaysia in the press freedom index, the brain drain which is leading to the loss of thousands of intelligent and educated professionals; are all real problems that need real solutions put forward by sincere politicians with real intelligence. Leave the knife in the kitchen, and try to manage the country instead: That would be sage advice to Youth leaders who should have grown up long ago.

—Khaleej Times



Annapolis unlikely to produce an agreement
Liam Bailey

ORIGINALLY, I was going to write an article about how Israel had no intention of returning Palestinian land, and how Israel’s chief negotiator Tzipi Livni had publicly admitted as much.
As quoted in an Oct. 1 article in The International Herald Tribune, Livni responded to a demand by Palestinian chief negotiator Ahmed Qureia for a deadline on the return of land and the creation of a Palestinian state encompassed by a lasting peace agreement, by saying, “Creating timetables, which are often not carried out, as it happened every time in the past, creates expectations that are then not carried out, and create violence and terror.” That was the point of asking for a deadline — for Israel to agree to a deadline would be to confirm their definite intent actually to grant the Palestinians a state of their own. Livni, not even entertaining the possibility of Israel meeting a deadline, says that they have no intention of meeting their side of any necessary bargain. That is why Israel will never agree to a deadline; it is too definite. Israel wants to keep their options open and not give back the land unless they really have to. I have always thought that the threat of removal of the United States’ support was most likely to make them do so.
An article on Friday, however, made me think about the current climate in a way I hadn’t previously, and for the first time gave me fleeting hope that maybe — just maybe — this year’s big November peace conference might succeed where all those before it have failed. I read that Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was determined to find peace with the Palestinians before Bush leaves office.
An official quoted Olmert as telling German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, “There are big advantages to reaching an agreement before the end of Bush’s term. This is the right thing to do. It is the best thing to do for both sides.”
Bush and his administration has undoubtedly been one of the most, if not the most, pro-Israel administrations for decades, and has agreed that Olmert and Israel would get to keep control of the large settlement blocs in the West Bank. This is a sizable incentive for Israel. Israel has continued to build new settlement blocs despite being forbidden to under the terms of the last US-led peace process: The road map for peace. And although in their presidential campaigns it seems that all US candidates and administrations — Democrat and Republican — are pro-Israel, Olmert knows this could just be an effort to ensure the Jewish vote. What the next president does once he or she gets those votes cannot be foretold.
There is a widely held train of thought in academic circles, and even at the United Nations, that the settlement blocs are illegal and should be torn down. The Palestinians outright oppose any form of land-swap agreement that would let Israel keep the settlement blocs, as does even the moderate Abbas. Olmert will be weighing up the likelihood that a big priority for the next US president will be to repair America’s image in and relations with the rest of the world, including the UN. Therefore, Olmert can’t guarantee that the offer to keep the settlement blocs will remain on the table after Bush leaves office; nor can he be sure of just how strongly the next US president will attempt to push Israel into peace with or without the settlement blocs.

—Arab News