Private sector to have stronger voice in corridors of power (02/26/2003)

China's two most significant institutions of State power will each have more than 100 representatives from private enterprise, representing the trend of entrepreneurs' increasing participation in the nation's political process.

When the National People's Congress (NPC), the Chinese legislature; and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the top political advisory body; hold their grand annual meetings next week in Beijing, each will see more private businessmen than ever before among its members, according to official sources.

After making a growing contribution to the nation's pool of wealth, Chinese private-business owners and managers are also learning to share political responsibilities with other Chinese citizens.

A source from the United Front Work Department (UFWD) of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee told China Daily that initial data show that there are 133 private entrepreneurs among newly-elected delegates to the 10th NPC.

Meanwhile, another 100 or so private entrepreneurs are members of the 10th CPPCC National Committee, the country's top political advisory body, according to the UFWD source. "Although the figures can't be called final because they are still to be verified, one thing is for sure: the number of private businessmen will top 100 in each institution of the national power," the source said.

The NPC usually has about 3,000 delegates while there are over 2,000 members in the CPPCC National Committee.

The UFWD source, who declined to be identified, said that the proportion of private entrepreneurs in the new, or the 10th, five-year-term NPC and the CPPCC National Committee is seen a sharp rise.

Wider participation

There were 48 and 46 members respectively in the Ninth NPC and the Ninth CPPCC National Committee, which served from 1998 to 2002.

There were only 23 private entrepreneurs in the Eighth CPPCC National Committee and just one in the Seventh CPPCC National Committee, according to the official source.

The source also told China Daily he was expecting "one or two" additional private businessmen to be elected as standing members of the new National Committee of the CPPCC, which is to convene its 2003 annual session on Monday.

Liu Yonghao, chairman of New Hope Group - one of China's leading private enterprises - was the first and the only standing member of the Ninth National Committee of the CPPCC.

The landmark change at the national political front coincides with a rising number of private businessmen in provincial and municipal people's congresses and industrial and commercial federations.

In late January, Xu Guanju, chairman of Zheji ang Transfar Group, was elected vice-chairman of the Provincial Committee of the CPPCC in the eastern province, widely known as China's cradle for private economy.

The growing presence of private businessmen on the political stage is a result of President Jiang Zemin's "Three Represents" theory, which calls for the CPC to be a better representative of China's most advanced productive force, best cultural heritage and its people's most widely-shared interests.

(China Daily)