独立报 中国欢迎资本家投入党的怀抱

在毛泽东时代，资本家是“反革命”和“毒草”，但中国共产党如今给“资本主义走狗”作出一些让步，让陈爱莲（Chen Ailian）他们加入干部队伍。

　　她是一个成功的汽车零件制造商，她认为开劳斯莱斯和成为党员并没有矛盾。她告诉《中国日报》，别把党员脸谱化，他们也可以是现代的、时髦的、思想开明的。

　　中国揭示新的政治局精英名单，标志着党代会闭幕。新的政治局注入新血。与1921年在上海一个透风的大厅里聚集的13位理论家相比，新的精英们将运作一个不同的共产党品牌。回顾当时，中国只有60名共产党员，而如今有7300万。

　　陈爱莲如今是万丰汽车的董事长，该公司是亚洲最大的铝合金轮制造商，是中国汽车零件供应商五十强企业。这位49岁的私营企业代表表示，私营企业主和工人、农民、知识分子、干部和军人一样，是有中国特色的社会主义的建设者。

　　这种炽热的论调和毛泽东小红书的格言惊人相似，但她的故事是新中国的一个寓言。

　　她贷款3.2万英镑，租了一家工厂，扩大自己的生意，直到她的公司向福特、丰田和通用等公司供应元件。中国工厂去年造了850万辆汽车，让它成为世界最大的制造国和第三大汽车购买国。

　　私营企业家长期被排除在党外，但如今他们对经济的贡献得到认可。去年1554名资本家入党，以他们的影响力来看，这是一个不大但重要的数字。股市的上涨以及多年来双位数的经济增长让新的企业家阶层崛起，中国的百万富翁入党受到欢迎。

　　今年党代会发言人李东生（Li Dongsheng）表示，私营企业家有利于扩大党的群众基础，促进非公有制经济组织健康发展。

　　共产党渴望增强它在私营公司的代表性，以此作为一种在人们的日常生活中保持引人注目的办法，以及不至于在兴旺的私人企业面前失去相关性。要解决东南沿海与内地大片农村地区的财富差距，党也需要吸引企业家。

　　党的数据显示，企业家新“社会阶层”约有5000万人，控制着价值数十亿英镑的资本，该国半数的专利以及缴纳中国三分之一的税款。马克思肯定在坟墓里辗转反侧。事实上，你会好奇毛主席他自己会怎么想。（作者 Clifford Coonanin）

Capitalists welcomed into China party fold

>By Clifford Coonanin Beijing

Published: 22 October 2007

In the days of Chairman Mao, capitalists were "counterrevolutionaries" and "poisonous weeds", but China's Communist Party has ceded some ground of late to "capitalist running dogs" and now lists people like Chen Ailian, a sharp-suited entrepreneur, among the ranks of cadres.

She is a successful car component maker who sees no conflict between driving a Rolls-Royce and being a Party member. "Don't stereotype a Communist Party member, who can also be modern, fashionable and open-minded," she told the China Daily newspaper.

China reveals the identities of its new elite Politburo today, marking the end of a remarkably open party congress in the capital Beijing.

The new Politburo, which is expected to cede some of its older blood for the younger allies of leader Hu Jintao, will run a different brand of Communist Party to the group of 13 ideologues who gathered in a draughty hall in Shanghai for the first congress in 1921. Back then, there were just 60 Communists in China – now there are 73 million.

In her old life, before she bought the Roller, Chen drove a truck, but now she is chairwoman of Wanfeng Auto Holding Group – the largest manufacturer of aluminium alloy wheels in Asia and one of the top 50 auto parts suppliers in China. "Like workers, farmers, intellectuals, cadres and soldiers, private entrepreneurs are also builders of socialism with Chinese characteristics," said the 49-year-old, who represents the private sector in the booming province of Zhejiang.

The fiery rhetoric rings uncannily similar to the dictums of Chairman Mao's Little Red Book, but her story is a parable of new China.

She borrowed £32,000 and rented a factory, then built her business up until her company, based in her home town of Shaoxing, was supplying components to the likes of Ford, Toyota, and GM. Chinese factories built 8.5 million cars last year, making it the world's biggest manufacturer and the third-biggest car buyer.

Private entrepreneurs were long excluded from the Communist Party, but now they are recognised for their contribution to the economy. Last year 1,554 capitalists joined the party, a small but significant number in terms of their influence. The rise of the stock market and years of double-digit economic growth have given rise to a new entrepreneur class and China's 345,000 dollar millionaires are more than welcome into the ranks of the party.

Chen Ailian joined the Communist Party in 1995, a year after she started her business, and cannily set up a branch of the party in her company in the late 1990s.

The spokesman for this year's Communist Party Congress, Li Dongsheng, said private entrepreneurs could "expand the popular foundation of the party and facilitate the healthy development of a private sector".

The Communist Party is keen to boost its representation in private companies as a way of maintaining a high profile in people's day-to-day lives and not losing its relevance in the face of rampant private enterprise. The party also needs to woo entrepreneurs if it is to address the wealth gap between the new rich of the eastern and southern seaboard and the largely rural heartland.

Party data shows that this new "social strata" of entrepreneurs numbers around 50 million people, controlling billions of pounds worth of capital, half the patents in the country and accounting for one third of all tax paid in China. Karl Marx must be spinning in his grave. Indeed you wonder what Chairman Mao himself would think.