POREG VIEW: Like other ‘disclosures’, even this WikiLeaks ‘despatch’ that China’s ruling Politburo is a cabal of business empires that puts vested interests over the needs of the poor and curtails media freedoms is no surprise.
Almost all businessmen, who had made a beeline to China to set up their manufacturing base or to procure from local industries, have been in the know of the reality. This is also the reason why the Kissingers and the Nixons and their friendly go between Bhuttos had no difficulty to make their ‘Enterprise China’ a successful mission.
If this is indeed so, why none of them had ever spoken of the Chinese communist reality till WikiLeaks entered the forbidden territory. Well, because it is all a complicated web of diplomacy and deceit as complicated as the business empire and shady business deals that have become the hallmark of the China.
In a sense, opaque decision making systems are not the exclusive privilege of Chinese. Several stories that have tumbled out of the closets of erstwhile European Communist regimes also clearly point to a trend that is unique to Communist rule since recorded revolutions for and by the toiling masses had ended always in proletarian dictatorship.
Where the Communist China deviated or differed from the rest in the Communist world is that it has created a multi-layered class society, with a breed of ‘princelings’ as the Brahmins of the system.
Lesser revolutionary mortals ending up as ‘shopkeepers’ is a natural corollary, though for the uninitiated young American diplomats in awe of all that Beijing stands for, the system appeared rather odd, going by the July 2009 cable to Washington published by WikiLeaks. By this definition, President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao come under ‘shopkeepers’ label; the newly anointed Crown Prince, 57-year-old Xi Jinping, is a ‘princeling’ since his father was a revolutionary.
“China’s top leadership had carved up China’s economic ‘pie,’ creating an ossified system in which ‘vested interests’ drove decision-making and impeded reform as leaders manoeuvred to ensure that those interests were not threatened”, reported the Cable based on what a US embassy contact had said. Naturally therefore, there were no "reformers" within the top Communist Party leadership; there are only factions protecting their turf at all costs. One nugget that is interesting is that Jiang Zemin, the former president, had shut down a number of businesses owned by the associates of his predecessor, Deng Xiaoping, when he came to power in the early 1990s. And yet, Deng is hailed as the ‘pioneer’ reformer and visionary.
Lately, real estate has emerged as the biggest money spinning enterprise across China. There has been talk that a top politburo official is the main force behind the real estate sector.
WikiLeaks now puts a name to the official’s face and it is of Jia Qinglin, ranked fourth in the Politburo. Excessive patronage and control have heated up the real estate market and brought forward the spectre of a meltdown effect like in America. As of now China appears to have warded of problems by tightening credit flow to the housing industry.
The point is, as WikiLeaks also shows, Jia Qinglin is not alone in making the sunshine on his family. Former Chinese premier Li Peng and his family controlled "electric power interests" while the security tsar Zhou Yongkang controlled the oil sector, and the wife of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has a firm grip over the precious gems sector. President Hu Jintao is likened to the "Chairman of the Board or CEO of a big corporation".
More than these titbits, what is really damning is the ‘revelation’ that China’s reluctance to check inflation is largely due to the ‘desire’ of the local officials to protect current business interests. It is for this reason that the Chinese leadership is unwilling to reorient its economy more towards domestic consumption.
No surprise the perception inside and outside China is that the country is run in the interests of Party elite. An online poll last February by the state-run China Daily has lent much credence to the perception. It showed that more than 90 per cent of Chinese believed that the new rich had achieved their wealth through political connections
