Sinopec chairman supports pay cuts for bosses of state-owned firms
Sinopec chairman Fu Chengyu said he is happy to accept Beijing’s decision to cut pay and perks for most of the country’s top state-owned enterprise (SOE) leaders.
Sinopec chairman Fu Chengyu said he is happy to accept Beijing’s decision to cut pay and perks for most of the country’s top state-owned enterprise (SOE) leaders and praised the Chinese socialist system for the reform that critics said may hurt executives’ incentives.
The comments made by the top manager of China’s largest refiner at the World Economic Forum in Tianjin came after China decided that more than 200 top executives from 72 leading SOEs may face massive pay cuts.
Detailed plans are yet to be disclosed. The South China Morning Post reported last month that the central government would likely impose pay cuts of up to 50 per cent for state SOE leaders while also recruiting professional managers at market-based salary packages.
It is normal for individual people to feel unhappy about pay cuts, Fu said. However, he said such a move is in line with the state interest.
The whole world is criticising that senior executives have earned too much. I think we are on the right path
“The biggest difference between [the systems of] China and Western countries is that we pursue the goal of getting rich together,” said Fu.
“We have stressed that ordinary people are the owners of the country. But the income gap in our country has become too big,” he said.