'Princelings' join capitalist bashing
Certain leftist children of Communist Party leaders have lined up with ideologues to oppose any move to admit capitalists into the party.
Several leftists published their views in last month's issue of the journal Zhenlide Zhuiqiu (Searching After Truth). Lin Yanzhi, the son of late vice-chairman of the National People's Congress Lin Feng, went further in opposing membership for capitalists. He wrote that Communist Party members who had become private entrepreneurs should quit the party.
The admission of business people into the party has become an issue in the build-up to the party's 80th anniversary on July 1 and beyond, with the 16th party congress next year.
A Beijing intellectual source said some of Mr Lin's leftist views - shared by children of other party members, known as princelings - clashed with the teachings of Deng Xiaoping and, to some extent, those of President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji.
Mr Jiang's Theory of the Three Representatives, which holds that the party must be representative of the most advanced productive and cultural forces, is seen by some reform-minded cadres as paving the way for the admission of entrepreneurs into the party. Remnant Maoists are critical of the theory - first raised early last year - but it has received cautious approval from intellectuals who hope it will enable political and constitutional reform at next year's party congress.
'Capitalists and the bourgeoisie amount to less than 10 per cent of China's total population, but own over 80 per cent of non-state financial capital,' Mr Lin wrote.
'Their capital even exceeds the total value of assets owned by state-owned enterprises and the production output [of their companies] accounts for one-third of the country's total.'
He warned the new class of capitalists was 'destined to change the nature of the Communist Party to achieve their goal of becoming the ruling class'. 'If these people are in power, China will be forced into a long period of social chaos and economic depression,' Mr Lin said.
The strongly worded article signalled the leftist faction's campaign to slow political and economic reform at the next party congress.
Mr Lin cited an internal party document in 1989 which stated that the Communist Party should not admit private entrepreneurs and a speech made by Mr Jiang in that year warning against the rise of the private sector in China.
Mr Lin's view is supported by ultra-leftists including Deng Liqun, who heads the party's leftist faction. They have attacked the view that state-owned enterprises should retreat from competitive sectors of the economy.
In recent months, Deng Liqun has also spoken out against the rise of the 'new capitalist class', accusing them of 'exploitation of workers and farmers'.
Ideas on political reform were contained in an article by State Structural Reform Office vice-director Pan Yue, published early this year. The report was approved by Mr Jiang for circulation.
