'YOU KNOW WHAT joining the World Trade Organisation [WTO] means for China,' said Liu Qing, an ex-civil servant who went into private business a decade ago. 'The Communist Party is digging its own grave. When this is finished, the party practices we have known for so many years will disappear and it will have to re-invent itself in another form.' Mr Liu, a man in his 40s bursting with energy and ideas, is among thousands of Chinese full of enthusiasm for the deal his Government signed in Doha on November 11 after 15 years of laborious negotiation. 'It means that private companies like mine will get a fair deal for the first time and that China will do things in the way they are done in advanced Western countries,' he said. His enthusiasm surpasses even that of the official media, which have greeted the Doha agreement with a flood of articles and television debates presenting membership as an historic event, whose benefits will greatly outweigh its disadvantages. Beijing shops are full of books, tapes and magazines explaining the importance of membership. A set of WTO stamps will be issued on Tuesday, the day China officially joins. The official media present membership as opportunity and challenge. Those who will lose out, such as workers and managers of large state companies, explain in interviews that the challenge they face should stimulate them to improve their efficiency and working practices. Not described is the fierce debate within the Government and party that accompanied the negotiations and continues even now there is no turning back. Globalisation, a hate word for millions of left-wingers, is presented in China as positive and a target to which the nation should aspire. But one retired official said: 'If there were a national referendum, most people would vote against. Opponents would include farmers with small plots and traditional ways of work who cannot compete with giant agri-businesses of foreign countries and workers at state firms who will lose their jobs. 'Add to them the conservatives in the party who fear that WTO membership will mean the end of their rule and officials who will lose their power and privileges as the role of the Government is changed. 'But the media are well controlled, so people do not hear the opposition voices. Few outside the main cities know what WTO is and what we have signed up to.' One official survey of 4,000 residents of 12 large cities published recently found 11.7 per cent had no idea what WTO was, while a further 43.6 per cent did not know what impact it would have on their lives. The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation (Moftec), which negotiated the deal, has promised soon to publish the text of the protocol it signed but many doubt it will be the full version, which runs to 100,000 Chinese characters. Their scepticism is based on what happened in the spring of 1999 when the US Trade Representative published on its Web site the terms it had offered to China for a WTO agreement, which then-president Bill Clinton decided not to sign. The terms were meant to persuade the US Congress what a good deal the Trade Representative had won, but when seen in China, caused a storm of criticism against the Chinese negotiators. Moftec was embarrassed, saying that it had agreed to nothing - but the terms were close to what it signed up to in November that year. 'Conservatives believe that the Government has given up too much to the Americans,' the retired civil servant said. 'The WTO will change everything - you will have no job security and the state will not provide housing, medical insurance and pension as it used to. If you are skilled, you can earn more and more and work after the retirement age. But, if you are not qualified, you could be laid off any time and have no security. It will widen the gap between rich and poor.' Liang Hongjin, a sales manager, said the WTO would accelerate capitalism in China. 'In electronics factories near where I live, they hire local farmers as day labourers for 400-600 yuan (HK$375-$565) a month and with no benefits. Beijing people want better terms and job security. The WTO deal will drive down costs and prices. It will be good for the private and foreign companies.' Opposition to WTO entry burst into the open during the summer when former party propaganda chief Deng Liqun published a lengthy critique on the Internet, accusing President Jiang Zemin of abandoning the workers and peasants in favour of the small class of private entrepreneurs. Mr Liu, the former civil servant, said Mr Deng and other hardliners were trying to whip up opposition to Mr Jiang among the unemployed and others who would lose out as a result of the WTO. 'The Government has raised the salaries of civil servants twice this year because it wants to be sure of their loyalty during any instability that results from WTO membership. But what can Deng and the hardliners offer? Not communist ideology because no one believes in that any more and they have no alternative economic programme,' he said. Beijing aims to introduce its WTO obligations gradually, to cushion the impact of urban and rural unemployment and create new jobs in private and foreign-invested firms, especially in the service sector, to replace those that are being lost. For Mr Liu and other supporters, the WTO agreement will bring many benefits. An official survey of Beijing people published last week found 74.4 per cent expected the quality of goods to rise and prices to fall, because of lower tariffs and increased availability of imports. Another 44 per cent said it would help to end state monopolies and 60 per cent said it would enable foreign hospitals to operate in China. Wang Guoqiang, a taxi driver, said that the Tianjin-made Charade he was driving cost 80,000 yuan, four times the price for the same car in Japan. 'But we earn a fraction of what they earn in Japan. With WTO, the prices will come down and we can buy a Japanese car. Then the government officials will not be able to tell us what to buy, as they can now. Private citizens will be able to run taxi companies, which is banned now.' The agreement has also raised hopes of a liberation from the petty corruption and arrogance of officials. 'We hope that the agreement will reduce the power of officials and reduce their corruption and malpractices,' Mr Wang said. 'What function will be left to the Communist Party when the state sector shrinks? We do not need it now but are stuck with it.' Mark O'Neill is a member of the Post's Beijing bureau
