A circular released by the Communist Party and the State Council has emphasised the ruling party's working class roots by calling for more democracy in state-run and collectively owned enterprises.
Issued early this month, the circular was made public by Xinhua yesterday.
'State and collective-owned factories, plus those with shares mainly held by state or collective-owned companies, should open up their internal affairs to all their staff,' Xinhua quoted the circular as saying.
'Under the policy, factory staff should be allowed to join in decision-making on all major issues regarding the development of the enterprise and their own interests. Each factory should set up a leading group on factory democracy, composed of top officials from the factory's [Communist Party] committee, administration, discipline supervisory body, and trade union.'
Factories should make public the remuneration packages for senior staff, it said, including housing benefits and the cost of business trips abroad. A supervisory body with trade union representatives and ordinary workers should be set up to 'monitor whether factory democracy has been properly adopted'.
The statement appeared to be a bid by allies of President Jiang Zemin to salvage the party's reputation as the vanguard of the working class.
