Echo of class struggle livens up China Congress

More than 30 years after the death of Chairman Mao the class struggle has again reared its head in Chinese politics but this time it’s the rich who are making the running.

At the recent Chinese People’s Political Consultative Congress, China’s richest woman, paper queen Zhang Yin, called for tax breaks for the rich and opposed moves to give workers the right to permanent contracts. Many delegates and commentators criticized her stance but other entrepreneurs supported her.

Zhang made her multi-billion dollar fortune importing waste from the USA to feed China’s insatiable demand for paper products. Her company, Nine Dragons Paper, is the largest paper manufacturer in China.

Zhang’s willingness to give open expression to apparent self-interest reflects the growing confidence of China’s wealthy. Cities are peppered with extravagant shopping malls stocking the glitziest western brands. The nouveaux riches increasingly enjoy flaunting their wealth in the form of flashy cars, designer clothes, jewellery, gated villas and uniformed servants. For the less well off, dozens of glossy magazines promote an in-flight fantasy world, and soap operas dramatizing the lives of the rich and famous are part of the daily diet on Chinese TV.

The Chinese leadership is only too aware of the widening gap between rich and poor. President Hu Jintao has made building a harmonious society the flagship policy of his term of office. He has abolished the centuries old agricultural tax and pumped money into poorer rural areas. But while Hu has pushed China in what observers describe as a more social democratic direction, he is treading a fine line; the last thing China’s leaders want is to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Meanwhile the poor and middle income earners are increasingly concerned with the rising cost of living, as everyday items such as food, housing, education and health care go through the roof. They are unimpressed by the conspicuous consumption of the wealthy. A recent survey showed that 70 percent of the public, far from seeing the rich as glorious, regard them as self-serving and ungenerous. China’s rich have an image problem that commentators have advised them to address by following America’s wealthy down the road of large-scale philanthropy.

Trades unions, after decades of rubber-stamping management decisions under the planned economy are beginning to take a stronger line in defence of their members’ interests. Their initial targets have been foreign brands such as MacDonald’s and KFC, both recently investigated on suspicion of paying under the minimum wage, but some think it will not be long before some of China’s giant domestic corporations face challenges from organized labour.

The ruling Communist Party has welcomed the new rich into its ranks and hopes that “contradictions among the people” in Chairman Mao’s phrase, can be contained and resolved in one big happy family.

One thing that commentators on all sides have welcomed is that Zhang’s remarks have brought into the open the existence of different interest groups in society and initiated a debate about their competing claims. That, they argue, can only be a healthy development.