The demise of working-class power in the People's Republic of China

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Cadres turned capitalists
By Eva Cheng, Green Left Weekly, 24 September 1997. Especially since Deng Xiaoping's move toward capitalism since 1979, increased corruption of Party cadres through involvement in private businesses.
‘Institutional reform’ and unemployment in China
By Zhang Kai, October Review, 31 December 1997. The First Meeting of the Ninth National People's Congress intends to reverse the non-separation of political and economic administration; the government's direct intervention in production at the expense of market forces. The ranks of the bureaucracy fed by the state are bulky and out of control. A pretty institutional reform conducted in 1993, created a sensation, but had little effect.
Elite Planning
By Charles Reeve, Le Monde Libertaire, February 1998. At the XV Congress of the CCP, with regard to the reform of the industrial state, the different tendencies within the bureaucracy came together on a compromise that took into account the power-relationships in its core and the dangers of social revolt. The industrial state is 70% in debt with losses rising; these big enterprises pay only the social minimum in the way of remuneration. The deconstruction of this sector leads directly to social questions and implies, eventually, the end of the ancient right to an ‘iron bowl of rice’ or stable employment.
DSP congress: ‘China now ruled by capitalist state’
By Doug Lorimer, Green Left Weekly, 27 January 1999. China, like Russia and the other former Soviet republics (as well as the former Communist-ruled countries of Eastern Europe), is now ruled by a capitalist state. The ruling CPC decided in late 1978 to begin expanding market relations within China's nationalised, planned economy. A hybrid economic system came into being, with a rapidly expanding capitalist sector made up of private and quasi-private firms.
PLA now boasts more graduates in its ranks
By Mary Kwang, The Straits Times, 12 December 2000. Once staffed with hundreds of thousands of peasants, the People's Liberation Army now has 26,000 members with doctorates and master's degrees. The PLA wants even more officers with college degrees. China has changed the way in which men are promoted to officers. In the past, military cadres were promoted to new posts merely from among the ranks, but now all those who are to be made officers have to undergo training at military academies.
Wenzhou to Become First City to Accept Rich People into CCP
CND, 16 August 2001. Jiang Zemin lifted the ban on private businessmen from joining the party. The founder of one of Wenzhou's largest private firms will join the ranks of the red capitalists. Tt was better to accept businessmen than exclude them in current situation of the party.
Chinese leap forward into uncertain future
By Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times, in The Straits Times, 26 October 2000. China has decided to go with the dominant flow in the world today towards more integration, networking and the global economy, rather than the powerful undertow of struggles over identity, culture, religion. What the Chinese are now wrestling with is no longer whether to choose the globalized future, but how to deal with the consequences of their choice.
Leftist Magazine Closed for Criticizing Jiang's Idea
China News Digest, 14 August 2001. The magazine criticized the idea of allowing capitalists to join the Chinese Communist Party [brief].
One Giant Step Backward for Human Kind
By Robin Hahnel, [26 March 2002]. China's headlong rush into capitalism is reversing wise public policies with far reaching consequences. Measures to halt famine, industrialization without excessive urbanization, but now the the Communist Party asks only How can we maximize opportunities to enrich ourselves and repress the consequent social unrest.