Well, the latest I am seeing is that there has been a slowdown in the drive to privatize in response to the slowdown in growth and the rising unemployment. Probably not a bad idea, even though magazines like _The Economist_ claim that this will lead to a humongous banking crisis that will make what's going in Japan look like a dinner party.
I still think the TVE innovation looks quite intriguing and innovative, despite a lot of problems. Barkley Rosser On Tue, 24 Nov 1998 23:07:55 -0500 "Henry C.K. Liu" <hliu at mindspring.com> wrote:
> Louis Proyect:
>
> The WSJ is well known for twisting irrelevant tidbits into sweeping conclusion
> about China.
> The "Family Matters" report was part sham social criticism and part wishful
> thinking. Wall Street would love to see China degenerate into "Latin
> American-style oligarchy of powerful families" with whom Western transnationals
> can make private deals to bleed the Chinese people.
> Unfortunately for Wall Street, the real China is very different.
> While Wang Jun is the head of Citic, he personally does not own a single share
> of Citic stock. He holds the top management position, albeit with attendant
> privileges and benefits, but with no stock options, golden parachutes, incentive
> packages and what not common to American CEO's. Citic is 100% state-owned on
> behalf of the entire Chinese people.
> The problem of residual Confucian preference for family relationships in
> socialist China has been amply acknowledged in my recent postings on
> Confucianism. Yet it is fair to point out that the Chinese Communist Party
> (CCP) has made serious efforts to combat this cultural affliction. Also, there
> is commercial value in name recognition that should be very familiar to
> Americans. American corporations routinely embrace executives with prominent
> family names. A Ford just became Chairman of the Ford company. There are the
> Rockefellers, the Tisches (Loews), the Bronfmans (Seagram), the Murdochs (News
> Corp.), the list goes on.
> The irony is that many of the so-called "red princes" got their appointments to
> high level titular positions in Chinese companies because they manage to
> convince their superiors that their family connections will impress the
> foreigners who think that any company with a red prince as its head must be
> influential. In the last decade, red princes are also in great demand from
> foreign companies who wants to impress their share holders back home. It is an
> insider joke in China.
>
> Politically, America has the Bushes, the Kenendys, the Roosevelts, the
> Humphreys, the Stevensons, the Rockefellers, the list goes on of families that
> are political dynasties. Mao's only son was killed in Korea and his grandson is
> not in politics. Several sons of prominent party and government leaders failed
> to win enough votes in their vigorous campaign to be elected to the CCP Central
> Committee in the last Party Congress.
> China treats economic crimes as capital crimes not because of the Chinese penal
> code believes in the sanctity of property, but because in a socialist economy,
> economic crimes are crimes against the people. It is a classic Confucian
> posture.
> It is interesting to contrast this attitude with America's treatment of the
> convicted crooks in the Savings and Loan Crisis, including Madison Guaranty.
> This raises the issues of the privatization of state-owned-enterprises (SOE) in
> order to dance more efficiently to the tune of market capitalism. We know what
> liberal economists have been saying. And the disastrous Russian lesson is for
> all to see.
> Any policy proposals for China from marxist economists?
>
> Henry C.K. Liu
>
>
>
> Louis Proyect wrote:
>
> > Henry Liu:
> > >It is also clear that the survival of socialism in China is in no small
> > >measure due to CCP's refusal to unconditionally open China's markets to
> > >global capitalism, despite the substantial costs inherent in such a policy.
> >
> > >From "Family Matters", Wall Street Journal, page 1, July 17, 1995:
> >
> > Late last year, when Wang Jun opened China's first business club, in a
> > skyscraper high above this city's glittering night lights, the elite
> > flocked to sip champagne and offer congratulations.
> >
> > But few exuded the warmth of Xiao Rong, the youngest daughter of China's
> > paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping. While other guests politely shook hands
> > with Mr. Wang, a gruff engineer-turned-financier, Ms. Xiao kissed him on
> > one cheek, then prompted her 15-year-old daughter to "give Daddy a kiss" on
> > the other.
> >
> > Ms. Xiao and Mr. Wang aren't related but their families are close. More
> > than four decades ago, Mr. Deng and Mr. Wang's father fought in the
> > revolution to bring communism to China. Their descendants remain tight:
> > Wang Jun, who runs China International Trust & Investment Corp., or Citic,
> > is a business and golfing partner of Ms. Xiao's husband; Ms Xiao's
> > brother-in-law heads several Citic subsidiaries; and Mr. Wang's niece works
> > for Ms. Xiao's property company.
> >
> > Family ties have always mattered in China, but never so much as today. In
> > the so-called classless society of the past, one leader reigned supreme;
> > everybody else lived in relative equality, which usually meant poverty.
> > Now, with decentralization of control and growing economic opportunities,
> > power in China is being diffused. As the nation is prospering, so are the
> > children of the revolutionaries who founded the Communist Party.
> >
> > This small group claims a major hold on the power, wealth and opportunity
> > that elude most of China's 1.2 billion people. Members of these loose,
> > family-based alliances lead lives of privilege: attending the right
> > schools, making the right friends, securing the right jobs--and staying far
> > from the limelight to avoid criticism of their lifestyles.
> >
> > All this makes China's ongoing leadership transition look ever more like a
> > shift from a dictatorship of one--Mao Tse Tung or Mr. Deng--to rule by a
> > Latin American-style oligarchy of powerful families.
> >
> > Louis Proyect
> >
> > (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)
>
-- Rosser Jr, John Barkley rosserjb at jmu.edu