China
The withering away of the party
May 30th 2002 | BEIJING
>From The Economist print edition
Economically, but not politically
IN URBAN China, the Communist Party's roots are weakening fast. In the late 1990s, the number of city dwellers employed by state-owned enterprises dropped to fewer than half the workforce. As the state sector crumbles, so too do the party branches that once controlled the lives of urban Chinese. Party officials talk of the urgency of setting up branches in non-state enterprises, but they are making little progress. The party itself is still expanding. It now has 64m members compared with 50m in 1990. But this is no reflection of the party's popularity among those who work in the most dynamic and productive area of urban China's economy. Take Wuhan, for example, a city of 4.4m people on the banks of the Yangtze. In 1993, a mere 0.9% of its party members worked in private or foreign-invested enterprises. Six years later, the proportion remained virtually the same. Or take similar-sized Shenyang, north-east China's biggest city. In 1999, some 640,000 people worked in non-state enterprises there. That year, the party managed to recruit only 29 of them as new members. Data on party membership are patchy. But according to one party journal, only 17% of private firms employed party members in 1999 and just 3% had any kind of party organisation. Foreign-funded enterprises are often formed in partnership with state-owned firms. Yet only 35% of them employed party members that year and a mere 17% had party cells. Officials sometimes boast of successes. One example they cite is the party organisation in Motorola (China) Electronics Ltd, a factory complex in the port city of Tianjin owned by one of the biggest American investors in China. It produces mobile telephones and other electronic equipment. According to party publications, a branch was established in the company in 1990, even before its official founding. But the organisation remained clandestine, not wanting to alarm the foreign bosses. Four years later, party leaders of the development zone where the Motorola plant is located decided to tell the company what was going on. A party journal said the foreigners were "pleasantly surprised" to find that members included most of the company's top technicians and managers. The journal said the company not only agreed to the establishment of a bigger party branch, but also offered a place for it to meet (Motorola itself refuses to comment on its dealings with the party). Now the company's party organisation boasts 300 members, though this is still only 3% of the workforce. But does even this rare success make any difference? In state-owned enterprises, the party committee usually runs the factory. Often the factory manager serves as the party branch leader. At least until the 1990s, when the collapse of the state sector began in earnest, workers aspired to be party members because membership gave them power. But even where the party has managed to gain a foothold in private and foreign-owned enterprises, its role is inevitably far less important. Officials say that one function of party cells in the non-state sector is to help ensure that such enterprises uphold the law. But unlike in the state sector, employees are on short-term contracts if they have any contract at all, and are hardly likely to challenge bosses for violating regulations. This could be one reason why China's party chief, Jiang Zemin, decided last year to end the party's ban on admitting private-enterprise bosses as members. At least if an enterprise is led by a party member, the party might retain a modicum of influence. But as one official journal put it: "The party constitution requires party members to hold themselves responsible to the working class. The Company Law requires managers to hold themselves responsible to the board of directors." Pan Wei, of Beijing University, says that even in stodgy state enterprises, the party is losing its grip. "Party organisations at the grassroots have been decaying. Regular party activities have virtually stopped," he says. In a few years' time, this could mean that in urban China at least, the party's grassroots activities will be confined mainly to government departments and institutions, in which party membership remains a prerequisite for advancement. "It will be pretty much a bureaucratic party," says Mr Pan.
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