The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers

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The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers Page 38

by Richard Mcgregor


  The indifference…: See http://www.chinamil.com.cn/site1/xwpdxw/2008-10/19/content_1514486.html.

  Promotions have been tied…: See the chapter by Alice Miller in Finkelstein and Gunness, Civil–Military Relations in Today’s China.

  Far from their pedigree…: Details taken from the paper by Bo Zhiyue, ‘Do Family Connections Matter in the PLA in China?’, East Asian Institute Background Brief No. 278, 29 March 2006.

  If the symbiotic relationship…: See Shambaugh, Modernizing China’s Military.

  At the opening of the…: This exchange is taken from China Digital Times, 27 March 2007.

  Jiang’s first proposal for…: Robert Kuhn, The Man Who Changed China, p. 260

  At what used to be…: There is a good account of this period in Susan Shirk, China: The Fragile Superpower, Oxford University Press, 2007; seep. 196.

  After years of predicting…: Most of the quotes here are from a personal interview with Yan in May 2009. Other details of his thoughts on the Taiwan issue and his apology can be found at: http://www.chinaelections.org/NewsInfo.asp?NewsID=129345;

  http://news.xinhuanet.com/globe/2004-07/15/content_1603151.htm;

  http://opinion.huanqiu.com/roll/2009-04/433045.html;

  http://humanities.cn/modules/article/view.article.php?c10/286;

  http://blog.voc.com.cn/blog.php?do=showone&uid=416&type=blog&itemid=49003.

  CHAPTER 5 THE SHANGHAI GANG

  When the former…: These comments were posted in reaction to a story at http://news.sina.com.cn/c/l/2008-10-15/021816453877.shtml, but they have since been deleted.

  and in Suzhou…: The official in this case was given nine houses at below market prices and cash bribes after he used public assets to guarantee loans for developers whose projects were in trouble. The official’s relatives were given jobs and he also embezzled funds to help pay back the developers’ loans. In court, the accused official said he didn’t realize that his actions violated any laws, as many other government officials did the same thing. See Caijing’s ’s online edition of 11 November 2008.

  The paltry official pay rates…: Nanfang Dushibao [Southern Metropolis Daily], 9 March 2007.

  The jobs in government…: From a ranking compiled by sina.com, China’s most popular portal, according to the number of people seeking information about particular jobs.

  Established in its present…: For an excellent description of the detention system, see Flora Sapio, Shuanggui and Extra-Legal Detention in China, China Information, 2008.

  The portrayal of the…: See http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2005-01-26/20404956537s.shtml.

  The threat of being fingered…: The story of Zhang’s golf clubs is contained in a court case filed in the US District Court, Middle District, Orlando Division, by Grace & Digital Information Technology against Fidelity National Financial; and received in the court on 6 March 2006.

  The system frets constantly…: See Xuexi Shibao [Study Times], 16 March 2009.

  The commission’s delegates…: These quotes come from Szu-chien Hsu, Reforming the Party and the State under Hu Jintao, Institute of Political Science, Academica Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.

  A Taiwanese jeweller…: See http://jpos.blog.sohu.com/69302472.html, and also the South China Morning Post, 29 November 2004.

  Shanghai had been fêted…: This was said by Lynn Pan, who has written a number of excellent books on Shanghai.

  A newly chastened…: The figures come from Bruce Jacobs and Lijian Hong, ‘Shanghai and the Lower Yangzi Valley’, in China Deconstructs: Politics, Trade and Regionalism, edited by David Goodman and Gerald Segal, Routledge, 1997, pp. 163–93.

  Chen Liangyu made a…: See ‘The (Internally) Collected Quotations of Chen Liangyu’, posted on China Digital Times, 31 October 2006. Translated by Jonathan Ansfield.

  The evidence suggests…: This comes from conversations with Yasheng Huang and also early drafts of his book, Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics: Entrepreneurship and the State, Cambridge University Press, 2008.

  The city galloped ahead…: Cheng Li, ‘The Shanghai Gang: Force for Stability or Cause for Conflict?’, China Leadership Monitor, No. 2, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Spring 2002.

  When Jiang Zemin was appointed…: See Robert Lawrence Kuhn, The Man Who Changed China, Crown Publishers, 2004, p. 164.

  Each succession in…: See Alice Miller, ‘With Hu in Charge, Jiang’s at Ease’, China Leadership Monitor, No. 13, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Winter 2005.

  Weeks before his arrest…: This account comes from a number of people at the dinner.

  When the furious residents began…: As well as interviewing Shen Tong, I have also drawn on her book, Shei yinbao Zhou zhengyi an? [Who Sparked off the Zhou Zhengyi Case?], Open Publishing House, Hong Kong, 2007.

  No democracy…: Jackie Stewart’s quote comes from Dow Jones Newswires, 15 November 2004.

  And one by one…: China Business Focus, May 2008.

  Chen was locked…: These details are from a report in Phoenix Weekly, 15 June 2009.

  Stern and fearsome when they begin…: This translation was taken originally from the website of the US Embassy in Beijing, but it was not available when I last looked in mid-2009.

  CHAPTER 6 THE EMPEROR IS FAR AWAY

  170 Sections of this chapter which concern the Sanlu case were based on interviews with executives and advisers to the company. For material about Ms Tian and the meeting referred to at the start of the chapter, see:

  http://finance.sina.com.cn/g/20090107/06535725594.shtml;

  http://finance.sina.com.cn/leadership/crz/20090105/09445714928.shtml;

  http://finance.sina.com.cn/leadership/crz/20090119/10565776623.shtml;

  http://finance.huanqiu.com/roll/2009-01/336337.html.

  For details of how the scandal unfolded, the following articles were helpful:

  http://magazine.caijing.com.cn/templates/inc/content.jsp?infoid=77702&type=1&ptime=20080928;

  http://magazine.caijing.com.cn/templates/inc/content.jsp?infoid=77701&type=1&ptime=20080928;

  http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Fonterra_and_the_Chinese_contaminated_milk_scandal.

  Beijing frets constantly…: http://finance.people.com.cn/GB/1045/3866408.html.

  Steven Cheung, a Chicago-trained…: From a paper by Steven N. S. Cheung, ‘The Economic System of China’, delivered at ‘Forum on Thirty Years of Marketization’, 30–31 August 2008, in Beijing. Thanks to John Fitzgerald for this, who should also get the credit for the phrase about each company being a jurisdiction and vice versa.

  China has witnessed…: See various reports on bulletin boards hosted by http://bbs.dahe.cn.

  The golden age of decentralization…: See Justin Yifu Lin, Ran Tao and Liu Mingxing, ‘Centralization and Local Governance in China’s Economic Transition’, paper prepared for ‘The Rise of Local Governments in Developing Countries’ conference, London School of Economics, May 2003.

  In the words of commentator…: See Xin Shiji [New Century], 10 June 2009. Translated by David Kelly.

  On the front stage…: For Sanlu’s PR machinations, see especially http://cmp.hku.hk/2008/09/28/1259/, from David Bandurski’s China Media Project which did very good work on this topic, and also http://www.ftchinese.com/story.php?storyid=001022070&page=1.

  The same month in Guangdong…: Fu Jianfeng’s blog was posted on 14 September, and also run in translation on the EastSouthWestNorth website (see www.zonaeuropa.com).

  Just before the games…: See Sydney Morning Herald, 14 August 2008.

  With the Olympics in mind…: http://finance.sina.com.cn/g/20090107/06535725595.shtml.

  Then, the company added…: For information about Baidu’s role, see http://tech.163.com/08/0915/12/4LSNPQ1N000915BF.html;

  http://news.ccw.com.cn/internet/htm2008/20080913_501732.shtml;

  http://news.southcn.com/community/bestlist04/content/2008-09/13/content_4597956.htm);

  http://zhaomu.blog.sohu.com/99995350.html.

  When X
inhua announced…: The announcement of Ms Tian’s sacking was carried Xinhua on 16 September, 2008.

  Success has a single father…: China Media Project, 8 October 2007.

  CHAPTER 7 DENG PERFECTS SOCIALISM

  In September 2005…: See Andy Rothman, China’s Capitalists, CLSA, September 2005, and Joe Zhang, China’s Marginal Private Sector, UBS Investment Research, 15 September 2005.

  Yasheng Huang, at MIT…: Yasheng Huang’s Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics: Entrepreneurship and the State, Cambridge University Press, 2008, is a tour-de-force on this topic. Personal email from the author, in addition.

  The Qingdao authorities…: see Ershiyi Shiji Jingji Baodao [21st Century Economic Herald], 20 May 2007, and http://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/s/20070520/18223610668.shtml.

  After more than three decades…: Thanks in part to Arthur Kroeber for these categories.

  Let’s not talk politics…: Newsweek, 20 December 2004.

  Entrepreneurs like Wang Shi…: I say ‘reportedly’ because it is no longer possible to confirm Wang’s incarceration with the man himself. But the well-researched story in the Washington Post of 5 June 1999 quotes Wang Shi extensively, and convincingly, on his time in prison. For the later interview, see New York Times magazine, 6 April 2008.

  Wang summed up…: http://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/20081230/01002599819.shtml. The article, in the 21st Century Economic Herald on 12 December 2008, was headlined: ‘Wang Shi: it’s not easy to take the red hat off once you put it on’.

  For Richard Holwill…: Apart from numerous personal interviews with people quoted here, I have also relied on Herbert Ho’s The Development of Direct Selling Regulation in China, 1994–2002, published by the US–China Business Council.

  The sardonic opening line…: Wall Street Journal, 23 April 1998.

  When I visited Quanzhou…: Financial Times, 26 April 2006. For information on the campaign itself, see Wall Street Journal, 13 May 2006.

  The campaign against Wal-Mart…: ‘Ensuring Compliance with China’s New Labor Laws’, paper by Winston Zhao and Owen D. Nee Jnr., both of the legal firm Jones Day, for a PLI Conference, ‘Doing Business in China 2008: Resolving the Challenges in Today’s Environment’, 21 March 2008.

  The Party itself is quite explicit…: Personal interview. See also Jiefang Bao [Liberation Daily], 2 June 2004.

  The organization department’s internal…: See ‘Zuzhi gongzuo yanjiu wenxuan, 2005; Zhonggong zhongyang zuzhibu yanjiushi (Zhengce fagui ju); Hunhe Suoyouzhi qiye dang de gongzuo yanjiu’ [Selection of Studies on Organizational Work from 2005; Compiled by the Research Department (Bureau of Policy and Regulation) of the CCP Central Organization Department; Studies on party building work within mixed ownership enterprises].

  On the surface…: People’s Daily, 4 April 2008.

  When the Zhengtai…: The company’s official English name, in Chinese, is Chint.

  Party building in the private…: These figures and quote are provided by Bruce Dickson from an early draft chapter of his book, Wealth into Power: The Communist Party’s Embrace of China’s Private Sector, Cambridge University Press, 2008.

  Nearly a decade…: See Liu Yongxing, ‘Zai hangdong manbu qianxing’, Nanfang Renwu Zhoukan, Xu Linling [‘Slowly Advancing in a Cold Winter’, Southern People Weekly, Xu Linling], 27 November 2008. Also posted at http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2008-11-27/092716735980.shtml. All Liu’s quotes here are from this article and were checked with Liu’s office.

  Big state companies can…: As well as a personal interview with Zhou, this quote is from www.ftchinese.com, 16 May 2006.

  Whereas Chalco had an interest…: See Caijing, 20 August 2004.

  In 2008, the Party…: The entrepreneur who gave me this account asked not to be named or identified in any way.

  Chapter 8 TOMBSTONE

  When the first editions…: The book is Mubei: Zhongguo Liushi Niandai Da Jihuang Jishi [Tombstone: A Record of the Great Chinese Famine of the 60s], Cosmos Books, Hong Kong, 2008.

  It went without saying…: The Wuhan ban was mentioned during a question-and-answer session with Yang at the Beijing Sanwei bookstore on 13 December 2008.

  As the author Jasper Becker…: Jasper Becker, Hungry Ghosts, John Murray, 1996.

  In 2003, the Chinese government…: SARS stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

  The museum director…: I met Pan in 2001. The display about modern Shanghai had not changed when I last visited the museum in 2004.

  The major content…: See Lu Hao, ‘Promoting the Glorious Tradition of Patriotism Among Young People’, People’s Daily, 17 April 2009.

  The propaganda department’s…: People’s Daily, 9 September 2002.

  In China, the head of…: Nanfang Zhoumo [Southern Weekend], 3 August 2006.

  As late as 2006…: See Chapter 4 in David Shambaugh, China’s Communist Party: Atrophy and Adaptation, University of California Press, 2008.

  The exhibit was illustrated…: Li Ruigang has told this story to at least two people who relayed it to the author.

  When China introduced…: Some new notes were issued to coincide with the 2008 Beijing Olympics, featuring drawings of Olympics sports venues.

  Mao, along with…: New York Times, 1 September 2006.

  After going through the…: The translation of Yuan’s article comes from the EastSouthWestNorth website, 26 January 2006 (www.zonaeuropa.com). I also interviewed Yuan, Li and other senior staff of Freezing Point in early 2008.

  Yuan focused on…: This event was depicted, from a decidedly western perspective, in the Hollywood movie, 55 Days in Peking.

  To this day…: Judith Banister presented a paper in 1984 in Beijing estimating 30 million excess deaths. (Charles Louis Kincannon and Judith Banister, ‘Perspectives on China’s 1982 Census’, in A Census of One Billion People, Beijing, Population Census Office under the State Council and Department of Population Statistics of the State Statistical Bureau, 1986, pp. 288–312.) She based her calculation on China’s three post-1949 censuses, in 1953, 1964 and 1982, and what she described to me in an email as ‘a superb nationwide retrospective fertility survey’. She said many in the audience ‘expressed disbelief’ in her figures at the time.

  But so far…: As of October 2009, Yang has not been formally punished over the book.

  He said later…: Quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald, 19 January 2009.

  Afterword

  In the days…: South China Morning Post, 12 October 2009.

  David Shambaugh…: Needless to say, the comparison with the athlete is mine, not Shambaugh’s.

  Since 1982…: Carnegie Endowment Policy Brief, No. 55, October 2007.

  The leadership’s awareness…: ‘Making the News Fit to Print’, China Journal, March 2009.

  In 2007, personal…: Financial Times, 23 September 2009.

  In the words of…: See Barmé’s speech at the Australian National University, ‘Mirrors of History: On a Sino-Japanese Moment and Some Antecedents’, delivered on 5 May 2005.

  The biggest contribution…: Huanqiu Shibao [Global Times], 2 October 2009.

  Searchable Terms

  The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use the search feature of your e-book reader.

  Abe, Shinzo, 271–2

  academia, focus of, 18–19

  Africa, xv

  AIDs campaigners, 3

  airports, 19

  All-China Federation for Industry and Commerce, 79

  All-China Federation of Trade Unions, 213–14

  All-China Lawyers’ Association, 189, 190

  Aluminium Company of China, 57–61, 62, 224–6

  aluminium sector, 219, 224–6

  Amway, 210, 211, 212–13

  Anhui

  beauty contest, 176

  famine, 258–9

  party chiefs and Idiot Seeds, 195

  anti-graft body see Central Commission for Discipline Inspection


  anti-Japanese protests, 270–72

  anti-secession law, 129

  arms race, 106

  Ashton, Catherine, xvi

  Asian financial meltdown, 45

  Atrophy and Adaptation (Shambaugh), 266

  Australia, xv

  Avon Lady, 210, 211, 213

  Baidu, 187

  Banister, Judith, 260, 292n

  Bank of China, 50, 53, 158

  Bank of Communications, 52–3

  banknotes, 244

  banks, xi

  Party’s role in, 51, 52–3

  reform, 50

  response to global financial crisis, 68

  status of, 204

  see also individual banks

  Baoshan Steel negotiations, 54–5

  Barmé, Geremie, 242, 245, 271

  Basel II, 67

  beauty contest, 176

  Becker, Jasper, 232

  Beijing

  mayors, 16, 144, 168

  new airport, 19

  Olympics, 170–71, 186

  Beijing Hotel gathering, 34, 35, 38–40

  Beijing University, centenary, 79, 80

  Bentham, Jeremy, 17

 

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