>>>...Speaking in front of a hammer-and-sickle emblem in the Great Hall of
the People, China's supreme leader yesterday told his communist comrades
they had to respect property rights and investment income...<<<
http://www.ichrdd.ca/english/commdoc/publications/globalization/goldenShieldEng.html
China rolls out red carpet for capitalists
By Hamish McDonald, Herald Correspondent in Beijing
November 9 2002
Chinese leaders and delegates listen to the national anthem at the start of
the congress yesterday.
Speaking in front of a hammer-and-sickle emblem in the Great Hall of the
People, China's supreme leader yesterday told his communist comrades they
had to respect property rights and investment income.
In a two-hour speech at the Chinese Communist Party's congress, held only
every five years, the national president and party general secretary, Jiang
Zemin, pointed to a future where private rights were guaranteed by law, and
a vibrant business sector flourished alongside continuing communist rule
and state-sector dominance. Mr Jiang, 76, who is expected to hand over his
party job to a younger official during the congress, spelled out his vision
in a report of which the less-than-handy title - "Build a well-off society
in an all-round way and create a new situation in building socialism with
Chinese characteristics' - reflects the growing conflicts and ironies of
communist rule in a booming economy led by market activity.
The 2134 delegates, mostly wearing Western-style business suits with a
sprinkling of military uniforms, listened intently as Mr Jiang urged them
to "blaze new trails" in extending Marxism as the speech was broadcast live
on all channels of Chinese state television. This party congress has been
hyped to unprecedented levels by propaganda agencies. As well as countless
red flags, the central Tiananmen Square outside the congress venue has been
decorated with transplanted palm trees, electrically heated against
temperatures now slipping below freezing at night.
Security has been just as tight, but one note of dissent in Beijing has
been an open letter circulated this week by intellectual Lin Mu - a former
secretary to the late party general secretary Hu Yaobang, who was purged
for his liberal tendencies. Mr Lin called on the party congress to reassess
the Tiananmen incident, rehabilitate the ideas of Hu Yaobang and his purged
successor Zhao Ziyang, allow Chinese exiles to freely enter and leave the
country and begin studies on how to shift to electoral democracy.
The congress is unlikely to take up the suggestion. Mr Jiang has ruled
China for 13 years with an iron grip since the 1989 massacre of
pro-democracy demonstrators gathered on Tiananmen, and his apparent
political swan song was more notable for policy departures in the economic
sphere than in political freedoms.
He said all investors at home or from overseas should be encouraged to
carry out business activities to develop China, and all legitimate income,
from work or not, should be protected. "It is improper to judge whether
people are politically progressive or backward simply by whether they own
property or how much property they own, but rather, we should judge them
mainly by their political awareness, state of mind and performance," Mr
Jiang said. Even private businessmen were building socialism "with Chinese
characteristics", he said.MORE ON...
http://smh.com.au/articles/2002/11/08/1036308479396.html