Re: All the work units have collapsed. . . . It's a dangerous situation. (fwd)
At 09:23 30/03/00 -1000, you wrote: My apologies for sending on this information from a bourgeois source. But for those offended, rest assured this kind of story you can find in Chinese magazines, newspapers,...Steve Subject: "All the work units have collapsed. . . . It's a dangerous situation." Washington Post WTO Membership Imperils China's Industrial Dinosaurs By Clay Chandler Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday , March 30, 2000 ; A01 Bourgeois sources are usually right at the level of gossip. What they will leave out is any coherence to what the Chinese Communist Party may claim to be trying to do. Clearly it is making major compromises in its efforts to make sure that China survives in an increasingly international economic environment. It also has to achieve continued progress in the economy of time, which as one person (apologies I have forgotten who) quoted Marx as saying lies at the bottom of all economy. My impression is that ithe CPC is increasingly retreating to a position where the coordination of China's finances in the context of the world economy is the most important features of a social control of the means of production. That, coupled with the large town and village cooperative sector, might be not so different from Market Socialism. Chris Burford London
Re: Re: All the work units have collapsed. . . . It's a dangerous situation. (fwd)
My apologies for sending on this information from a bourgeois source. But
for those offended, rest assured this kind of story you can find in
Chinese magazines, newspapers,...Steve
Subject: "All the work units have collapsed. . . . It's a dangerous
situation."
Washington Post
WTO Membership Imperils China's Industrial Dinosaurs
By Clay Chandler
Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday , March 30, 2000 ; A01
Chris wrote:
Bourgeois sources are usually right at the level of gossip. What they will
leave out is any coherence to what the Chinese Communist Party may claim to
be trying to do.
{snip}
My impression is that ithe CPC is increasingly retreating to a position
where the coordination of China's finances in the context of the world
economy is the most important features of a social control of the means of
production. That, coupled with the large town and village cooperative
sector, might be not so different from Market Socialism.
Chris Burford
Now from an official Chinese source, translated by your's truly...on the
socialist content of TVE's:
From Workers' Daily, 11/26/98
In the Hunan Province village of Yiyang as long as Getihu entrepreneurs
put out under a hundred Yuan, they can buy TVE "hongmaozi'
status. That's the 'latest trend' that interviews with villagers revealed
to this reporter. According to butcher Chen Guiting from Anhua county,
he and 17 other butchers got together and spent 55 Yuan to become a "TVE."
Sources close to or in the government note that throughout China, numerous
getihu are following suit..The widespread sight of getihu that have the
cover of TVE gives one cause to reflect.
The gap between official stats and what one really sees begs an
explanation. No matter if it's a shop selling tofu or meat sellers in
country markets, all are "TVE's"..If you're not careful, you might even
find yourself inside a "barber-shop" TVE..According to Yiyang City
Ministry of Industry and Commerce statistics, Yiyang city has a total of
5,414 getihu's that are registered as TVE's including barbershops, watch
repairshops, restaurants, small grocery shops, cigarette and alcohol
sellers..run by farmers from the countryside. These shops all have the
simultaneous status of getihhu and TVE.
In the town of Lanxi, which borders Yiyang city, some shop owners/traders
said that officials they approached for the TVE registration asked for 65
Yuan, and with that they received oneTVE registration certificate, one TVE
legal regulations booklet, and one TVE tax payment record card. Not a few
getithu proprietors revealed that once they made their registration
payment they were told by TVE Affairs Office that now that they were
TVE's, they were not required to pay taxes to the City Ministry of
Industry and Commerce. Numerous getihu proprietors now believing
themselves to be 'TVE' proprietors have since refused to pay their fees to
the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. As a result a conflict has arisen
between the two powerful Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the TVE
Ministry, in which much less powerfulgetihu's see themselves as caught in
the middle of and ending up as the biggest as the biggest victims.
According to sources Hunan Provincial Prosecutor's Office, Financial
Court, Commodity Prices Bureau..officials decided at a meeting , on July
3rd of this year, enjoined the TVE Ministry to rectify the problem of
misappropriation of fees and to deliver a report on progress by August,
1998.
However, in November of this year, this reporter in the counties of
Heshan, Taojiang, and Anhua found thru many interviews that most getihu's
had not had their TVE status revoked and were still operating under the
cover of TVE registration...
Re: Re: Re: All the work units have collapsed. . . . It's a dangerous situation. (fwd)
At 13:35 30/03/00 -1000, Stephen wrote: Chris Burford Now from an official Chinese source, translated by your's truly...on the socialist content of TVE's: From Workers' Daily, 11/26/98 In the Hunan Province village of Yiyang as long as Getihu entrepreneurs put out under a hundred Yuan, they can buy TVE "hongmaozi' status. That's the 'latest trend' that interviews with villagers revealed to this reporter. According to butcher Chen Guiting from Anhua county, he and 17 other butchers got together and spent 55 Yuan to become a "TVE." Sources close to or in the government note that throughout China, numerous getihu are following suit..The widespread sight of getihu that have the cover of TVE gives one cause to reflect. The reason why there is such a lot of bad economic news from China about corruption is because they are publishing it. It is easily scooped up to make a news story. This is a society in rapid transition. Old conventions of trust and accounability have gone. They have not got modern bourgeois control systems in place (not that they guarantee protection from corruption and cartels even in places like Germany. The number of executions in China is offensive IMHO to global civil society (but so is that in the United States of America.) That is a feature of the rapid process of change and the conflict that arises (conflict in all its forms - I am using the word in the abstract sense). All this does not alter the overall picture that China may be moving towards a more diversified economy with still the firm intention to have the overall economy under social control. That may end up looking a bit like market socialism. BTW David Schweickart says nothing about the control of corruption and cartels. But that may be vital to the process of lubricating any social interchange, which must depend on degree of trust, that the reciprocity implied in exchange will work out reasonably well. Perhaps he assumes that a commission from the Loyola University of Chicago could regulate this more humanely in a future society. I must say in stretching this comparison between China's economic strategy and Schweickart, it does occur to me that his description of market socialism is almost utopian in its peaceful flavour. The actual result may be much muckier. BTW also, I am not sure what getihu's are. Can you help? Regards Chris Burford London
