Chinanews, Hong Kong, Feb. 16 – In China, a group of people who have power in Chinese governmental institutions have now become private enterprise owners. While it is not a bad thing for people who have some power to become private enterprise owners, it should be noted that due to the current immature legal system, it is very easy for such people to trade their power for money. So if so many private enterprise owners come from powerful people, the public should be alert to such phenomenon, Ta Kung Pao reported in an editorial.
In China, many private enterprise owners come from the social elite group, according to a recent report from the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce. These private enterprise owners want to be recognized by society and wish to participate more in national and local political affairs. The report says that most private enterprise owners were once officials working in public institutions, managers working in enterprises (including self-employed individuals), or technicians or engineers in companies. These three kinds of people now account for 67.4% of the total number of private enterprise owners, while in 2004, they accounted for only 33.8%, increasing by 99.4% in three years.
At the same time, the proportion of farmers, workers, service people and ordinary staff workers in the total number of private enterprise owners has decreased from 57.9% three years ago to 26.7% at present, dropping by 53.9%.
Of all private enterprise owners, those who once served as officials in Communist Party and government organizations or in public institutions, those who were heads of basic administrative units, those who were county-level cadres, or cadres above county level account for 56.3%, 30.7%, 11.6% and 1.4% of the total number, respectively. Among all those private enterprise owners who are Party members, 55.2% were once the managers of state-owned enterprises or collectively-owned enterprises.
According to the editorial, Chinese private enterprise owners mainly come from two social elite groups: the power elite, which refers to members who were officials of government organizations; and knowledge elite, which refers to company managers and engineers. On the one hand, it is a good thing for more and more people from knowledge elite group to become private enterprise owners, since this shows that knowledge is respected and begins to demonstrate its value in the era of knowledge economy. On the other hand, the editorial suggests, the public should be alert to this social phenomenon, due to China's immature legal system which still has many drawbacks and loopholes at present.
Private enterprise owners want to participate more in political affairs, which is not a bad thing by itself. However, the precondition is that legal system is mature. If the legal system is not mature, then it is very easy for those who have some power to trade their power for money. In light of this, the public should be alert to this social phenomenon, says the editorial.
