Asia Times Online :: China Business News - China's entrepreneurs aspire to political office

China Business

Mar 1, 2007

China's entrepreneurs aspire to political office

BEIJING - Nearly one in every three Chinese entrepreneurs wants to play a political role in China as the private sector continues to fuel the country's economic growth, says a recent survey.

The private sector accounts for 65% of China's gross domestic product (GDP) and contributes more than 80% of its economic growth, says the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC).

The study was conducted jointly by the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party's Central

Committee, the All-China Association for Private Business Studies, and the ACFIC.

Though the survey shows that about 70.8% of the entrepreneurs consider business to be their top priority, there are those who hope to be elected members of the National People's Congress or the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. And less ambitious ones hope for memberships in regional people's congresses or political consultative conferences.

Although the study reflects the rising desire of such people to engage in politics, their enthusiasm contrasts with the rank or post they can hold. In fact, they can only assume low-ranking posts in political or economic organizations, and their proportion at best can be pretty small. Moreover, such posts are concentrated in economic rather than political organizations.

It shows that former government officials, managerial personnel of state-owned enterprises, and technical professionals make up 67.4% of private business owners, up from 33.8% in 2004. In contrast, the ratio of workers, farmers and service-trade personnel turned entrepreneurs dropped from 57.9% to 26.7%.

Communist Party members comprised 32.2% of the private owners who registered their businesses after 2001.

The majority of the private business owners with Communist Party affiliations once used to work for party or government organizations, with many of them serving as directors or managers of state-owned or collectively owned enterprises.

That means the make-up of private business ownership is becoming elite-oriented, says Bao Yujun, director of the All-China Association for Private Business Studies. That's why the new generation of entrepreneurs yearn for recognition and understanding from society.

(Asia Pulse/XIC)

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