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Private Businessmen Have Big Say in State Affairs
Private business people in China are being more vocal about state and political affairs in the country nowadays.
Yin Mingshan, chairman of the Chongqing-based Lifan Hongda Industrial Group and vice-chairman of the General Chamber of Commerce of Chongqing Municipality, is more proud of his other title: a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
Yin, 63, has attended the annual sessions of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, and the CPPCC, China's top advisory body, since 1998 when he was elected member of the CPPCC National Committee. Each time, he usually brought more than five proposals on state affairs to the meetings.
Yin, listed in "Fortune" magazine as one of the top 50 millionaires in China, had a sales income of 2.6 billion yuan (US$313 million) last year.
He attributed his success to the reform and opening up policies of the country's central authorities. "I love to voice my opinions on state affairs so that the policies will be better implemented," Yin said.
Yin first became an editor at a publishing house after graduation from a college. He set up a motorcycle plant nine years ago, with only nine workers working at a 40-square-meter workshop.
Today, Yin has expanded his business to southeast Asia, Africa, the United States, Europe and south America. He has also set foot in advertising and bought a first-class football team in China.
As of November 1999, China had 1.406 million private enterprises and 31.74 million individual business people. At present, 46 of the country's private businessmen are members of the CPPCC National Committee and 48 of them are deputies to the NPC.
Rong Yiren, founder of the China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC), is one of the most outstanding private businessmen in China. As a renowned industrialist, Rong was on several occasions elected deputy to the NPC and member of the National Committee of the CPPCC, and served as the vice-president of the People's Republic of China between 1993 and 1998.
Liao Changguang, 49, is famous for running chafing dish chain restaurants both at home and abroad. He was elected a deputy to the NPC three years ago.
"Ever since the day when I became a NPC deputy, I've been more concerned with state affairs besides the business of my enterprise," Liao said.
In the past two years, Liao donated more than 100 million yuan for the resettlement of Three Gorges residents and built a secondary school in a remote village of Chongqing. Liao has provided jobs for nearly 1,000 of the school's graduates.
Liao has spent half a year making preparations for the impending annual NPC and CPPCC sessions to be held in March in Beijing.
He said he plans to advance motions on the protection of brand names, non-public businesses enjoying the status of national treatment and the entry into the nation's Constitution of a clause that legal private property is not allowed to be encroached upon.
In the east coastal region of China, private businesses not account for 50 percent, and even 80 percent of the local economy in some cities and counties. The amendments of the Constitution of China and latest documents of the CPC all stipulate that the non-public economy is an important part of China's socialist market economy.
Yin Mingshan believes that more and more private entrepreneurs are expected to play a role in the participation in and deliberation of state affairs, as private businesses constitute a bigger and bigger part of the national economy.
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