Chinese bicker as corruption grows

Press, 19 April 1985, Page 11

Chinese bicker as corruption grows

By

JONATHAN MIRSKY,

in London

Rare public bickering has emerged among Chinese leaders as they move to stop the corruption arising from their free-wheeling economic policies. Premier Zhao Ziyang, a key exponent of the new individualism, unveiled a 15,000-word programme in Peking last month designed to stem abuses rampant in city and country as even officials hurry to match the wealth of ambitious peasants and urban entrepreneurs. It would be hard to exaggerate the extent of the nation-wide swindling, smuggling, and bribery. Last year, the State Accounting Office recently revealed more than $1 billion went astry. One village crook travelled to Peking, where he bamboozled official institutions out of $5 million in a cut-rate colour television rip-off. Such disclosures strengthen the conviction of certain veteran party members that China is going to the “capitalist dogs.” Also, they arouse fears among the supporters of Deng Xiaoping, now aged 80, that when he, the great pragmatist, dies, his successors may not be able to maintain his policies. These are designed to quadruple national production by the year 2000. Premier Zhao, Deng’s chief economic disciple, is determined to yield as little ideological ground as possible. In the course of his speech to the National People’s Congress, China’s Parliament, he immediately conceded that he and Deng, whom few in China would dare to criticise in front of an audience, failed “to give adequate consideration beforehand or to exercise strict supervision later — from which we should draw a lesson.” Zhao was referring to party

blindspots in the rural policies promulgated five years ago and those announced last October which foresaw similar individualism in the urban sector, where managers are to make their own plans, set wages and prices, and take responsibility for profit and loss. The party and State were stepping back from economic operations, and even from planning. The authorities stepped back too, it is now plain, from dealing with greed, triggered by the official slogan “Get Rich First.” This dereliction has enraged men like Hu Qiaomu, a Politburo member and veteran ideologue. On an inspection tour recently in wealthy southeastern Fuzhou, where he visited factories humming with the getrich spirit, Hu said: “We should overcome the unhealthy tendency among some people of putting money above all else, or judging a person’s social status by his income.” It was time, he added, to cease trumpeting the virtues of peasant families making $lO,OOO annually. Such admonitions from old comrades recently caused Deng Xiaoping himself to insist that all his policies are intended to develop socialism and eventually communism. Deng is easily angered these days by foreigners who politely inquire if his intentions will outlive him. The existence of crooks up from the villages to make a fortune in Peking does not make his

assurances more credible. In Zhao’s speech to the National People’s Congress, he stipulated that the new controls now make it harder for State funds to be spent on scarce consumer electronics. Yet, despite greed and envy of the rich and sniping from senior colleagues like Hu Qiaomu, the Dengists do not intend to abandon their intention to stimulate economic individualism, although they are less sanguine than previously. In another speech last month, to scientists, Zhao told his audience to learn from the peasants. This was a tough piece of advice for China’s traditionally haughty intellectuals. Peasants, Zhao noted, pay close attention to market forces, and for scientists, too, “economic means are very effective.” To underline this point, the Premier added that Government funds would be available only to scientific projects which promised to stimulate production. “The primary, fundamental, and ultimate criterion for evaluating the success of science is whether it invigorates the economy,” the Premier said. Then, remembering that he was speaking to intellectuals for whom an untrammelled market orientation might appear vulgar, Zhao tossed them a classical allusion: “To reform science and technology means to mobilise thousands of horses and soldiers to climb the hill and pick peaches.” Copyright — London Observer Service.