The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers (42 page)

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Authors: Richard McGregor

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BOOK: The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers
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Promotions have been tied
…: See the chapter by Alice Miller in Finkelstein and Gunness,
Civil–Military Relations in Today’s China
.

Far from their pedigree
…: Details taken from the paper by Bo Zhiyue, ‘Do Family Connections Matter in the PLA in China?’, East Asian Institute Background Brief No. 278, 29 March 2006.

If the symbiotic relationship
…: See Shambaugh,
Modernizing China’s Military
.

At the opening of the
…: This exchange is taken from
China Digital Times
, 27 March 2007.

Jiang’s first proposal for
…: Robert Kuhn,
The Man Who Changed China
, p. 260

At what used to be
…: There is a good account of this period in Susan Shirk,
China: The Fragile Superpower
, Oxford University Press, 2007; seep. 196.

After years of predicting
…: Most of the quotes here are from a personal interview with Yan in May 2009. Other details of his thoughts on the Taiwan issue and his apology can be found at: http://www.chinaelections.org/NewsInfo.asp?NewsID=129345;

http://news.xinhuanet.com/globe/2004-07/15/content_1603151.htm;

http://opinion.huanqiu.com/roll/2009-04/433045.html;

http://humanities.cn/modules/article/view.article.php?c10/286;

http://blog.voc.com.cn/blog.php?do=showone&uid=416&type=blog&itemid=49003.

CHAPTER 5 THE SHANGHAI GANG

 

When the former
…: These comments were posted in reaction to a story at http://news.sina.com.cn/c/l/2008-10-15/021816453877.shtml, but they have since been deleted.

and in Suzhou
…: The official in this case was given nine houses at below market prices and cash bribes after he used public assets to guarantee loans for developers whose projects were in trouble. The official’s relatives were given jobs and he also embezzled funds to help pay back the developers’ loans. In court, the accused official said he didn’t realize that his actions violated any laws, as many other government officials did the same thing. See
Caijing’s
’s online edition of 11 November 2008.

The paltry official pay rates
…:
Nanfang Dushibao
[
Southern Metropolis Daily
], 9 March 2007.

The jobs in government
…: From a ranking compiled by sina.com, China’s most popular portal, according to the number of people seeking information about particular jobs.

Established in its present
…: For an excellent description of the detention system, see Flora Sapio,
Shuanggui and Extra-Legal Detention in China
, China Information, 2008.

The portrayal of the
…: See http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2005-01-26/20404956537s.shtml.

The threat of being fingered
…: The story of Zhang’s golf clubs is contained in a court case filed in the US District Court, Middle District, Orlando Division, by Grace & Digital Information Technology against Fidelity National Financial; and received in the court on 6 March 2006.

The system frets constantly
…: See
Xuexi Shibao
[
Study Times
], 16 March 2009.

The commission’s delegates
…: These quotes come from Szu-chien Hsu,
Reforming the Party and the State under Hu Jintao
, Institute of Political Science, Academica Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.

A Taiwanese jeweller
…: See http://jpos.blog.sohu.com/69302472.html, and also the
South China Morning Post
, 29 November 2004.

Shanghai had been fêted
…: This was said by Lynn Pan, who has written a number of excellent books on Shanghai.

A newly chastened
…: The figures come from Bruce Jacobs and Lijian Hong, ‘Shanghai and the Lower Yangzi Valley’, in
China Deconstructs: Politics, Trade and Regionalism
, edited by David Goodman and Gerald Segal, Routledge, 1997, pp. 163–93.

Chen Liangyu made a
…: See ‘The (Internally) Collected Quotations of Chen Liangyu’, posted on
China Digital Times
, 31 October 2006. Translated by Jonathan Ansfield.

The evidence suggests
…: This comes from conversations with Yasheng Huang and also early drafts of his book,
Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics: Entrepreneurship and the State
, Cambridge University Press, 2008.

The city galloped ahead
…: Cheng Li, ‘The Shanghai Gang: Force for Stability or Cause for Conflict?’,
China Leadership Monitor
, No. 2, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Spring 2002.

When Jiang Zemin was appointed
…: See Robert Lawrence Kuhn,
The Man Who Changed China
, Crown Publishers, 2004, p. 164.

Each succession in
…: See Alice Miller, ‘With Hu in Charge, Jiang’s at Ease’,
China Leadership Monitor
, No. 13, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Winter 2005.

Weeks before his arrest
…: This account comes from a number of people at the dinner.

When the furious residents began
…: As well as interviewing Shen Tong, I have also drawn on her book,
Shei yinbao Zhou zhengyi an?
[
Who Sparked off the Zhou Zhengyi Case
?], Open Publishing House, Hong Kong, 2007.

No democracy
…: Jackie Stewart’s quote comes from
Dow Jones Newswires
, 15 November 2004.

And one by one
…:
China Business Focus
, May 2008.

Chen was locked
…: These details are from a report in
Phoenix Weekly
, 15 June 2009.

Stern and fearsome when they begin
…: This translation was taken originally from the website of the US Embassy in Beijing, but it was not available when I last looked in mid-2009.

CHAPTER 6 THE EMPEROR IS FAR AWAY

 

170 Sections of this chapter which concern the Sanlu case were based on interviews with executives and advisers to the company. For material about Ms Tian and the meeting referred to at the start of the chapter, see:

http://finance.sina.com.cn/g/20090107/06535725594.shtml;

http://finance.sina.com.cn/leadership/crz/20090105/09445714928.shtml;

http://finance.sina.com.cn/leadership/crz/20090119/10565776623.shtml;

http://finance.huanqiu.com/roll/2009-01/336337.html.

For details of how the scandal unfolded, the following articles were helpful:

http://magazine.caijing.com.cn/templates/inc/content.jsp?infoid=77702&type=1&ptime=20080928;

http://magazine.caijing.com.cn/templates/inc/content.jsp?infoid=77701&type=1&ptime=20080928;

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Fonterra_and_the_Chinese_contaminated_milk_scandal.

Beijing frets constantly
…: http://finance.people.com.cn/GB/1045/3866408.html.

Steven Cheung, a Chicago-trained
…: From a paper by Steven N. S. Cheung, ‘The Economic System of China’, delivered at ‘Forum on Thirty Years of Marketization’, 30–31 August 2008, in Beijing. Thanks to John Fitzgerald for this, who should also get the credit for the phrase about each company being a jurisdiction and vice versa.

China has witnessed
…: See various reports on bulletin boards hosted by http://bbs.dahe.cn.

The golden age of decentralization
…: See Justin Yifu Lin, Ran Tao and Liu Mingxing, ‘Centralization and Local Governance in China’s Economic Transition’, paper prepared for ‘The Rise of Local Governments in Developing Countries’ conference, London School of Economics, May 2003.

In the words of commentator
…: See
Xin Shiji
[
New Century
], 10 June 2009. Translated by David Kelly.

On the front stage
…: For Sanlu’s PR machinations, see especially http://cmp.hku.hk/2008/09/28/1259/, from David Bandurski’s
China Media Project
which did very good work on this topic, and also http://www.ftchinese.com/story.php?storyid=001022070&page=1.

The same month in Guangdong
…: Fu Jianfeng’s blog was posted on 14 September, and also run in translation on the EastSouthWestNorth website (see www.zonaeuropa.com).

Just before the games
…: See
Sydney Morning Herald
, 14 August 2008.

With the Olympics in mind
…: http://finance.sina.com.cn/g/20090107/06535725595.shtml.

Then, the company added
…: For information about Baidu’s role, see http://tech.163.com/08/0915/12/4LSNPQ1N000915BF.html;

http://news.ccw.com.cn/internet/htm2008/20080913_501732.shtml;

http://news.southcn.com/community/bestlist04/content/2008-09/13/content_4597956.htm);

http://zhaomu.blog.sohu.com/99995350.html.

When Xinhua announced
…: The announcement of Ms Tian’s sacking was carried
Xinhua
on 16 September, 2008.

Success has a single father
…:
China Media Project
, 8 October 2007.

CHAPTER 7 DENG PERFECTS SOCIALISM

 

In September 2005
…: See Andy Rothman,
China’s Capitalists
, CLSA, September 2005, and Joe Zhang,
China’s Marginal Private Sector
, UBS Investment Research, 15 September 2005.

Yasheng Huang, at MIT
…: Yasheng Huang’s
Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics: Entrepreneurship and the State
, Cambridge University Press, 2008, is a tour-de-force on this topic. Personal email from the author, in addition.

The Qingdao authorities
…: see
Ershiyi Shiji Jingji Baodao
[
21st Century Economic Herald
], 20 May 2007, and http://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/s/20070520/18223610668.shtml.

After more than three decades
…: Thanks in part to Arthur Kroeber for these categories.

Let’s not talk politics
…:
Newsweek
, 20 December 2004.

Entrepreneurs like Wang Shi
…: I say ‘reportedly’ because it is no longer possible to confirm Wang’s incarceration with the man himself. But the well-researched story in the
Washington Post
of 5 June 1999 quotes Wang Shi extensively, and convincingly, on his time in prison. For the later interview, see
New York Times
magazine, 6 April 2008.

Wang summed up
…: http://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/20081230/01002599819.shtml. The article, in the
21st Century Economic Herald
on 12 December 2008, was headlined: ‘Wang Shi: it’s not easy to take the red hat off once you put it on’.

For Richard Holwill
…: Apart from numerous personal interviews with people quoted here, I have also relied on Herbert Ho’s
The Development of Direct Selling Regulation in China, 1994–2002
, published by the US–China Business Council.

The sardonic opening line
…:
Wall Street Journal
, 23 April 1998.

When I visited Quanzhou
…:
Financial Times
, 26 April 2006. For information on the campaign itself, see
Wall Street Journal
, 13 May 2006.

The campaign against Wal-Mart
…: ‘Ensuring Compliance with China’s New Labor Laws’, paper by Winston Zhao and Owen D. Nee Jnr., both of the legal firm Jones Day, for a PLI Conference, ‘Doing Business in China 2008: Resolving the Challenges in Today’s Environment’, 21 March 2008.

The Party itself is quite explicit
…: Personal interview. See also
Jiefang Bao
[
Liberation Daily
], 2 June 2004.

The organization department’s internal
…: See ‘Zuzhi gongzuo yanjiu wenxuan, 2005; Zhonggong zhongyang zuzhibu yanjiushi (Zhengce fagui ju); Hunhe Suoyouzhi qiye dang de gongzuo yanjiu’ [Selection of Studies on Organizational Work from 2005; Compiled by the Research Department (Bureau of Policy and Regulation) of the CCP Central Organization Department; Studies on party building work within mixed ownership enterprises].

On the surface
…:
People’s Daily
, 4 April 2008.

When the Zhengtai
…: The company’s official English name, in Chinese, is Chint.

Party building in the private
…: These figures and quote are provided by Bruce Dickson from an early draft chapter of his book,
Wealth into Power: The Communist Party’s Embrace of China’s Private Sector
, Cambridge University Press, 2008.

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