National Peoples' Congress Shows Who's Got The
Power
When the National Peoples' Congress convened in Beijing
yesterday, the seating arrangement showed who has the
leadership and power in China. Jiang Zemin, retired president
and chairman of the Central Military Commission, had the
center seat, with Premier Wen Jiabao on his left and President
Hu Jintao on his right. This suggests that Jiang still
has a say on many issues to be discussed at the twice-annual
NPC meeting.
Security has been tightened down in Beijing with security
police stationed fifty feet apart in the square surrounding
Tiananmen, Zhongnanhai and the Great Hall of the People,
where the more than 2,100 delegates meet. As usual, there
is also a press crackdown which accompanies this major
event.
The NPC meeting is largely a lobbying forum, where the
delegates meet with the government leadership to push
their causes. Most of the delegations are organized according
to provincial lines. There are many working committees
such as security, finance, and diplomacy, just to name
a few, and delegates are considered to be rising stars
if they get named to a committee.
This session will consider major changes to the constitution.
One of the most important is a clause added to protect
private property. The current constitution states that
all property belongs to the state, and that China is ruled
by the Chinese people. So, everything is state-owned and
thus, by the people. But now, after 25 years of reform,
the prosperous urban Chinese don't want to have their
private property owned by everyone else, and they want
guarantees added into the constitution.
Another revision will add that if property is taken away
from an individual, proper restitution will be made. This
changes the default to property ownership to private ownership.
Unanswered questions remain such as how value will be
determined, and how wrongs will be corrected.
As this NPC session convenes, it is becoming clear that
as China develops, many of the social challenges and reforms
facing the country are too complex and deep to be made
by a leadership of only a few individuals. Others in the
government and private sector need to be empowered to
add a level of governance and responsibility.
For example, while premier Wen Jiabao has pushed through
powerful financial reforms, he has not been able to implement
change on the management
level in China's state-owned banks. Wen can continue
to make decisions on the management level by himself,
or he can turn to the party, or hand the power to some
other body which has the power and authority to throw
out an ineffective management. In this analyst's opinion,
his best option is to empower the China
Banking Regulatory Commission with extraodinary powers
to hire and fire bank management while China's financial
sector undergoes privatization and proceeds to write off
its bad loans. In many instances, hiring non-Chinese as
management from Japan and the west, who do not have any
vested interests in China, would be a good option which
deserves serious thought and study.
Today, China is in the interesting position of having
a powerful and much-in-demand currency, while having a
broken financial sector. It's high time to fix the financial
sector, so that capital can go to the individuals and
companies which can provide the best return, instead of
to companies and individuals favored by one faction or
another.
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