Teaching Comparative

Factors contributing to material success in China

Pallavi Aiyar, the China correspondent for The Hindu, wrote an article for Asia Times Online that offers a detailed view of the economic success of a few people in China. I have seen accounts of other villages like the one profiled here, but none as rich in details.

I'd like my students to identify elements of the political culture of Huaxi that are also important in the country as a whole by finding examples of things like guanxi and local control in other, perhaps broader cases.

How a village went from rags to Rolls-Royces

"Row after row of two-story mansions, with shingled roofs, stucco walls and the occasional mock-Tudor turret. A picture-perfect slice of American suburbia, except only a few meters to the south of this idyll, the smokestacks of steelworks belch out black vaporous clouds.

"This is the quixotic world of what is officially China's richest village, Huaxi - a community whose enterprises collectively earned 40 billion yuan (US$5 billion) in sales last year. Every one of Huaxi's 400 families lives in a 600-square-meter home, owns at least two cars and has assets worth a million yuan. The average per capita income of the 2,000 villagers is $10,000 a year, almost 50 times that of the average Chinese farmer...

"At the helm the village is the 80-year-old former party secretary Wu Renbao, who is credited with more or less single-handedly having steered Huaxi's people out of rags and into Rolls-Royces. Once reviled as a capitalist-roader for his pro-business leanings, today Wu is hailed by China's authorities as a model worker, and Huaxi is upheld as an example of what Beijing means by its recent vow to build a 'new socialist countryside'...

"During the Cultural Revolution (1966-77), a time when 'money' was a dirty word, he disregarded the established orthodoxy and started up a machine-parts factory...

"He cackles in pure glee when he recalls what he terms his 'secret factory' and how whenever county officials came to visit the village, he would quickly send away the workers to till the fields, bringing them back to the factory once the officials had left...

"After China embarked on its economic reforms, Wu once again bucked the nationwide trend and, instead of dividing up village land and handing it over to individual households for farming, he decided to keep the land communal. His focus, however, was away from agriculture and toward developing industry.

"'I have always been a good communist,' says Wu, 'because I have always served the people and tried to make everyone happy and rich.' He adds, 'I believe in practice, not theory, and in learning what's best for my village from facts rather than theoretical formulations.'

"Wu's manner is folksy... Dressed in simple peasant garb, at odds with the flashy surroundings of the gleaming pagoda-style hotel in which the interview takes place...

"But over the years several Chinese commentators have pointed out that Wu's disarming charm hides a canny and even ruthless politician who is probably better connected than his rustic appearance reveals. Indeed, despite repeatedly flouting central party directives, Wu never lost his job and Huaxi's enterprises were able to grow quickly...

"The concept of 'ownership' in Huaxi is complex. Villagers earn a small salary in cash from the company they work for, but the majority of their wealth comes from a substantial bonus and the dividends from their stock... Despite being millionaires on paper, the villagers are in fact only allowed to receive a total of 30,000 yuan a year in cash, including salary and dividends...

"Wu says the secret of Huaxi's success lies in his agnosticism toward different ideological 'isms'.

"'What is capitalism? What is communism? The only "ism" I believe in is making people rich,' he laughs. Then more seriously, "'Everything has its good points and bad points. Our villagers get dividends from shares, that's capitalist. They also get free health care and education, which is communist. Moreover, they get a salary and bonus, which is socialist. We just take the best and reject the worst of everything.'

"But Wu misses out another 'ism', one that he has also been accused of - feudalism. Huaxi is in many ways a Wu family fiefdom... The village's top posts are peppered with Wu's relatives...

"The 'Huaxi way of life' that Wu insists all villagers must follow is a strictly regimented one. Villagers are in bed by 10pm and up by 6am. Few have weekends off and nightlife is prohibited lest it distract people from their jobs. 'We don't allow people to be lazy here,' says Wu. 'The only people with freedom are the jobless, and we don't want that kind of freedom here.'

"Not that the villagers themselves appear to be complaining. Almost none choose to leave and thousands of others are lining up to enter..."

Labels: China, economics, politics

posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:30 AM