China vowed to crack down on collusion between officials and businesses, and safeguard the political sphere from infiltration of powerful interest entities, reported state mouthpiece Xinhua.
At the third plenary session on Jan. 8 of the party’s anti-graft organ, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the regime’s leader Xi Jinping said that cracking down on collusion between officials and businesses is “an essential and top priority,” and specifically, that efforts should be intensified to “punish bribe givers,” reported Xinhua.
Commentators speculate that prioritizing political stability over economic growth and selectively combating corruption might instill anxiety among private enterprises, and force officials to adopt a passive approach. Consequently, it could exacerbate economic troubles, potentially making Xi Jinping the harbinger of the regime’s demise.
China affairs specialist Wang He, speaking to the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times on Jan. 10, emphasized that the Chinese collusion between government and business is led by the regime, not the business sector.
As for the business sector that Xi referred to, Mr. He believes the central and state-owned enterprises are his focus. “The regime’s measures of anti-monopoly to prevent the unchecked expansion of capital in recent years have primarily targeted private enterprises and prominent figures such as Jack Ma, whose political influence has been effectively neutralized,” he said.
Feng Chongyi, associate professor in China Studies at the University of Technology, Sydney, said Xi’s earlier emphasis was on addressing the expansion of private enterprises, including figures like Jack Ma and Pony Ma. The focus was on reining in these influential figures in the capital realm. However, private enterprises constitute a massive group. Therefore, a new anti-corruption initiative has surfaced, indicating an intention to address more issues within this sector.
“Xi’s new tasks and slogans are designed to systematically crackdown on his targets,” said Mr. Feng.
“However, to be precise, state-owned enterprises are not purely commercial entities; they inherently wield state power. Without special privileges, they fundamentally cannot compete with private enterprises,” said Mr. Kao.
Heavy Restrictions
Private businesses contribute more than 60 percent to China’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In the face of economic challenges, the regime declared its support for private businesses and rolled out a series of measures in 2023, such as the “31 Guidelines for Private Enterprises” in July, the “28 Initiatives to Foster Private Enterprise Development” in August, the “22 Measures to Foster Private Economic Development” in September, and the “25 measures” jointly issued by the central bank, among eight departments, in November.The regime also touted that the “Party Central Committee maintains a steadfast stance in supporting the private economy,” affirming the “party’s policy direction favoring the development of the private economy.”
However, multiple local governments also issued a “negative list” to regulate officials’ behavior when dealing with entrepreneurs. Beyond emphasizing the need for services, the main objective is to define the boundaries for interactions between party officials and the business sector.
In the capital Beijing, for instance, the authorities listed 10 categories of wrongdoing for its officials, including partially implementing policies, neglecting businesses’ needs, selective law enforcement, unlawful interference, abuse of power, illicit acceptance of goods or money, encroachment on corporate interests, unauthorized part-time jobs or shareholding, and forming cliques.
Beijing’s negative list “explicitly delineates the boundaries for relationships between government officials and entrepreneurs to be close but corruption-free,” the state mouthpiece Xinhua reported.
However, current affairs commentator Li Linyi expressed his concerns about the vagueness of the regulations and the potential for arbitrary enforcement.
Given Xi’s prioritization of political security over the economy, the authorities’ “selective approach to anti-corruption” will only inevitably cause further harm to the economy, he explained. “As private enterprise owners fear inadvertently triggering trouble, and officials may become more risk-averse, opting to do less. The outlook for private enterprises in China is far from optimistic.”
He believes the major hurdles for private enterprises in China revolve around issues such as market access, financing, and fair competition. Despite the authorities introducing numerous policy measures, the fundamental demands of private enterprises for “fairness and the rule of law remain unmet,” he said. “This is fundamentally a systemic issue, and only the overthrow of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can address it.”
Mr. Kao agreed that Xi’s heavy restrictions on political-business interactions will blindly cause trouble for businesses.
“To revitalize the economy, it relies on businessmen and catering to their needs, … but whenever Xi gets involved, the stocks would plummet right away, like Alibaba,” he said, referring to October 2022 when Xi secured his third term as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and shares of Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Tencent closed down more than 11 percent.
“Xi Jinping and his chaotic behaviors caused the current economic downturn.”
He stated that Xi could potentially become the last General Secretary, marking the end of the CCP. “The CCP has reached its final stage. As the wage arrears continue, and many more people unemployed, with the U.S. sanctions, I think we can rely on him for the demise of CCP,” said Mr. Kao.
