Capitalism in China

[redstar2000]

Originally posted by The Economist
THE day the Wu clan formally reopened its ancestral temple was a festive one. In the brutal era of Mao Zedong, the temple (which is over 700 years old) was destroyed and clan elders hid the Wu family archives from Red Guard fanatics. Puritanical communists despised the ancient kinship networks that had traditionally been a crucial support to aspirants in business or politics.

More recently a privately owned machinery factory sat in the temple grounds. Now the factory had been razed and the Wu temple restored to its glory by a dirty river. Houses were draped with red banners and bunting. Firecrackers scattered the demons, and clansmen from far and wide filed into the incense-filled hall to bow before portraits of the clan's ancestors. The hero of that spring day in 2003, greeting guests, and leading a noisy parade through the streets, was Wu Zhenwang: acting chief of the local Wu clan, rebuilder of the temple, and China's sex toy king.

Capitalism and sex-toys in China (http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5323679&no_jw_tran=1&no_na_tran=1)

A very interesting article on the emergence of modern capitalism in China...and how it's affecting "traditional values" there.

http://www.websmileys.com/sm/cool/123.gif

[Severian]

Originally posted by [email protected] 5 2006, 01:29 AM
Capitalism and sex-toys in China (http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5323679&no_jw_tran=1&no_na_tran=1)

A very interesting article on the emergence of modern capitalism in China...and how it's affecting "traditional values" there.
It is interesting. We learn:

This business is successful in a niche market producing something the state has prudishly refused to produce.

As to the general picture:


State-owned banks often turn up their noses at private businesses, and most of the companies approved for listing on China's stock exchanges are state-controlled.
....
But making it big and staying big as a family-run business in China is fraught with difficulty. (Despite its growth, the factory in Wenzhou would count only as a small- to medium-size enterprise.) The odds of making it to the top will long remain stacked in favour of state-owned firms. Only 15% of China's biggest 500 companies are privately owned. Their combined capital amounts to less than 3% of the list's total, even though private enterprises now contribute some 60% of China's GDP. None is in the top 50. The biggest family-run business, an agricultural conglomerate controlled by four brothers, the Hope Group, ranks a mere 105.

Several of China's most prominent private businesspeople have ended up in prison in recent years. In a world where rules quickly change, few trust or respect the law, and big profits can be made in grey areas of ill-regulated markets, the legitimacy of almost any businessman's wealth is open to question. The rich therefore become easy targets if they fail to keep on the right side of officialdom. Many prefer to avoid media attention and find ways of keeping their gains in havens abroad.

Sounds like there's a way to go before stable capitalist property relations enable China's wannabe bourgeoisie to enjoy its property and profits in safety.

And really China - perhaps thanks to continuing CCP repression of the working class - has gone farther down that road than most of the former Soviet states.

All that "history is over" capitalist euphoria we saw after '89 and '91 seems....a little exaggerated.