'Capitalist roaders' driving CCP up new street

President Jiang Zemin: encouraging the 'changing nature of the Chinese Communist Party

By Willy Lam
Senior China Analyst

A well-known conservative cadre has warned that "capitalist roaders" may soon take over the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Vice Party Secretary of Jilin Province Lin Yanzhi wrote in an internal document that the new capitalist class "wants to take over power" and that it might be able to do so "through changing the nature of the CCP."

Beijing analysts said debate about the role of private entrepreneurs, including whether they can join the CCP, had intensified as the leadership readied itself for the party's 80th birthday on July 1.

Lin, a rising star in the party's faction of leftists, or neo-Maoists, argued in his paper that should the influence of the so-called 'red bosses' rise, "China will experience long-term social chaos and economic decay."

An abbreviated version of Lin's treatise, which was first circulated among cadres earlier this year, appeared in the just-published issue of the theoretical journal In Search of Truth.

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Excerpts from the paper have also been carried by the popular website Chinesenewsnet.com.

Articles warning against the CCP turning from a socialist to a quasi-capitalist entity have also been featured in influential journals such as Mainstream and Huaxia Forum.

In his recent article in Mainstream, ideologue Cai Zhongde cited the axiom of the late conservative patriarch Chen Yun: "We are a Communist party - and a Communist party can only be engaged in socialism."

Cai and other theorists have claimed that reforms such as turning state firms to shareholding companies would adulterate the socialist nature of the party and lead to its destruction.

A retired party cadre in Beijing said moderate leaders such as President Jiang Zemin and Vice President Hu Jintao had late last year floated trial balloons about allowing private entrepreneurs to join the CCP.

"Jiang and Hu want to co-opt the dynamic new class of 'red bosses' in order to augment support for reform and boost their own power," the cadre said.

It is understood some radical Jiang advisers have proposed revising the party charter to make it possible for the CCP to pursue market reforms and to recruit private entrepreneurs.

Analysts in Beijing said, however, that Jiang had taken note of the opposition of neo-Maoists.

In recent speeches, the president has again underscored the status of the CCP as "the vanguard of the proletariat."