Leftists make late bid to slow reforms

["ÁÎ×Ó¹â HenryC.K.Liu ¹ù¤l¥ú" <hliu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

SCMP   Thursday, February 10, 2000

             Leftists make late bid  to slow reforms

             WILLY WO-LAP LAM

             A group of conservatives has made a last-ditch
             effort to slow market reforms as party leaders
             make final preparations for Beijing's entry to
             the World Trade Organisation.

             Many heavyweight leftists, or quasi-Maoists,
             have published their views in the latest issue of
             the journal Zhenlide Zhuiqiu (Searching After
             Truth).

             Veteran commissar Yu Quanyu warned that
             new ways of thinking would be dangerous if
             they advocated privatisation and other
             departures from the socialist road.

             Mr Yu asked party members and young
             people not to succumb to the temptation of
             "bourgeois liberalisation", a reference to
             Western influence.

             In his article on economic reform, ideologue
             Lin Yanzhi attacked a recent theory that
             state-owned enterprises should retreat from
             competitive sectors of the economy.

             A member of the party committee of Henan
             province, Mr Lin is said to be a candidate for a
             major position in the party's Central
             Committee Publicity Department.

             Writing in the same journal, young economist
             Li Qiang disputed the popular view that the
             phenomena of "surplus value" and exploitation
             had disappeared in today's information-based
             economy.

             A Beijing source said some of these leftist
             views clashed with the teachings of Deng
             Xiaoping and, to some extent, those of
             President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu
             Rongji.

             The idea that government firms should move
             out of certain sectors was first raised last year
             by Mr Jiang and Mr Zhu.

             Meanwhile, several books and magazine
             articles advocating a hard line towards the
             United States and the West have proven
             popular with a growing group of
             nationalistically minded intellectuals.

             Foremost among these publications is China's
             Road Under the Shadow of Globalisation,
             co-authored by social scientists Fang Ning,
             Wang Xiaodong and Song Qiang.

             The book claims Washington wants to contain
             and eventually dismember the mainland under
             the guise of economic globalisation.

             It urges mainlanders to develop patriotism and
             stop "blind worship of the West".

             Analysts said market reforms, the WTO and
             globalisation were expected to feature
             prominently in an upcoming plenary session of
             the National People's Congress.