[Marxism] Last of the Maoist hold-outs cave in

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/19/wchina119.xml

China's last Maoists submit to capitalism

By Richard Spencer in Beijing
Last Updated: 3:26am BST 19/04/2008

China's last Maoist collective, where villagers held out against 
capitalism, is to privatise after its prosperity was found to have 
rested on a mountain of hidden debt.

While the rest of the country abandoned the commune, pursued personal 
fortunes and dismantled state industries, the village of Nanjie in 
central China renationalised its land, set up factories and paid all 
residents £20 a month.

Advertising was banned and instead, propaganda banners hung in 
streets which led to a 30ft statue of Mao built in 1993. Annual 
"profits" from the 26 village businesses paid for a mass wedding 
ceremony and honeymoons in Beijing.

Nanjie also provided free housing, schooling and health care, 
supporting a standard of living so much better than surrounding towns 
that many who visited were awestruck by its egalitarianism.

Ten years ago, The New York Times noted its well-kept apartments and 
spacious schools - although it added that the state of its finances 
could not be verified.

More recently, one of the nostalgic Chinese tourists attracted to the 
village as its fame spread enthused to the BBC: "Mao's slogan 'Serve 
the people' is really put into practice here. It's not just empty rhetoric."

Unfortunately, few of the visitors were accountants. In the past two 
months, newspapers in Hong Kong and Guangzhou have unravelled a tale 
of Enron-style woe.

The village's triumphs were built on £120 million of secret loans 
from the Agricultural Bank of China, which is now calling in its 
loans as it prepares to list its shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

According to one report, the bank had been instructed to support 
Nanjie at all costs by a conservative in the Communist Party 
leadership after the crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.

The village had already begun to unravel when the village head died 
with the equivalent of a million pounds in cash in his safe, along 
with the deeds to several properties. A number of women came to his 
funeral, claiming to be his mistresses and dem-anding a share of his wealth.

In a late effort to save Nanjie's struggling noodle factory and its 
livelihoods, the village committee has finally bitten the bullet of 
privatisation and turned its holdings into equities. The irony will 
not be lost on Nanjie's party secretary, Wang Hongbin, who has ended 
up with nine per cent of the shares.


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