Venkatesan Vembu

Hong Kong: A conservative backlash against foreign businesses is at risk of building up in China, going by the recent — and rare — articulation in the official media of some extreme views against their ‘meddlesome’ behaviour in economic policymaking.

Late last week, the official Outlook magazine, which comes from the stable of the official news agency Xinhua, published a blistering commentary by Jiang Yong, director of the Centre for Economic Security Studies at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations criticising foreign businesses and investment groups for their “negative influence” in China’s development.

“In the absence of effective restrictions and counter-measures, all sorts of overseas interest groups have become deeply involved in the country’s major affairs through various channels, with complicated implications,” Jiang wrote.

In particular, Jiang noted, foreign interest groups were guilty of “intense lobbying, and even bribery of government officials, their relatives, official think-tanks, business leaders and even the press. Such interventions, he said, “eroded China’s economic sovereignty”.

In Jiang’s estimation, foreign businesses were also guilty of denying mainland workers their rights to set up labour unions; they were also wilful participants in “economic crimes” and tax evasion, he ranted.

More candidly, Jiang directed his criticism also at Chinese officials, experts and the media for not protecting public and social interests while rolling out the red carpet for foreign businesses.

“With the protection of local government officials, some multinational companies have for long wilfully ignored the lawful rights of China’s labourforce... This has resulted in an increase in the number of ‘mass incident’s among their workers.”

Jiang then trained his guns at “children and other relatives” of top-level Communist Party officials, who he said had become lobbyists of foreign businesses. He then called for greater transparency in respect of where children of high-ranking cadres were employed “to set an example”.

Jiang’s views are seen as representative of a conservative faction within the Communist Party,which bristles against the concessions granted to foreign businesses and multinationals.

Just as the Indian political system has its Prakash Karats and Sitaram Yechuris, the Chinese policymaking process too faces criticism from time to time from hardline conservative elements. Jiang’s voice is perhaps the most strident of those in recent times. What impact it will have on Chinese policymaking remains to be seen.

Source : DNA