Wealthy-gentry politics: How are capitalists in China chosen for the ‘Houses’?

Abstract

Choosing individual private entrepreneurs to be members of the People's Congress (PC) or the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) is one of the most important mechanisms for ‘cooperative capitalism’ in China. This article aims to answer two questions: First, what are the differences between factors for winning a seat at the PC and a seat at the CPPCC, respectively? Second, is there any difference between factors that have a significant impact on winning a seat at the county-township level and the prefecture-and-above level of the PC or CPPCC? Based on empirical findings, I have coined the term ‘wealthy-gentry politics’ to conceptualise the fact that behaving as a member of the socially responsible ‘gentry’ plays an increasingly significant role at the higher level and in the PC compared to the lower level and the CPPCC, while economic wealth is just a threshold and party membership is not a guarantee.

挑选私营企业家个体进入两会是中国“合作型资本主义”的一个最重要机制。本文回答两个问题。1）获得人大代表的因素与获得政协委员的因素有何区别？2）获得县镇级两会代表和地级以上两会代表的影响因素是否有区别？ 根据实证研究，笔者发明“财—绅政治”的概念来描述一个事实：负有社会责任的社会贤达在高一级的人大较之低一级的政协发挥了越来越大的作用，财富仅仅是门槛，党籍也不起决定性作用。

Keywords:

• Chinese parliament
• political participation
• private entrepreneurs
• wealthy-gentry politics

Notes

¹Gaizhi can be roughly understood as a Chinese euphemism for the process of privatising state-owned or collective-owned enterprises during the 1990s, under which managers could acquire their firms at a price that was based on recent profitability.

²It has to be conceded that for different industries, the number of employees in theory has different ‘socio-political’ impact for political selection. But in the survey, the question on industry is multiple choice without a ranking. Considering the widely used diversification strategy for Chinese companies, I have to abandon this indicator.