Engine

How the Party works in the private sector By Lu Ling

In the stereotypical ideology of Western societies, a communist party can only work within a system of public ownership. It is therefore hard for them to imagine how the Communist Party of China (CPC) has worked in a city where 95 percent of the economic volume is produced by private enterprises. Jinjiang, a city in southeast China’s Fujian Province, provides the answer.

Since adopting the reform and opening- up policy 40 years ago, China has made eye- popping achievements. But with the private sector growing to become one of the driving forces behind the country’s economic progress, there are some doubts about the term socialism with Chinese characteristics, and many wonder whether the CPC has steered away from its foundation of governance due to this development.

If this theory were correct, then it would be a headache for the Party to conduct its work in a city like Jinjiang, where more than 50,000 private enterprises are located. The real picture, however, proves the opposite.

Growing pace

Zhou Li is secretary of the CPC Committee of the Jinjiang-based Fujian Seven Brand Group Co. Ltd., a major men’s clothing brand and a private enterprise. Zhou also works as director of the purchasing department in the company, which was the official clothing supplier for APEC China 2014.

Zhou is very clear that the owner of the company aims to make money. But Zhou also thinks that Party building is crucial to production and forms the core competitiveness of the company. This view has practically become the consensus among private entrepreneurs in the city.

In 1986, Jinjiang’s first CPC organization in the private sector was set up at the Heng’an International Group, a leading producer of sanitary napkins and diapers in China. Now, after more than 30 years of development, there are more than 1,200 Party organizations and more than 6,000 CPC members in private companies in Jinjiang. Many of these Party organizations are listed as among the most outstanding on national and provincial levels.

Jinjiang has included Party building in private companies and social organizations as part of the overall Party building scheme. It has established an efficient operation mechanism to optimize Party resources within private companies.

Every leader who is a Party member within the local Jinjiang government is assigned to connect with Party organizations in one or two private companies. They visit the companies from time to time, listen to suggestions, talk with people and help find solutions to specific problems. Subsequently, this has enhanced the commun ication between the entrepreneurs and the government.

As a matter of fact, in the early stages of reform and opening up, the Party organizations in some foreign- funded companies in Jinjiang took the lead in establishing factory committees to help solve conflicts between factory leaders and foreign managers and improve production procedures.

Party organizations play an important role in these enterprises. For example, there are two doorplates on Zhou’s office: one is Party Secretary Office and the other is DutyRelated Crime Prevention Office.

With full support from the Party committees within the private sector, each enterprise has set up a disciplinary commission and improved their duty-related crime prevention mechanism. This has helped to prevent and correct improper actions that have negative effects on the company’s image, which has led to support and praise from both entrepreneurs and workers. Many entrepreneurs take the