”Made in China” Ping.
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Posted on 11/22/2007 11:48:36 AM PST by JACKRUSSELL
(HUAXI, China) - Universal health care, free education, three-storey villas and cars -- a capitalist utopia under Communist rule in China seems to have arrived early for the residents of one Yangtze River Delta village.
In Huaxi, a booming market town of 36,000 in the affluent eastern province of Jiangsu, every family has at least one house, two cars and $250,000 in the bank.
Officials from elsewhere in China tour Huaxi to find out how this once sleepy village, just 576 residents in the 1950s, is now so rich and why non-local businessmen would donate million-dollar factories to buy the privilege of a local residence permit.
Wu Renbao, 80, Huaxi's village chief for over 50 years, tells the touring officials to throw out their ideological hand-books and leave politics to politicians.
"One of the slogans back then was 'be politically correct and boost production'," Wu said, recalling his tenure as village head during the tumultuous decades after the Communist Party swept to power in 1949.
"But in fact, all they wanted to do was to be politically correct. There was no boosting of production. I thought production was the most important thing."
In Huaxi, Wu is regarded with the same reverence some Chinese reserve for late leader Mao Zedong, whose determination to smash capitalism and shore up his power base led to disastrous economic policies and the chaotic 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution.
RICHES AND REWARDS
In fact Wu's pragmatic policies pre-date by many years the arrival in power of Deng Xiaoping, Communist China's most celebrated pragmatist who survived Maoist purges to launch the nation's economic revolution in the late 1970s.
"During the day, my bosses would come to supervise my work. We would always wait until they left and then work extra hours at night," said Wu, who chose to implement only those official policies that would better farmers' lives, while ignoring the rest.
Farmers are now a rare sight in industrialized Huaxi, whose growth has absorbed neighboring villages and drawn another 60,000 migrant workers to work in local residents' businesses.
Wu Shenbiao, born in the same year as the former village chief, can still remember a life of grinding poverty as a farmer before Wu set about transforming Huaxi.
"The houses we lived in were made of bamboo and mud," he said. "Our food was a mix of chaff and grass. When it rained outside, it sprinkled inside the house."
Now Wu Shenbiao has a car, a gift from the village, he said, although he still prefers to pedal around on his tricycle.
In 1957, Huaxi had assets of about 1,800 yuan ($240). Now it has more than $2 billion, local officials say.
Its newly rich residents reward local wealth-bringers. In electing Wu Xie'en, son of Wu Renbao, as village chief in 2003, Huaxi politics took on the trappings of a commercial dynasty.
The younger Wu, himself a successful businessman, has brought more than $27 million income into Huaxi. Residents voted him in unanimously, some joking that he had "bought" the election.
"Capability, not a diploma," said Wu of the quality required in good governance.
PROFIT THE KEY
"Of course, if you have a diploma, it's better. The key is the ability to help with the development and to bring profit for the enterprises. Without it, our villagers' money vanishes.
Huaxi's wealth has attracted people from nearby villages hoping to work for one of the its 58 companies.
The new arrivals lack the benefits of card-carrying Huaxi residents, serving as a reminder of China's vast pool of rural workers still struggling to lift themselves out of poverty after three decades of economic reforms.
Yang Yongchang, 43, counts himself one of the lucky ones.
Born in a neighboring village, Yang donated two factories worth about $1.25 million to Huaxi in 1997, all for the privilege of becoming a registered resident.
"Huaxi has a very good system. It's a system that monitors and restricts its officials," said Yang, who now runs the biggest steel factory in a village he says has no corruption.
"The government employees here are not only wealthy materially, but also mentally healthy," he said.
Same thing happens where I work!
That’s a great success story. I hope that China quickly privatizes the majority of its businesses and grows its GDP to twice what it currently is within a year!
[*Snicker* ...oil, big Chinese consumer demand, US dependence on our own manufacturing, former diplomats making t-shirts,...heh, heh!]
“”The government employees here are not only wealthy materially, but also mentally healthy,” he said”
I leave for there tomorrow : )
* Who would have ever thought that rewards drive productivity?
The key point...
And how fast could the Communist government take it all away and send the residents to re-education camps?
Did you catch this little tidbit?
"The government employees here are not only wealthy materially, but also mentally healthy," he said.Translation: They are corrupt and looking the other way. Won't take much of a purge to restore the old system at all. Remember, Mao started from absolute scratch before. Here, they already have the government, and are far less squeamish about liquidating their citizens than the Russians were.
They are only biding their time.
Thanks for the reminder....happy talk from places like this is usually just that.
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