TIME: Almanac 1990/1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso/time/060589/06058900.048

Text File | 1990-09-17 | 4KB | 67 lines

WORLD, Page 23

Too Much All in the Family


    At first glance, the black-and-white poster at Peking
University hardly looked like a call for revolutionary change. Yet
under the heading A DIRECTORY OF FAMOUS CHINESE, the broadside
traced with devastating clarity the network of family ties that
links China's top leaders and perpetuates their power. That
farflung network, along with the rampant corruption that Chinese
citizens are forced to endure each day, has gone far to galvanize
the outcry for democracy in China's streets.

    The nepotism starts with Deng Xiaoping, whose eldest son, Deng
Pufang, 44, heads the giant China Welfare Fund for the Handicapped.
Government investigators say Pufang, who was crippled when Red
Guards threw him from a window during the Cultural Revolution,
allegedly helped a Chinese conglomerate gain tax-exempt status and
reap vast profits for fraudulent work. Pufang denies the charges.
The names of other relatives of leaders read like entries in a
Chinese Who's Who. Among them: Chi Haotian, 59, Chief of Staff of
the People's Liberation Army and son-in-law of President Yang
Shangkun; Li Tieying, 53, a rising Politburo member whose father
was Li Weihan, a founder of the Communist Party; and State
Councilor Zou Jiahua, 62, son-in-law of a famed army marshal.

    Even when they do not hold high office, the relatives of
China's elite enjoy lives of privilege. Known as the taizi pai, or
the princes' faction, they attend the best schools, get the best
jobs, live in luxury apartments and drive Mercedes-Benz to shop in
special stores. Such advantages naturally gall the less favored.
"Why him and not me?" asks a party official who was recently
leapfrogged by a young taizi pai colleague. "You ponder the
question, and the answer is nepotism."

    Fairness also has little to do with the system of guandao, or
official profiteering, that permeates Chinese society. On a small
scale, leaders at all levels routinely use their positions to
obtain free restaurant meals or theater tickets. In a grander
manner, officials buy scarce raw materials such as coal and timber
at low, subsidized prices and sell them on the open market for
handsome profits.

    When three top party officials visited a hospitalized hunger
striker, the angry student declared, "If you really wish to
re-establish the Communist Party's prestige, you must first excise
the official profiteers." Many Chinese courts have been trying to
do just that. The judicial system handled 37,000 cases of
profiteering last year, up 50% from 1987. More than 100 embezzlers
and bribe takers were sentenced to death or life imprisonment.

    Though Premier Li Peng appeared to have triumphed over General
Secretary Zhao Ziyang last week, both men are accused of string
pulling. One source of resentment against Li, the adopted son of
former Premier Zhou Enlai, is that his connections enabled him to
study in Moscow and rise rapidly through the ranks. Zhao's son is
chairman of the Hainan Huahai Co., a trading and investment
company. Moreover, Yang, Zhao and Deng are all believed to have
sons-in-law who work for army-run companies that export Chinese
arms.

    The government recently pledged to stop importing luxury cars
and halt the annual migration of Beijing officials to the beachside
resort of Beidaihe to escape the sweltering summer. On the way to
his favorite barber, Vice Premier Tian Jiyun was seen being driven
in a Toyota sedan instead of his beloved Mercedes-Benz.
Unfortunately for the capital's elite, such modest belt tightening
is not likely to impress the student protesters.