October 21:
In an interview with London’s Daily Telegraph, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Huang Yasheng said that while the 1980s saw the creation of ten million private businesses, "the greatest private sector success in the history of mankind," these companies were destroyed by China’s post-1989 leadership. Huang argues that President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji, both from Shanghai, funded enormous vanity projects that did not improve the lives of citizens and only expanded inequality. China's proudest claim - that it has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty - was a unique feat in history but it happened in the 1980s. "In terms of poverty reduction, the 1980s dwarfed the 1990s by several multiples," he said. The number of illiterate adults, for instance, rose by 30 million people between 2000 and 2005 as education and health care spending in the countryside was choked off to pay for China's urban boom. Meanwhile, Zhejiang, the heartland of China’s economic miracle, was successful because it chose to continue with the 1980s liberalization program, according to Huang. Successful Chinese companies, such as computer manufacturer Lenovo, have based themselves in the free market of Hong Kong. "It's a race between how much U.S. consumption declines and how fast rural income grows. Those people laughing at the West should save their laughter for next year, when they may be laughing at themselves,” Huang said.
October 23:
China's Premier, Wen Jiabao, and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will hold talks at the 13th regular meeting between the Russian and Chinese heads of state held in Moscow on October 28th. Russian trade representative to China Sergei Tsyplakov told Russia’s Interfax News Agency that China is particularly interested in buying Russian helicopters. He also said that the second meeting of the Russian-Chinese energy dialogue, which will precede the premiers’ meeting, will enhance cooperation between Russian and Chinese oil and gas companies and "talks are being held about Russia's participation in the construction of the second phase of the Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant.”
[Editor’s Note: During the first three quarters of 2008, Sino-Russian trade totaled $42.97 billion, a 23 percent increase over the same period in 2007. China’s imports from Russia between January and September grew 34.6 percent, year-on-year, reaching $19.53 billion. China’s exports to Russia rose 14.7 percent on an annual basis to $23.44 billion giving China a $3.91 billion surplus for the nine months of 2008, according to statistics cited by Interfax.]
October 24:
Yang Xianghong, district Communist Party chief of Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province appears to have defected to France to avoid corruption charges. According to a story published in Oriental Outlook, an official weekly magazine, Yang received a phone call from the Zhejiang disciplinary inspection body at the end of September, three days before he left on the trip to France. Two days into the trip, Yang left the tour group to visit his daughter who lives in Paris and did not return. Yang's son-in-law had reportedly handed over a resignation letter written by Yang to a member of the tour group at the end of the trip to give to the local government in Wenzhou, although they deny receiving it. In response, the Wenzhou government ordered all senior officials to hand in their passports (a measure already imposed in Shanghai) and sent a mission to France to urge Yang to return. In 2007, more than 800 officials facing corruption charges fled overseas. Of that number, 500 remain at large, the Agence France Presse reports, citing police statistics published in the China Daily.
[Editor’s Note: Three days earlier, on October 21st, Chinese President Hu Jintao held a teleconference with senior officials including He Guoqiang, Secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. Hu called for “clean government” and stressed the importance of party’s the anti-corruption drive. Hu called for the development of a “mechanism for punishing and preventing corruption strengthening supervision and checks on the implementation of the Party policies and orders,” the official People’s Daily reports.]