Because I pointed out a real problem. You don’t have to know anybody or go through any back doors if the problem you are pointing out is valid. If your ideas are good, they’ll use them.
How do you feel about Prime Minister Zhu Rongji and his economic reforms?
I can understand what he’s trying to do, but I don’t agree with his policies on state-owned-enterprise (SOE) reform. Right now they think that the way to fix the SOEs is to change the leaders. If one doesn’t do a good job, they’ll get a new one. But [the] SOEs need to be privatized. They should follow the Bankruptcy Law. If a company is in debt, it should pay off its debt. If it can’t pay off its debt, then it should go bankrupt. The government shouldn’t help them.
But won’t that cause high unemployment?
On the contrary. If everything is privatized, when an SOE goes under, seven or eight private companies will be there to replace it. Privatization will create the most jobs.
Translated literally, the Communist Party means “the Party of Public Assets.” I’ve heard that you have called for the Communist Party to change its name to the China Socialist Party. Why?
Last year at the 15th Party Congress, Jiang Zemin said China was in the primary stages of socialism and that it would take several tens of generations to finish the struggle. How long is that? Well, 20 generations would be more than 600 years. Ninety generations would be more than the time from Confucius to Sun Yat-sen. So if we’re going to spend all that time in the socialist period, wouldn’t it be better to change the name to “socialist”?
Why is a name so important?
It’s hugely important. What does the Communist Party do? It says, give me your money, give me your property. It’s the party of public assets. If it’s no longer called “The Public-Assets Party,” then assets no longer have to be public. You can privatize.
But there are already private firms in China.
But there’s nothing to keep the government from taking those private assets back. Why do you think we’re so afraid of changes in government? One year things are open and everyone can prosper; the next year the government decides to collect everything for the state. People are afraid of that. Some wealthier Chinese even send their money to the United States.
In May 1989, in response to thousands of students protesting at Tiananmen Square, you appealed to the government to hold an emergency session of the National People’s Congress to repeal martial law. Because of that you spent a year in prison. How did it change you and your beliefs?
It didn’t change me. First of all, I didn’t feel guilty. I wanted to hold a meeting to try to avoid bloodshed. What’s wrong with that? The second thing was I didn’t feel wronged. If I had thought that what I was doing was for the good of the Communist Party and that they’d turned on me, I might hold a grudge. But I didn’t feel that way at all. I was 43 years old when I went to prison. I had gone through the Cultural Revolution. I already had a thick skin.
Most people who spend time in prison are never able to get back on track. But you are still running your own consulting business and are often quoted in newspapers. How did you manage to do this?
Because I chose the right path and stuck to it. People have told me, don’t spend any more time on politics. It’s too dangerous. [But] I want to do something to help the country. So I’m still going to do this, even though I know there are risks.
