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Hexun: The Seven Vested Interest Groups in China

Hexun.com published an opinion piece by Deng Yuwen, a senior deputy editor of Study Times, a journal of the Party School of The Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In his article, Deng discussed those vested interests in China that are a serious obstacle to further reform in China.
 
“It has become common knowledge that vested interests are a serious obstacle to deepening reform in China, but to break up their resistance to reform is very difficult at this time. Even Premier Li Keqiang sighed, ‘touching these interests is often harder than touching one’s soul.’”

According to Deng, unlike vested interests in the West, China’s vested interests have their own unique features: “1.) development is unbalanced; 2.) forms are ambiguous and transitional; 3.) abnormal profiteering behavior has the appearance of legality; 4.) interests are exclusive of others; 5.) the supremacy of power is problematic; and (6) there is a lack of legal legitimacy.” Deng defines vested interests as “individuals or those with social status who have control over the use of power and resources and have formed interested groups or alliances with the goal of protecting their special interests.”

Deng categorizes Chinese vested interests as follows: 1.) powerful government departments and their officials; 2.) local governments and their officials; 3.) national monopolistic enterprises (particularly those centrally owned by the State and important enterprises owned by the local governments) and their senior management; 4.) foreign transnational capital and their Chinese agents, commonly known as “foreign compradors”; 5.) real estate developers; 6.) large, privately owned domestic companies, including real estate brokers and coal mine owners and financiers; and 7.) scholars, experts and professionals who are attached to the above categories of vested interests.

Source: Hexun.com, April 24, 2013
http://opinion.hexun.com/2013-04-24/153506662.html