In recent years, a main impression of Western governments or research institutes on China’s change has been that the proportion of the private sector’s role in China’s economy has dramatically increased. In considering such trends, however, it is important to keep in mind that in Chinese society, the concept of a private enterprise is quite different from its Western counterpart. In particular, the influence of the ruling Communist Party in the management of China’s private enterprises cannot be neglected. “Private” enterprises are often equipped with elements of the Party structure and its organizations, including having Party leaders heading the Board of Directors or serving as the CEO of a private enterprise. In addition, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has also been recently strengthening the Party’s influence in private enterprises, raising questions of how free from government influence such enterprises actually are. Below are excerpts from an article from the official publication of the CCP’s Central Committee, Qiushi. [1]
To conduct the construction of the Party system well and promote the organizational role of the Party in private enterprises, thereby facilitating the positive and rapid development of the private sector of the economy, is a major theoretical and practical issue concerning the Party’s governing capacity for construction and the socioeconomic development of China. With this question, we walked into the SANY Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. (SHIC-LTD) of Hunan.
SANY has more than 19,000 employees—among them are more than 2,000 Party members—and is the private enterprise in Hunan with the highest Party membership. In 2002, the company’s Party Committee was established. There are now 3 general Party branches and 19 subordinate branches. It is among the first batch of trial units for building grassroots Party organizations in the company. A representative of the Party’s 17th Congress and the chairman of the company’s Board of Directors, Liang Wengen, always takes “being fair and faithful with gratitude in heart” as his own motto, and uses “managing honestly to return to the society” to express his gratitude to the Party. Walking into SANY, the huge slogan of “Gratitude in Heart” is very eye-catching.
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One: Always Take Construction of Party Organizations as the Crucial Step in Human Resource Management
The first is to have Party play a role in uniting the employees. The employees of SANY have a strong affection for the company, which cannot happen without their attention to constructing the Party organizations and having the Party play the role of uniting people. Since the establishment of the Party organizations in 2002, employees who are Party members have had their own organization, which generated a strong feeling of being at home.
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The second is to use the Party members’ education and training to strengthen human resource management. The top management of SANY believes that Party members are excellent sources of talent. Therefore, to strengthen human resource management, the top priority is to enhance the education and training of the Party members. Since 2003, the company has incorporated the training of Party members into the company’s overall training plan by setting up “the system of training and educating the newly recruited Party member employees.” Meanwhile, it has implemented the double-training project to “train excellent employees into Party members and train Party members into excellent employees.” In recent years, there have been a few hundred young employees actively getting closer to the Party organization each year. Among the newly accepted Party members, more than 80 percent are the managerial technical backbone of the company. Meanwhile, they have established a study system of the Party members, initiated educational campaigns of Maintaining the Advanced Nature of Party, founded a Party school in the company, and trained the professional skills of the Party members, etc. These versatile training and cultural activities of Party members have achieved remarkable effects.
The third is to promote the guidance and incentive role of the Party members, thereby achieving “human resources being maximally utilized and talents being maximally elicited.” The Party committee of the company examined the Party members, setting the highest requirements. Thus, the overall Party members will maintain their advanced nature and do their own jobs well in a unified manner, strive to develop top working skills, maintain top work proficiency, and achieve top work performance. These incentives have made the Party members fully play their roles. At present, more than 90 percent of the general committee members and branch committee are principal managerial cadres in their departments, and 26.8 percent of the middle level managerial cadres are Party members.
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Two: Integrate the Construction of the Party with the Development Of Enterprise
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The basic requirements for each Party member can be summarized as “four ‘are’s and four ‘aren’t’s”: There are Party members at critical positions; there are Party members to face hardships; there are Party members in moments of urgent events; and there are Party members in research projects. There aren’t accidents with Party members; there aren’t defective products produced by Party members; there [isn’t] wasting by Party members; and there aren’t violations of rules by Party members.” The Party committee has also set up a “model Party member position” in committee branches and group, to sufficiently promote the Party members’ advanced role models.
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Since 2002, the company has copied the organizational structure of the Party to the company’s management, as a way to form the company. To combine the construction of the Party organizations with the building of the managerial team, the company promoted excellent Party member managers to be the Party workers, and recommended excellent Party workers into the managerial decision-making team. Thus, the leadership of the Party committee and the enterprise managerial layer are crossed and are taking dual responsibilities.
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In addition, the company also guided the cultural development of the enterprise with the excellent traditions of the Party, and instilled advanced cultural ideologies into the enterprise’s culture, so that will eventually become the enterprise’s spirit and the values of all the employees.
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Three: Introducing modern science and technologies into construction of the Party organizations
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Managing the organization activities of the Party using the Internet is highly efficient. With the IT strength of the enterprise, the Party committee of the company developed a network management system, established the website of “Party Construction in SANY” and the “Managerial System of the Database of Party Members.” Today, the “Party Construction in SANY” website carries comprehensive data and materials, becoming an important platform for the Party committee to strengthen the education and management of the Party members, and for all Party members to study and communicate together. The company also adopted a new form of the Party membership fee management system by using banking accounts management. In the past, because the Party members were not well organized, there were many difficulties in collecting Party membership fees. After serious study and discussion, the Party committee has changed from centralized collection to decentralized collection with centralized management. According to the situation of the company, the Party committee has made set rules regarding the payers, timing, standards, and requirements for using membership fees. Collection of the fees is managed by the banking accounts system. The company has a specific bank account for timely collection of Party membership fees.
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Four: The Fruits from Construction of Party Organizations in the Company
As highlighted in the working report of the CCP’s 17th National Congress, adhering to and perfecting the basic economic system that uses public ownership as the mainstream and meanwhile developing various non-public economic sectors; unswervingly consolidating and developing the public economy; and unswervingly encouraging, supporting, and guiding non-public economic sector development, with equal guarding of property rights. Thus a new pattern is formed in which a variety of economic sectors compete on an equal footing and with mutual promotion. “Two unswervingly” and “two equal” not only indicated the Party’s clear attitude to promote the non-public economy in the new era, but also raised new requirements on how to enhance the Party’s ruling capacity.
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The achievements of Party-building greatly facilitated the development of the various causes of the enterprise
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These achievements cannot be separated from the close attention and sufficient trust of the Party to private enterprises. As the Chairman of SANY Liang Wengen stated: “SANY’s success is based on the development of China as a whole. The development of SANY can be attributed to the good policy of reform and openness. Otherwise, the development of SANY will be just like water without a source, and trees without soil.” In an interview, the general Party committee secretary of the company and the Executive Chairman Xiang Wenbo said with a deep feeling: “The Party’s long-term ruling will be the guarantee for China’s development, and is the important backing for future development of private enterprise.” [1]
Endnotes:
[1] Qiushi, No. 4, 2008.
http://www.qsjournal.com.cn/qs/20080216/GB/qs%5E473%5E0%5E11.htm