But this is a different China, one which, under Jiang's lead, appears to be serious in an ambitious and risky plan to privatize nearly all of its 125,000 horrendously inefficient state-run enterprises, and engage the world in freer trade. At the recent Communist Party Congress, the 15th such meeting held since Mao Zedong founded the Chinese Communist Party in 1921, President Jiang declared that although China would continue to "oppose bourgeois liberalization," the nation would move toward "a modern form of public ownership . . . both under capitalism and under socialism."
If Jiang couldn't bring himself to say the word "privatize," China's real economic movers and shakers, who are policy planners weighed down not with Communist ideology but with economic studies published by Western universities, are spreading the word with great vigor. At this week's Asia-Europe Economic Ministers' Meeting held in Tokyo, Chinese Minister for Foreign Trade Wu Yi advocated Chinese accession into the World Trade Organization (WTO), and pledged that China would "obey the rules of world trade." In the case of the WTO, these rules include strict codes on labor laws and other measures to which China has objected in the past. One assistant to the foreign minister, who has been the lead negotiator in China's WTO accession process for seven years, declared repeatedly in closed sessions that China wishes to join the global economic community. He argued for more transparency, not only of trade information, but also in the actual process of creating trade policy. This is not Nixon's China.
The rest of the world welcomes China's new declarations of openness, but not without some reservations. Sir Leon Brittan, Vice President of the European Commission, stated that even though there was still "quite a lot to be done," China should be admitted to the trade group "as soon as possible." But this attitude is dependent upon China's willingness to play by the WTO's strict rules on political and economic freedoms, and further willingness to allow WTO countries to verify their claims of good behavior. Sir Leon said that, although many nations would welcome Chinese accession, "it only makes sense if China agrees to certain measures."
