Confucian on Capitalism

As the faithful hailed President Jiang Zemin’s plan to embrace China’s capitalists today, reactions on the street ranged from the ...

As the faithful hailed President Jiang Zemin’s plan to embrace China’s capitalists today, reactions on the street ranged from the apathetic to the anxious. Jiang’s speech officially opened the doors to private entrepreneurs once derided as the ‘‘running dogs of capitalism’’.

But for many ordinary Chinese, it simply endorsed what has been going on for years — party members drifting into private business and vice versa. ‘‘It doesn’t matter. Private or state businessmen — when it comes to politics they’re all the same,’’ said Xin Li, 50, a chemist in a basement drug store.

The official Xinhua agency said Wang Jianyi, a businessman from the eastern province of Zhejiang, telephoned his firm’s party secretary 10 minutes after Jiang’s speech ended.

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‘‘Do you think I will stand a better chance to join the party after this Congress?’’ he gushed, according to Xinhua, which said he had been trying to join since 1992.

But the party may have trouble attracting those who have prospered precisely by freeing themselves from the shackles of the socialist system, some analysts say.

‘‘I haven’t thought much about private entrepreneurs becoming party members because I don’t have any interest in it,’’ said Jing Dongnin, 39, who works at a private company in Beijing dealing in motor parts with Japan.

For others, there are concerns about the criteria for recruiting those once deemed ‘‘capitalist exploiters’’ with decadent western bourgeois lifestyles.

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Even in the chorus of praise for Jiang’s speech, there were hints at underlying concerns. ‘‘It’s a very broad concept and will need to be fine-tuned and developed,’’ said Chen Weixi, a party official in the eastern province of Anhui.

Wu Min, party boss in the Jiangxi province city of Jinggangshan, said private entrepreneurs had been joining the party in chairman Mao Zedong’s former revolutionary base since the last Congress in 1997. (Reuters)

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