Chinese Communists Set for Policy Shift

China plans to admit a handful of prominent entrepreneurs into the central committee of the Communist party, the boldest proposal yet in Beijing's fledgling initiative to change the fundamental nature of the ruling party, official sources said on Monday.

The admission of unabashedly capitalist entrepreneurs - some of the wealthiest individuals in China - into the party's inner sanctum may be seen as signaling an about-face in the Communist party's orientation. Theoretically at least, the party exists to uphold the dictatorship of the proletariat, as a group of "workers, peasants and soldiers".

The plan, to be implemented at a key party congress starting on November 8, will also bequeath China's non-state businesses with their first formal representation at the centre of power.

In China's political system, central committee members can wield considerable influence. The Communist party outranks everything, including government ministries, the military, and the National People's Congress, which is the legislature.

It is not clear whether the entrepreneurs would become full members of the central committee, of which there are around 190, or the less prominent alternate members, of which there are around 150.

One official, who declined to be identified, said: "We don't know which businessmen will be on the central committee but they will probably be famous people who have built their companies up from nothing."

There is a distinction in China between the captains of traditional state-owned industries, effectively civil servants on a set pay scale, and a new breed of entrepreneur, such as Liu Chuanzhi, head of Legend Computer, who runs a state-affiliated company along commercial lines.

A few captains of state-owned enterprises and state banks have been central committee members in the past, but the idea of admitting independently wealthy businessmen into the higher levels of the party is ground breaking.

The plan, which may yet be reversed if opposition to it intensifies, was one aspect of the agenda for the November congress recently decided at a secretive conclave of national leaders in the seaside resort of Beidaihe, the officials said.

The Beidaihe meetings also agreed that "The Three Represents" - a new philosophy attributed to Jiang Zemin, China's president, that the party should represent advanced productive forces, advanced culture and the broad interests of the public - should be written into the party's constitution. The philosophy provides the ideological underpinning for the party's shift from its Marxist, proletarian roots towards a more capitalist future.

Writing this doctrine into the constitution represented a success for Mr Jiang against stiff opposition. Mr Jiang, 76, is expected to retire as president and Communist party general secretary at the congress but may remain head of the central military commission.