In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency on Monday, Oct. 18, 2010, Chinese President Hu Jintao, center, and other top Chinese leaders attend the Fifth Plenary Session of the 17th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in Beijing.Fan Rujun
Chairman Mao may well be rolling in his mausoleum.
Chinese media are reporting that China's richest man, Liang Wengen, has been tapped to become part of the ruling Communist Party's powerful Central Committee. He would be the first fully private entrepreneur to hold such a role.
Mr. Liang, 57, and the chairman of Sany Heavy Industry, landed at the top of two China rich lists earlier this month -- one by Forbes magazine, one compiled by China-based Hurun Consulting -- with a personal wealth estimated by Forbes at $9.3-billion (U.S.). His company makes the heavy equipment used to build China's fast-growing cities, roads and railways, a lucrative business in light of massive infrastructure development that followed a government stimulus spending plan introduced nearly three years ago.
A Guangzhou-based newspaper has reported, confirmed by Mr. Liang and his deputy at Sany, that the Central Committee had completed its evaluation of his qualifications.
The Central Committee is the body that makes all major decisions in China, and its work is generally secretive. However, in the slow-moving world of Chinese politics an imminent appointment may still be a year away. Mr. Liang is expected to face a committee vote to become an alternate delegate -- one without voting power -- during the 2012 fall session, most likely for a role in a city or provincial government in his home province of Hunan.
If he is appointed, the move will be publicly applauded as recognition of the role private entrepreneurs are playing in building the new China.
But it will also likely raise further concerns from outside the country about the close ties between the state and the private sector. Other leading businessmen, including Haier CEO Zhang Ruimin and Sinopec chairman Li Yi, have been appointed to similar roles in the past, but their enterprises are either owned by the state, or have close connections with the Communist Party. Mr. Liang's business is fully separate from the state, but he has been a Party member since 2004 -- since his business listed on local stock exchanges and his fortune began to grow, according to local reports.
"Liang's ascent is a further confirmation in China that the line separating politics and private business is a myth," said Beijing-based analyst Russell Leigh Moses.