u***r
发帖数: 4825 | 1 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405311190449170457657255
Children of the Revolution
China's ‘princelings,' the offspring of the communist party elite, are
embracing the trappings of wealth and privilege—raising uncomfortable
questions for their elders.
By JEREMY PAGE
One evening early this year, a red Ferrari pulled up at the U.S. ambassador'
s residence in Beijing, and the son of one of China's top leaders stepped
out, dressed in a tuxedo.
Enlarge Image
PARTYKIDS
PARTYKIDS
Getty Images
Bo Xilai, with his son, at a memorial ceremony held for his father in
Beijing, in 2007.
Grandfather, Bo Yibo — Helped lead Mao's forces to victory, only to be
purged in the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. Subsequently rehabilitated.
Son, Bo Guagua — Graduate student at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
Father, Bo Xilai — Party secretary of Chongqing and Politburo member,
likely to rise to the Politburo standing committee in 2012.
Bo Guagua, 23, was expected. He had a dinner appointment with a daughter of
the then-ambassador, Jon Huntsman.
The car, though, was a surprise. The driver's father, Bo Xilai, was in the
midst of a controversial campaign to revive the spirit of Mao Zedong through
mass renditions of old revolutionary anthems, known as "red singing." He
had ordered students and officials to work stints on farms to reconnect with
the countryside. His son, meanwhile, was driving a car worth hundreds of
thousands of dollars and as red as the Chinese flag, in a country where the
average household income last year was about $3,300.
The episode, related by several people familiar with it, is symptomatic of a
challenge facing the Chinese Communist Party as it tries to maintain its
legitimacy in an increasingly diverse, well-informed and demanding society.
The offspring of party leaders, often called "princelings," are becoming
more conspicuous, through both their expanding business interests and their
evident appetite for luxury, at a time when public anger is rising over
reports of official corruption and abuse of power.
A Family Affair
A look at China's leaders, past and present, and their offspring, often
known as 'princelings.'
View Interactive
State-controlled media portray China's leaders as living by the austere
Communist values they publicly espouse. But as scions of the political
aristocracy carve out lucrative roles in business and embrace the trappings
of wealth, their increasingly high profile is raising uncomfortable
questions for a party that justifies its monopoly on power by pointing to
its origins as a movement of workers and peasants.
Their visibility has particular resonance as the country approaches a once-a
-decade leadership change next year, when several older princelings are
expected to take the Communist Party's top positions. That prospect has led
some in Chinese business and political circles to wonder whether the party
will be dominated for the next decade by a group of elite families who
already control large chunks of the world's second-biggest economy and wield
considerable influence in the military.
Related Video
Pink Diamonds Find New Best Friend: China's Rich (11/18/2011)
China's Pork Problem (11/01/2011)
Niall Ferguson: China Masters the 'Killer Apps' (11/03/2011)
The Complexities of Doing Business in China (11/23/2011)
"There's no ambiguity—the trend has become so clear," said Cheng Li, an
expert on Chinese elite politics at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
"Princelings were never popular, but now they've become so politically
powerful, there's some serious concern about the legitimacy of the 'Red
Nobility.' The Chinese public is particularly resentful about the
princelings' control of both political power and economic wealth."
The current leadership includes some princelings, but they are
counterbalanced by a rival nonhereditary group that includes President Hu
Jintao, also the party chief, and Premier Wen Jiabao. Mr. Hu's successor,
however, is expected to be Xi Jinping, the current vice president, who is
the son of a revolutionary hero and would be the first princeling to take
the country's top jobs. Many experts on Chinese politics believe that he has
forged an informal alliance with several other princelings who are
candidates for promotion.
Among them is the senior Mr. Bo, who is also the son of a revolutionary
leader. He often speaks of his close ties to the Xi family, according to two
people who regularly meet him. Mr. Xi's daughter is currently an
undergraduate at Harvard, where Mr. Bo's son is a graduate student at the
Kennedy School of Government.
“Princelings were never popular, but now ... there's some serious
concern about the legitimacy of the "Red Nobility." ”
Already in the 25-member Politburo, Bo Xilai is a front-runner for promotion
to its top decision-making body, the Standing Committee. He didn't respond
to a request for comment through his office, and his son didn't respond to
requests via email and friends.
The antics of some officials' children have become a hot topic on the
Internet in China, especially among users of Twitter-like micro-blogs, which
are harder for Web censors to monitor and block because they move so fast.
In September, Internet users revealed that the 15-year-old son of a general
was one of two young men who crashed a BMW into another car in Beijing and
then beat up its occupants, warning onlookers not to call police.
An uproar ensued, and the general's son has now been sent to a police
correctional facility for a year, state media report.
Top Chinese leaders aren't supposed to have either inherited wealth or
business careers to supplement their modest salaries, thought to be around
140,000 yuan ($22,000) a year for a minister. Their relatives are allowed to
conduct business as long as they don't profit from their political
connections. In practice, the origins of the families' riches are often
impossible to trace.
Last year, Chinese learned via the Internet that the son of a former vice
president of the country—and the grandson of a former Red Army commander—
had purchased a $32.4 million harbor-front mansion in Australia. He applied
for a permit to tear down the century-old mansion and to build a new villa,
featuring two swimming pools connected by a waterfall. (See the article
below.)
Enlarge Image
PARTKIDS2
PARTKIDS2
Corbis
BO XILAI waves a Chinese flag during a concert with revolutionary songs in
Chongqing on June 29.
Many princelings engage in legitimate business, but there is a widespread
perception in China that they have an unfair advantage in an economic system
that, despite the country's embrace of capitalism, is still dominated by
the state and allows no meaningful public scrutiny of decision making.
The state owns all urban land and strategic industries, as well as banks,
which dole out loans overwhelmingly to state-run companies. The big spoils
thus go to political insiders who can leverage personal connections and
family prestige to secure resources, and then mobilize the same networks to
protect them.
The People's Daily, the party mouthpiece, acknowledged the issue last year,
with a poll showing that 91% of respondents believed all rich families in
China had political backgrounds. A former Chinese auditor general, Li Jinhua
, wrote in an online forum that the wealth of officials' family members "is
what the public is most dissatisfied about."
One princeling disputes the notion that she and her peers benefit from their
"red" backgrounds. "Being from a famous government family doesn't get me
cheaper rent or special bank financing or any government contracts," Ye
Mingzi, a 32-year-old fashion designer and granddaughter of a Red Army
founder, said in an email. "In reality," she said, "the children of major
government families get very high scrutiny. Most are very careful to avoid
even the appearance of improper favoritism."
For the first few decades after Mao's 1949 revolution, the children of
Communist chieftains were largely out of sight, growing up in walled
compounds and attending elite schools such as the Beijing No. 4 Boys' High
School, where the elder Mr. Bo and several other current leaders studied.
In the 1980s and '90s, many princelings went abroad for postgraduate studies
, then often joined Chinese state companies, government bodies or foreign
investment banks. But they mostly maintained a very low profile.
Now, families of China's leaders send their offspring overseas ever younger,
often to top private schools in the U.S., Britain and Switzerland, to make
sure they can later enter the best Western universities. Princelings in
their 20s, 30s and 40s increasingly take prominent positions in commerce,
especially in private equity, which allows them to maximize their profits
and also brings them into regular contact with the Chinese and international
business elite.
Enlarge Image
PARTKIDSjump
PARTKIDSjump
Landov
In 2008, Bo Guagua invited Jackie Chan to lecture at Oxford—and sang with
him on stage at one point.
Younger princelings are often seen among the models, actors and sports stars
who gather at a strip of nightclubs by the Workers' Stadium in Beijing to
show off Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Maseratis. Others have been spotted
talking business over cigars and vintage Chinese liquor in exclusive venues
such as the Maotai Club, in a historic house near the Forbidden City.
On a recent afternoon at a new polo club on Beijing's outskirts, opened by a
grandson of a former vice premier, Argentine players on imported ponies put
on an exhibition match for prospective members.
"We're bringing polo to the public. Well, not exactly the public," said one
staff member. "That man over there is the son of an army general. That one's
grandfather was mayor of Beijing."
Princelings also are becoming increasingly visible abroad. Ms. Ye, the
fashion designer, was featured in a recent edition of Vogue magazine
alongside Wan Baobao, a jewelry designer who is the granddaughter of a
former vice premier.
But it is Bo Guagua who stands out among the younger princelings. No other
child of a serving Politburo member has ever had such a high profile, both
at home and abroad.
His family's status dates back to Bo Yibo, who helped lead Mao's forces to
victory, only to be purged in the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. Bo Yibo was
eventually rehabilitated, and his son, Bo Xilai, was a rising star in the
party by 1987, when Bo Guagua was born.
The boy grew up in a rarefied environment—closeted in guarded compounds,
ferried around in chauffeur-driven cars, schooled partly by tutors and
partly at the prestigious Jingshan school in Beijing, according to friends.
In 2000, his father, by then mayor of the northeastern city of Dalian, sent
his 12-year-old son to a British prep school called Papplewick, which
according to its website currently charges £22,425 (about $35,000) a
year.
About a year later, the boy became the first person from mainland China to
attend Harrow, one of Britain's most exclusive private schools, which
according to its website currently charges £30,930 annually.
In 2006, by which time his father was China's commerce minister, Mr. Bo went
to Oxford University to study philosophy, politics and economics. The
current cost of that is about £26,000 a year. His current studies at
Harvard's Kennedy School cost about $70,000 a year.
“'The children of major government families get very high scrutiny,'
says the granddaughter of a Red Army founder.”
A question raised by this prestigious overseas education, worth a total of
almost $600,000 at today's prices, is how it was paid for. Friends said that
they didn't know, though one suggested that Mr. Bo's mother paid with the
earnings of her legal career. Her law firm declined to comment.
Bo Guagua has been quoted in the Chinese media as saying that he won full
scholarships from age 16 onward. Harrow, Oxford and the Kennedy School said
that they couldn't comment on an individual student.
The cost of education is a particularly hot topic among members of China's
middle class, many of whom are unhappy with the quality of schooling in
China. But only the relatively rich can send their children abroad to study.
For others, it is Bo Guagua's freewheeling lifestyle that is controversial.
Photos of him at Oxford social events—in one case bare-chested, other times
in a tuxedo or fancy dress—have been widely circulated online.
In 2008, Mr. Bo helped to organize something called the Silk Road Ball,
which included a performance by martial-arts monks from China's Shaolin
temple, according to friends. He also invited Jackie Chan, the Chinese kung
fu movie star, to lecture at Oxford, singing with him on stage at one point.
The following year, Mr. Bo was honored in London by a group called the
British Chinese Youth Federation as one of "Ten Outstanding Young Chinese
Persons." He was also an adviser to Oxford Emerging Markets, a firm set up
by Oxford undergraduates to explore "investment and career prospects in
emerging markets," according to its website.
This year, photos circulated online of Mr. Bo on a holiday in Tibet with
another princeling, Chen Xiaodan, a young woman whose father heads the China
Development Bank and whose grandfather was a renowned revolutionary. The
result was a flurry of gossip, as well as criticism on the Internet of the
two for evidently traveling with a police escort. Ms. Chen didn't respond to
requests for comment via email and Facebook.
More
A Home Fit for a Princeling : A $32.4 million harborside mansion in Sydney
Asked about his son's apparent romance at a news conference during this year
's parliament meeting, Bo Xilai replied, enigmatically, "I think the
business of the third generation—aren't we talking about democracy now?"
Friends say that the younger Mr. Bo recently considered, but finally decided
against, leaving Harvard to work on an Internet start-up called guagua.com.
The domain is registered to an address in Beijing. Staff members there
declined to reveal anything about the business. "It's a secret," said a
young man who answered the door.
It is unclear what Mr. Bo will do after graduating and whether he will be
able to maintain such a high profile if his father is promoted, according to
friends. He said during a speech at Peking University in 2009 that he
wanted to "serve the people" in culture and education, according to a
Chinese newspaper, Southern Weekend.
He ruled out a political career but showed some of his father's charisma and
contradictions in answering students' questions, according to the newspaper
. Asked about the pictures of him partying at Oxford, he quoted Chairman Mao
as saying "you should have a serious side and a lively side," and went on
to discuss what it meant to be one of China's new nobility.
"Things like driving a sports car, I know British aristocrats are not that
arrogant," he said. "Real aristocrats absolutely don't do that, but are
relatively low-key." | u***r
发帖数: 4825 | | u***r
发帖数: 4825 | | l*******n
发帖数: 1972 | | u***r
发帖数: 4825 | | u***r
发帖数: 4825 | 6 In 2008, Bo Guagua invited Jackie Chan to lecture at Oxford—and sang with
him on stage at one point. | u***r
发帖数: 4825 | 7 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020452820457701172
A Home Fit for a Princeling
Besides cuddly koalas and the Sydney Opera House, Australia's biggest city
now has another draw for Chinese tourists: driving by the $32.4 million
property owned by a son of a former vice president of China.
Nestled high on a hill, above a towering sandstone wall and overlooking
Sydney Harbor, the 100-year-old residence boasts some of the best views in
the Emerald City. The street, Wolseley Road, was ranked the ninth most
expensive in the world in a survey by Financial News.
Enlarge Image
PARTKIDSside
PARTKIDSside
Dinny McMahon for The Wall Street Journal
This property, overlooking Sydney Harbor in Australia, was purchased for $32
.4 million by the son of a former vice president of China.
Zeng Wei, the 43-year-old son of Zeng Qinghong, once one of the most
powerful men in the Chinese Communist Party, bought the property with his
wife, Jiang Mei, at the end of 2008, according to a government property
database and other confirming data.
The following year, they applied to tear the old house down and build a new
$5 million mansion, launching a drawn-out battle with the local council. (It
was the property's exquisite site that drove the purchase price above $30
million. The figures come from local government documents and a commercial
data provider that tracks Australian property prices.)
The plans were revised several times after objections from neighbors. A
local court eventually found in favor of the development, but only after a
shift in plans that had called for one swimming pool to cascade into another
to form a waterfall along the house's front. One of the swimming pools was
dropped.
The elder Mr. Zeng, long the right-hand man to former President Jiang Zemin,
was a member of China's peak political body, the Politburo Standing
Committee, for five years until 2007. Before that, he headed the powerful
Organization Department, which is responsible for deciding who gets which
political posts.
More
China's 'Princelings' Pose Issue for Party
The source of his son and daughter-in-law's fortune is unclear. Ms. Jiang,
39, studied at the Beijing Dance Academy and, following a stint in
television, started working for the Chinese property developer Renhe Group.
There she "is responsible for assisting…executive directors to formulate…
strategies" and is a board director, according to the 2010 annual report of
Renhe's Hong Kong-listed unit, Renhe Commercial Holdings Co. Last year, the
report says, she was paid 817,000 yuan ($128,000).
Both Ms. Jiang and Mr. Zeng are also directors of an Australia-registered
company called Fruit Master International Ltd. Public documents don't
disclose what the company does, and its accountant declined to comment.
The company's four other board members include one of China's richest men,
Renhe Chairman Dai Yongge, his wife and his sister, Xiuli Hawken, with whom
he helped to found Renhe. Ms. Hawken, now a U.K. resident, has been ranked
by Forbes as the 15th-richest person in the U.K., worth $2.2 billion.
Efforts to reach Mr. Zeng through his lawyer and architect and through Fruit
Master's accountant in Sydney failed. Media representatives from Renhe
Commercial said they were unable to contact Ms. Jiang for this article. | m**********n
发帖数: 27535 | |
|
