Too Much All in the Family

By John Greenwald

* At first glance, the black-and-white poster at Peking University hardly looked like a call for revolutionary change. Yet under the heading A DIRECTORY OF FAMOUS CHINESE, the broadside traced with devastating clarity the network of family ties that links China's top leaders and perpetuates their power. That farflung network, along with the rampant corruption that Chinese citizens are forced to endure each day, has gone far to galvanize the outcry for democracy in China's streets.

The nepotism starts with Deng Xiaoping, whose eldest son, Deng Pufang, 44, heads the giant China Welfare Fund for the Handicapped. Government investigators say Pufang, who was crippled when Red Guards threw him from a window during the Cultural Revolution, allegedly helped a Chinese conglomerate gain tax-exempt status and reap vast profits for fraudulent work. Pufang denies the charges. The names of other relatives of leaders read like entries in a Chinese Who's Who. Among them: Chi Haotian, 59, Chief of Staff of the People's Liberation Army and son-in-law of President Yang Shangkun; Li Tieying, 53, a rising Politburo member whose father was Li Weihan, a founder of the Communist Party; and State Councilor Zou Jiahua, 62, son-in-law of a famed army marshal.

Even when they do not hold high office, the relatives of China's elite enjoy lives of privilege. Known as the taizi pai, or the princes' faction, they attend the best schools, get the best jobs, live in luxury apartments and drive Mercedes-Benz to shop in special stores. Such advantages naturally gall the less favored. "Why him and not me?" asks a party official who was recently leapfrogged by a young taizi pai colleague. "You ponder the question, and the answer is nepotism."

Fairness also has little to do with the system of guandao, or official profiteering, that permeates Chinese society. On a small scale, leaders at all levels routinely use their positions to obtain free restaurant meals or theater tickets. In a grander manner, officials buy scarce raw materials such as coal and timber at low, subsidized prices and sell them on the open market for handsome profits.

When three top party officials visited a hospitalized hunger striker, the angry student declared, "If you really wish to re-establish the Communist Party's prestige, you must first excise the official profiteers." Many Chinese courts have been trying to do just that. The judicial system handled 37,000 cases of profiteering last year, up 50% from 1987. More than 100 embezzlers and bribe takers were sentenced to death or life imprisonment.

Though Premier Li Peng appeared to have triumphed over General Secretary Zhao Ziyang last week, both men are accused of string pulling. One source of resentment against Li, the adopted son of former Premier Zhou Enlai, is that his connections enabled him to study in Moscow and rise rapidly through the ranks. Zhao's son is chairman of the Hainan Huahai Co., a trading and investment company. Moreover, Yang, Zhao and Deng are all believed to have sons-in-law who work for army-run companies that export Chinese arms.

The government recently pledged to stop importing luxury cars and halt the annual migration of Beijing officials to the beachside resort of Beidaihe to escape the sweltering summer. On the way to his favorite barber, Vice Premier Tian Jiyun was seen being driven in a Toyota sedan instead of his beloved Mercedes-Benz. Unfortunately for the capital's elite, such modest belt tightening is not likely to impress the student protesters.

With reporting by Jaime A. FlorCruz/Beijing and Ted Gup/Washington