By You Nuo

What can we see from the annual sessions of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)?

Having watched them year after year ever since the meetings were put back in shape around 30 years ago, one thing that particularly intrigues me is what people there, those who are comparing notes about policies in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, are thinking about the rich.

Getting rich was once a unifying force for Chinese society. Now views are diverging. It is obvious that debate is going on in society as well as among those meeting in Beijing regarding how to deal with the wealthy group that economic reform has created.

But debating is not enough. Nor is it useful to come up with an across-the-board solution to either tighten or loosen controls. Before letting the issue degenerate into a divisive force, China will have to update its policies toward citizens' attempts to get rich by differentiating the good from the bad, and by encouraging the former while containing the latter.

One thing to do now is to levy a tax on individuals using excessive natural resources.

One main reason for the mindless management in safety standards, and in pollution control, is that so little is being charged to the mining companies for using our resources.

Fines to polluters are still not heavy enough to deter them from repeating their sins.

For some time now, the press and the public have been pouring scorn on the so-called "Shanxi mine bosses", a name given to rich but uncouth people, driving in chauffeured cars to take their government friends to extravagant banquets or spas.

Many leading Chinese economists, including Justin Yifu Lin, the newly appointed chief economist of the World Bank, have aired their concerns about the abnormal profit margins of certain industries, particularly mining.

The profits of these industries reflect little the productivity, and, even less, responsible corporate governance. It only reflects how cheaply some have managed to obtain contracts for the use of land.

The contracts are based on terms drawn up during the era of planned economy when all mines belonged to the State. So the profits arising therefrom has nothing to do with entrepreneurship; it entirely comes from a legal loophole.

That is also why the phrase "Shanxi mine bosses" more often than not refers to a rather dumb, instead of an intelligent, person, and why its name is tagged to a place like Shanxi, a province rich in coal resources, rather than say Shanghai.

The very existence of these types of business owners is a national laughing stock and an insult to the market economy. It will continue to poison relations between the rich and poor if the government does not take timely action to phase out this sort of fake entrepreneurship.

The same market economy rates should be applied to State-owned companies using our resources to prevent them from growing into arrogant monopolies habitually ignoring their environmental responsibilities.

At a time of high inflation - and hence the credit crunch - it will be a test of the government's courage to revise the resources tax for the long-term health of the economy and society, and to prevent the "Shanxi mine bosses" from having more cash and spending it in ways that are offensive to the public.

(China Daily March 10, 2008)