【纽约时报 20150302】亿万富翁＝立法者？

满仓

【中文标题】亿万富翁＝立法者？
【原文标题】Billionaire Lawmakers Ensure the Rich Are Represented in China’s Legislature
【登载媒体】纽约时报
【原文作者】MICHAEL FORSYTHE
【原文链接】http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/world/asia/in-chinas-legislature-the-rich-are-more-than-represented.html?ref=topics&_r=0


世界上很多国家的立法者都被谴责是亿万富翁的代言人。但中国不是这样，这里的立法者就是亿万富翁。

上海胡润报告中所列举的1271名中国最富有的个人，有203人——超过七分之一——是这个国家的议会及其咨询机构的代表，这些人本周齐聚北京出席年度会议。根据胡润报告在星期一发布的数据，这些代表的个人资产总和高达4638亿美元，高过奥地利全国的年度经济总值。

与此相比，美国的立法者要穷多了。响应性政治中心是一家位于华盛顿的组织，专门追查美国政客的资产状况。根据它提供的数字，美国政府三个分支机构中所有的任职人员，最有钱的人是加利福尼亚州一位共和党代表达瑞尔•艾撒。如果把他放在中国的人民代表大会和中国人民政治协商会议中，他的资产只能排到166位。


马化腾，腾讯公司首席执行官。

18位中国代表的资产，超过了美国国会535名成员、最高法院的9名大法官和奥巴马总统内阁成员所有人的资产总和。

国家与国家之间的比较必然会存在差异。中国的一些议会代表是一些大家族中的子嗣或配偶，胡润的报告把他们整个家族的资产都包括在内，而美国政客的资产往往只包括任职人或者其配偶的资产。

尽管如此，虽然人民代表大会仅仅是共产党所做的官样文章，缺少像美国国会或者英国议会那样的实质性权力，但财富的集中反映出富有阶层人士对中国政治影响力的加强。

此事并非偶然。大约在十多年前，以打击资产阶级、让工人和农民掌权为基础理念的共产党，开始欢迎富有阶层加入，以扩大其影响力，彰显其权威。


李彦宏，百度公司首席执行官。

英国诺丁汉大学当代中国研究教授曾锐生在电子邮件中写到：“今天的中国共产党愿意采取任何手段来让自己保持统治地位。缺少权力制衡，让政治与金钱无限亲密结合，这在像美国这样的资本主义国家和像英国这样的社会民主国家是不可想象的。”

这两个机构中的一个席位令人求之若渴，不仅因为它所具有的权力，还因为代表的资格可以接触党内和政府内部高级别的人士。而且可以给商业伙伴和竞争对手发出一个清晰的信号。

加利福尼亚州大学圣迭戈分校主力教授史宗瀚专门研究中国的金融与政治，他说，这两个机构中的代表身份，还可以让有钱的中国人在政府采取不利于他们生意的政策时受到保护——一些有钱的美国人也可以通过聘请说客、律师和公关公司来达到这样的目的。史先生说，因为这两个中国机构有“很多可以让商人得到合法保护的职位，因此商界精英纷纷动用浑身解数博取这些席位”。


长江实业集团主席李嘉诚之子李泽钜。

在本周齐聚人民大会堂的代表中，有一些商界的重量级人物，包括腾讯公司首席执行官马化腾、谷歌的对手百度公司首席执行官李彦宏。胡润榜单还列举了一些香港大亨代表，其中就有长江实业集团主席李嘉诚之子李泽钜。自从1997年回归中国之后，香港每年3月都会派代表来北京参加会议。

总体来看，人民代表大会中的106名成员和政治协商会议中的97名成员都位列中国胡润富豪榜。创始于1999年的胡润还出版一些杂志，内容有关中国的富人和奢侈品牌。

从百分比角度来看，中国依然完胜美国。203位中国亿万富翁占5200多名出席会议代表的4％，他们的身家总和为23亿美元。美国国会中最富有的4％人群有22位，净身家只有1.24亿美元。

从各种迹象来看，两者之间的实际差距恐怕会更大。美国国会成员必须公开他们的资产状况，除了主要的居住房屋和联邦退休金，而“两会”代表不公开资产。胡润通过一些公开信息，比如公司的年报，来获取中国富人的资产状况。但另外一些代表也可能是亿万富翁，只不过财产没有公开。

明显的一个隐藏财富渠道是房地产。中国的房地产总价值高达30万亿美元，房主们往往讳莫如深。但是针对腐败的调查经常会披露拥有几十套别墅和公寓的官员。胡润的资产数字并没有包括房地产。



原文：

Lawmakers in much of the world are often accused of being in the pockets of billionaires. But there’s a difference in China. Here, the lawmakers are the billionaires.

Among the 1,271 richest Chinese people tracked by the Shanghai-based Hurun Report, a record 203, or more than one in seven, are delegates to the nation’s Parliament or its advisory body, which will convene for their yearly joint session this week in Beijing. According to figures released by the Hurun Report on Monday, the delegates’ combined net worth is $463.8 billion, more than the annual economic output of Austria.

American lawmakers are poor by comparison. According to figures provided by the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based group that tracks money in American politics, the richest person in any of the United States government’s three branches, Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican, would rank as only the 166th richest member at the meeting of China’s National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Congress which opens on Wednesday.

Pony Ma, the chief executive of Tencent Holdings.

Eighteen of the Chinese delegates have a net worth greater than the combined wealth of all 535 members of the United States Congress, the nine members of the Supreme Court and President Obama’s cabinet.

As with any cross-country comparison, there are differences. A few of the delegates to the Chinese parliamentary session are sons or spouses of family patriarchs. The Hurun Report list also often combines family wealth, while United States disclosures count the wealth of the officeholder and his or her spouse.

Still, while the National People’s Congress is a rubber stamp for the ruling Communist Party, lacking the power of the United States Congress or the British Parliament, the concentration of wealth in its ranks reflects the growing influence of the rich in Chinese politics.

That is no accident. Starting more than a decade ago, the Communist Party, founded to empower workers and peasants and quash the capitalist class, began to welcome wealthy members to broaden its appeal and buttress its authority.

Robin Li, chief executive of Baidu Inc.

“The Communist Party of China today is about doing whatever it takes to strengthen its capacity to stay in power,” Steve Tsang, a professor of contemporary Chinese studies at the University of Nottingham in England, said in an email. “The lack of institutional checks and balances allows politics and money to come together on a scale that is not imaginable in a capitalist country like the U.S.A. or a social-democratic country like the U.K.”

A seat on one of the two bodies is highly desirable, not because the positions are powerful, but because being a delegate provides access to the highest echelons of the party and the government. It is also a clear sign to potential business partners and rivals of political clout.

Membership in either body can also provide wealthy Chinese with protection from government actions that could hurt their businesses — something that wealthy Americans can achieve by hiring lobbyists, lawyers and public relations consultants — said Victor Shih, an associate professor at the University of California, San Diego, who studies the confluence of finance and politics in China.

Because the two Chinese bodies have “many positions where businesspeople can legitimately obtain such protection, the wealthy business elite use their influence to obtain positions in these bodies,” Mr. Shih said.

Victor Li, the son of Li Ka-shing, the chairman of Cheung Kong Holdings.

Among the delegates who will convene at the Great Hall of the People this week are some of the most famous names in corporate China, including Pony Ma, chief executive of Tencent Holdings; and Robin Li, chief executive of the Google rival Baidu Inc. The Hurun list also includes some Hong Kong tycoons who are members, among them Victor Li, the son of Li Ka-shing, the chairman of Cheung Kong Holdings. Hong Kong, part of China since 1997, sends delegates to Beijing every March for the meeting.

In all, 106 members of the people’s congress and 97 members of the consultative congress are on the Hurun China Rich List. Founded in 1999, Hurun also publishes magazines about China’s wealthy and organizes publicity events with luxury brands.

In percentage terms, the contrast with the United States is also stark. The 203 Chinese billionaires make up 4 percent of the more than 5,200 delegates to the meeting, with an average net worth of $2.3 billion. The richest 4 percent of the United States Congress, 22 people, have an average net worth of $124 million.

In all likelihood, the gulf is probably even greater. While members of Congress in America are required to disclose their assets, with exceptions for their primary residences and federal retirement accounts, members of the “two sessions” are not. Hurun obtained the net worth of the richest Chinese people from publicly available sources such as annual reports by listed companies. But other delegates could also be billionaires, with assets hidden in sources that are not publicly available.

One obvious source of hidden wealth: China’s residential real estate market, worth more than $30 trillion. The owners of China’s homes are swathed in secrecy, but corruption investigations regularly expose officials who own dozens of villas and apartments. The Hurun calculation excludes most Chinese property holdings.