Beijing reassures workers ahead of new era

The working class are the 'masters of the state and enterprises,' Politburo member Wei Jianxing said

(CNN) -- Beijing is trying to boost the morale of workers in the run-up to a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) congress that will endorse the admission of private businessmen to the party.

The 16th congress slated for September will declare for the first time that because of the contributions made by non-state entrepreneurs to "Chinese-style socialism," they and other members of "new social strata" should be admitted to the CPP.

Major state media has come up with commentaries reassuring workers that their traditional status as "owners of the state" and "vanguard of the party" will not be affected.

A commentary by the Xinhua news agency, which is carried by most papers on Tuesday, said the CCP would "always uphold the fundamental goal of relying on the working class with all its heart and mind."

It added the party and government would "safeguard the rights of workers as the owners of the state."

The state media also quoted Poltiburo member Wei Jianxing, who is in charge of labor unions, as saying the recent reforms had not changed "the status of the working class as the masters of the state and enterprises."

More by Willy Wo Lap Lam Eye on China archive     CNN.com Asia More news from our Asia edition

Wei said the authorities would do more "concrete things" for workers, particularly the poor and unemployed among them.

He also vowed to boost the authority of labor unions in supervising management, including the executives of private-held firms.

On Tuesday, the Workers' Daily, the mouthpiece of the official trade union, ran a number of pieces on how various factories in the Beijing municipality had consulted their labor organizations before laying off workers.

Sources close to preparations for the 16th congress said Jiang hoped to revise the CCP charter to open the party's door to "new social strata," a euphemism for the new classes of private businessmen and professionals.

In his Political Report to the congress, Jiang is also expected to say that non-state entrepreneurs cannot be classified as "exploiters" because they obey the law and have made contributions to the economy.

More than one year after Jiang declared a new deal for businessmen, conservative ideologues -- as well as CCP members with labor and rural backgrounds -- are still opposed to raising the political status of the red capitalists.