BEIJING (AP) -- As Chinese career trajectories go, wealthy businesswoman Wang Ying's has taken an unusual turn. She quit her job as head of a private equity fund to become a full-time political critic.
Wang, who was a low-profile member of China's business elite for years, is now a leading voice among entrepreneurs troubled by the growing ranks of business owners who have suffered under the government's authoritarian excesses and by signs Beijing wants to further tighten its controls on society.
As China's ruling party holds a major economic planning meeting this week, it faces rising demands for change from entrepreneurs who feel a simmering anger at a system that extends privileges such as cheap credit and monopolies to politically-favored state companies. Entrepreneurs complain they are denied a say in how society is run even as their businesses create jobs, wealth and tax revenue. Worse, some have endured arrest, torture and confiscation of their businesses at the whim of local officials.
"You can make money because I allow you to," said Wang, summing up the attitude to private businesses among the politically powerful. "They say: You think the money is yours, but actually I'm just leaving it with you. I can take it back at any time, in any way."
By speaking out, Wang and others are testing an unwritten rule that many private business leaders have played by: They get room to grow their companies as long as they don't challenge the Communist Party's authority.
Wang, 60, resigned as chairwoman of Beijing Zhongheng Juxin Investment Fund Management Co., to protect it from any retribution as she spoke out. It's a move that underscores the risks of such activism, as demonstrated in September when Beijing police arrested Wang Gongquan, a wealthy venture capitalist and outspoken supporter of a group that organizes political discussions over dinner.
"Previously, private entrepreneurs tried to keep a distance from politics because the safety of their business depends on the government," said Mao Yushi, an economist. But recent abuses show that "the safety of private enterprises depends on rule of law," said Mao. "So more and more private entrepreneurs pay attention to political reform."
In August, the Unirule Institute of Economics, a think tank co-founded by Mao, held a forum at a hotel about three hours outside of Beijing. Around 200 businesspeople listened as lawyers and economists espoused the importance of free markets and the rule of law. Among the speakers was Hu Deping, the reform-minded son of late Communist Party chief Hu Yaobang, who to rounds of applause called for the government to pay more than lip service to China's constitution, which promises to protect individuals' rights.
