Resultados de los datos obtenidos de los cuestionarios

In virtue of the combination of open and informal traits, the leading county and town cadres have successfully incorporated the local private entrepreneurs in the strategic group. In the “Double Hundred” project, the local cadres have created a formal institutional environment of participation in the project implementation. The local officials interact with and incorporate local coal miners/entrepreneurs vividly through a package of measures. In more detail, there are quite a few measures that equally involve the local cadres and entrepreneurs. First, county leading cadres actively and publicly propagate the “Double Hundred” project. Second, an incentive system is introduced, whereby the corporations that make great contributions in the “Double Hundred” project are given priority to resource allocation. Third, local cadres advise entrepreneurs to aid the poor by describing the poor people’s living conditions and recall the hardship they themselves experienced prior to establishing their corporations. This plays on the moral duty of the entrepreneurs to be true to their roots and thus to cultivate their mianzi. Fourth, aside from these measures, the local state creates a favorable environment to encourage local enterprises to take part in the project, including media reports and exposures. For the entrepreneurs who had donated a large amount of money and made notable

contributions to the “Double Hundred” project and other social development programs, the local media, including newspaper and TV station highlighted their engagement in the poverty alleviation practice; conversely, poor project implementations are exposed as negative examples. The local state creates several exemplary entrepreneurial models by holding commendation meetings calling paragon entrepreneurs wearing red ribbons and flowers onto the stage and presenting them with awards. In 2008, 48 coal corporations received commendations from the local state for their considerable contributions in terms donations to the project. In the same year, to promote the coal boss's political and social status, the local state even employed four coal bosses who had paid more than RMB 10 million taxes in the previous year, associated with notable donation in the rural

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development projects, to work as assistants to the county mayor. According to the

director of the Organization Department of the Party Committee, these four county mayor assistants continued working in their past functions (butuochan), while being seconded to the county government and entitled to take part in the process of economic development decision making. However, they were removed from office after eight months due to the strong force of public opinion.169 On top of these, appointing the coal mine owners or managers to work as village cadres is quite common in this county. For instance, one mine owner as well as manager was appointed by the town government as a village’s Party secretary.170

However, the informal institutions (involving, broadly, networks, norms, customs and personal relations in the form of guanxi) that are deeply intertwined further prove that they not only connect the local cadres closely but also contribute to the effective implementation of the “Double Hundred” project. For instance, the pairing meeting is supposed to be a formal institution created by the local state to encourage the local entrepreneurs to engage in the fund raising practice. However, the informal social networks and other relations lead to competition and emulation due to peer pressure and the mianzi “ideology.”As Mr. Cao put it:

The pairing meeting affects a lot on the entrepreneurs because it creates big pressure for others to follow and donate. Some complain that they are forced to donate or aid the poor villages or otherwise lose mianzi in front of other entrepreneurs.171

In addition to that, local cadres are encouraged to befriend entrepreneurs. Building on friendship, the cadres are very likely to convince the coal mine/corporations to engage in the “Double Hundred” project in respect of fund raising. Mr. Shao, the senior officer of

169 _{See Shaanxi fugu xianwei lianye jizhai meilaoban hongding (Fugu County Committee Takes Off the}

Red Crown of Meilaoban Overnight). Website of People.

http://politics.people.com.cn/GB/14562/8759256.html (accessed 5 October 2015).

170 _{A detailed explanation will be found in Chapter Six.}

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the Rural Work Department as well as one of the members of Leading Small Group, is responsible for raising funds for his village from the coal mines/corporations. He explained how guanxi functions in the process of fund raising:

The heads of government departments have personal relations with owners, some are hometown fellows, some are classmates. I come from a village in the east that is a purely agricultural area without coal mines. I have a classmate who owns a coal mine in another town and I let him assist my village for two years by means of the relationship of classmate. In that year, the owner and town/village cadres were convened by me in order to persuade the owner to give money. He was not born in our village, but he spent his childhood in my hometown, a production team at that time, so he still has special feelings for the village. Other corporations that were arranged to pair with my village are reluctant to send funds, but I have no solutions because I don't have personal relations with the owners. In another case, it is about networking. One corporation located in Xinmin Town funds my village through Xinmin Town’s Party secretary. I invited the owner and the Party secretary to a meal and finally he agreed to aid my village. Without the Party secretary, I was unable to invite him and make things done.172

Moreover, the local state has formulated a favorable ideological rationale with which to promote the implementation of the poverty alleviation program. The ideological tenor is:

1. Local consensus is reached in the locality that “coal resources are owned by the state, and the corporations’ business is legal. Once the masses experience difficulties, the corporations should help them.”

2. Positive ideas promoted by Party organizations and cadres involves maxims like “when everyone helps each other, there'll be no poor people” (renren bang renren,

shishang wu qiongren).

3. The principle of “the government helps corporations to solve their difficulties in business, and enterprises help government to share worries in social development.” 4. The win-win notion of “promoting corporations’ and farmers’ common

development.”

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The formal and informal institutional factors enriched with such ideological reasoning and practices, join together to undergird the strategic agency of local cadres in project implementation and in particular fund raising. The mines/corporations are officially encouraged to send funds to the “Double Hundred” project voluntarily by pairing with poor villages. In this sense, the local cadres command a discretionary power to persuade the coal mine owners/entrepreneurs to ensure contributions are made, but mainly through informal networks. Furthermore, the formal and informal institutions have established the symbiotic relations between villages and mines/corporations; locate state and

corporations in Fugu County.