http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_CHINA_ACTIVIST_ENTREPRENEURS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-11-11-05-46-23
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."
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