A Day in The Life . . . . . . Of China: Free to Fly Inside the Cage

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Lun Feng's second ace is electricity. Across China, electric power is in such short supply that even favored state-owned operations must routinely shut down for two or three days a week. Lun Feng beat the power problem with money. For about $3 million, the factory installed five auxiliary diesel generators. With eleven workers maintaining the equipment 24 hours a day, eight seconds is the longest Lun Feng has been without electric power.

Then there are "the girls," about 3,000 of them, who work from 7:30 in the morning until 11 at night six days a week. None I speak with are over 19. Almost all are from Hunan province. Most stay no more than two years and then return home to marry. They earn close to $200 a month, an almost unheard-of wage in China.

As troublesome as it can sometimes be to have a mercurial government as one's business partner, greater problems often arise from a mismatch of position and personnel. Most jobs are assigned by the government, often with little regard for a person's qualifications or preferences.

At a Guangdong electronics factory, the quality-control officer concedes his own ineptitude. "I graduated in English from Fudan University ((in Shanghai)) and was immediately assigned here," he says. "I don't know anything about the work here, so I can't judge product quality very well. I wish I could go somewhere else, but I may be stuck here for the rest of my life. I could learn the job, but moving up is almost impossible without guanxi" -- that word again -- "which I don't have. If I had it, I maybe could have arranged it so I wasn't sent here in the first place."

In part because of similar complaints, Beijing announced plans last year to scuttle the job-allocation system this November. But on April 13 the State Council rescinded the scheduled reform. The decision was understandable. Rather than work in state-run enterprises, which need talented help desperately, most college graduates would opt for private-sector jobs that offer more money, greater opportunities for advancement and the chance to travel abroad. But the government's about-face last April, combined with the death two days later of Hu Yaobang, the reform-minded Communist Party Chairman ousted in early 1987, contributed to the student demonstrations that culminated in the Tiananmen massacre on June 4.

Not far from the Lun Feng factory, on the main road to Guangzhou, is an example of how economic freedom can energize a population. Shops full of sofas, chairs and beds stretch as far as the eye can see. "Furniture Mile" began several years ago when a few local farmers decided that after meeting their government-mandated crop quotas, they would rather augment their income by making furniture than by growing more vegetables. Soon, farmers throughout the area followed suit. Today anyone with wheels stops to load as much furniture as he can carry, then resells his wares later in whatever market he can find.