China’s communist rulers are seeking to strengthen work on the united front among private companies in the country, in a drive that will call for businessmen from Hong Kong and Macao to toe the line.

The new endeavour was set out in a set of guidelines issued on Tuesday by the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. In the guidelines, the office said that the strengthening of united work was an important way of realizing the party’s leadership over the private economy amid increasing challenges and risks faced by the united front work.

The work should cover all businesspeople from the private sector, including investors, managers, stakeholders, people in charge of federations and chambers of industry and commerce, and people from Hong Kong and Macau who were investing in mainland China.

Businesspeople from Taiwan and foreign countries were not mentioned in the guidelines.

It was the first time that the office had issued united front work guidelines to govern the private sector since China embarked on the policy of reforming and opening up its economy more than four decades ago, Zhejiang News reported.

The united front work refers to a process of building a “united front” coalition around the communist party in order to serve its objectives, and in doing so, targeted groups both domestically and abroad are subject to subordination.

The new guidelines also stressed efforts to strengthen the targeted personnel’s political thinking based on guidance from President Xi Jinping that was highly aligned with the thinking of the party’s central committee. Targeted individuals were urged to be “politically sensible” so as to consolidate and expand overall political consensus.

Businesspeople were called to be self-disciplined, to take part in social services and to protect the country’s interests. They should train competent people and build a positive image of the private sector.

The united front work would support and serve the private sector to drive high-quality growth in the companies, according to the guidelines.

As at the end of 2018. China had 221,000 privately owned industrial enterprises above the designated size, accounting for 58.3% of all industrial enterprises above the designated size. The sector generated revenue of 3.06 billion yuan (US$451 million), accounting for 30% of all revenue from the sector, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

China’s private sector is now the main driver of the country’s economic growth. Comprising 25 million privately owned companies, they contribute to more than 60% of national gross domestic product, fixed-asset investment and foreign direct investment, and are also responsible for 70% of innovation, 80% of urban employment and 90% of new jobs.

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