China’s coming era of ‘common prosperity’ – and what it means for the rich
- For decades, a few people in the country were allowed to get wealthy first to encourage economic efficiency
- But the income gap is growing and moves are afoot to get the better off to give back
When Chinese student Ding Xueliang was studying in the US city of Boston in the late 1980s, one of the biggest lessons he learned occurred outside the classroom.
Ding crossed paths with a number of other Chinese students who had arrived in the United States fresh from taking part in protests that had gripped several cities in eastern China, including Shanghai, for a month from December 1986.
The demonstrators took to the streets in frustration at corruption, eventually expanding their demands to political reforms.
But Ding said that when he asked the other students what prompted the protests, he was surprised by the answers.
In the few years that he had been studying abroad, the economic structure had changed dramatically, and people in the emerging private sector were earning more than those with fixed incomes, irrespective of their contribution to society.
Deng Xiaoping said the goal of socialism was common prosperity, and making a small number of people rich first would help to better achieve the goal
The people who designed missiles now made less than those who sold eggs, they told him.
