China's three richest people in 2020. From left to right: Tencent founder Pony Ma Huateng, Nongfu Spring founder Zhong Shanshan, Alibaba founder Jack Ma. Credit: Techcrunch/Wikimedia Commons/World Economic Forum
Chinese leader Xi Jinping wants the country's richest to share more of their wealth. In response, China's biggest companies and wealthiest individuals have been lining up to make charitable donations in recent weeks, with “common prosperity” now an unambiguous political priority.
Of course, “common prosperity” isn’t a new concept for the Chinese Communist Party. But amid rising wealth inequality and Xi’s crackdown on private enterprise in China, the idea has taken on a newfound urgency.
This week, The Wire looks at the wealth of China’s elite — its rapid growth, and how its origins have changed in the nine years since Xi came to power — to give some background on why Beijing is cracking down now, and who is in its crosshairs.
CHINA’S INEQUALITY PROBLEM
Income inequality in China has crept upwards since the advent of China’s economic liberalization in the 1980s. The country’s Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality, peaked at 0.49
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Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. Trade Representative under Donald Trump, reflects on his decision to launch the trade war with China and begin the process of "strategic decoupling" — a process he says the U.S. must see through to the end.