Common prosperity in China: rich or poor, people have questions about Beijing’s attempt to spread the wealth
- From rural farmers to the corporate elite, China’s new economic plan aims to touch the lives of 1.4 billion people
- Albeit at opposite ends of the economic spectrum, with vastly different hopes for how the strategy will pan out, the haves and have-nots are asking surprisingly similar questions
Across China, the phrase “common prosperity” has become a major talking point spanning every demographic, from the rich and political elite to rural farmers and factory workers. Their concerns are vastly different, but many of their questions are quite similar.
“What does it mean?” “Will it work?” “How might it affect me?” Uncertainty abounds, and concerns are rife.
Steve Xie and Huang Weijie are private business owners who live more than 1,000km (620 miles) apart, in Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces, respectively. They don’t know each other, but they’ve had similar – and frequent – conversations with their friends about Beijing’s push for a more even distribution of wealth in the country.
“We entrepreneurs are chatting with each other,” said Xie, who has been running a very successful fabrics-exporting business for years in Zhejiang’s capital, Hangzhou. “We all joke that officials in Zhejiang and billionaires are keeping a low profile these days – they wish everyone would forget that they exist.
“Those of us who own villas and large, luxurious flats in Zhejiang – the government will certainly check our bank turnover, our personal and corporate tax payments, and see where our money comes from.”