China’s top security official touts common prosperity campaign, points to ‘hidden peril’ of wealth gap

Guo Shengkun, secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, vows to crack down on illegal income

Analyst expects new regulations to be rolled out to support the strategy and says China has become ‘a society of risks’

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Common prosperity has become a central theme in President Xi Jinping’s economic policy in the past year. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 12:00pm, 30 Nov 2021

China’s top security official has touted President Xi Jinping’s “common prosperity” campaign and vowed to crack down on illegal income, saying it could help Beijing to avoid political risk.

Guo Shengkun, secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, the top Communist Party agency in charge of law enforcement, said the strategy was aimed at solving “deep-rooted risk and hidden peril caused by [uneven] income distribution”.

He made the remarks in a contribution to a book of commentaries published in mid-November by the state-run People’s Publishing House. In his commentary, Guo – who sits on the 25-strong Politburo – focused on outcomes from the sixth plenum, a four-day closed-door party conclave held earlier this month and attended by hundreds of political elites.

Guo’s commission oversees all legal and security matters in China, from the police and spy agencies to prosecutors, courts and prisons. He wrote that the security organs should “focus on the promotion of common prosperity”, including by improving related laws and regulations to redistribute wealth.

He said there should be support to protect legal income, while excessively high income should be regulated and there should be a clampdown on illegal income.

Guo Shengkun (left) said security organs should “focus on the promotion of common prosperity”, including by improving related laws and regulations. Photo: AFP

Common prosperity has become a central theme in Xi’s economic policy in the past year. The phrase was first used by former leader Mao Zedong in the 1950s for what he saw as a more egalitarian way to distribute wealth, especially among peasants. It has been cited as the ultimate goal in a series of recent measures, including Beijing’s push to revive the rural economy, antitrust regulations for tech firms, and tougher housing market rules.