Can China’s Prosperity Promise Fix Real Problems?
For all the slogans, Beijing is right to worry about the gulf between the country’s richest and its poorest. It can start by tackling the world’s largest pension system.
Common prosperity starts here.
Photographer: AFP/AFP via Getty Images
China’s billionaires, however munificent, won’t determine the success of President Xi Jinping’s drive to narrow a worrying wealth gap and burnish his socialist credentials. But the country’s hundreds of millions of retirees, most of them dependent on penurious pensions, just might.
Xi’s push for “common prosperity” is targeting everything in its path, including private tutoring centers, gaming, excessive overtime and tax-dodging celebrities. A concept that’s been around since the time of Chairman Mao Zedong is now suddenly being invoked in corporate earnings reports and official rhetoric. Mentions in Xi’s speeches and meetings alone have more than doubled compared to last year.