\u201cCommon prosperity\u201d was mentioned at the 10th meeting of the Central Finance and Economic Committee of the Communist Party on August 17, 2021 where it was stated that it was common AND was an essential requirement of socialism and a key feature of China-style modernization. In that context, President Xi Jinping called for China to \u201cclean up and adjust high income and rectify income distribution.\u201d <\/b>And, in his recent speech to the 20th Chinese Communist Party Congress, Xi said, \u201dWe will steadfastly push for common prosperity. We will improve the system of income distribution\u2026 we will increase the income of low income earners and expand the size of the middle income group. We will keep income distribution and the means of accumulating wealth well-regulated.\u201d<\/p>\n
We know that \u201cCommon prosperity\u201d has been employed by many Chinese leaders since first used by Mao Zedong in the early 1950s and it appeared as slogan #38 in a series of <\/b>65 that were approved and listed in The People\u2019s Daily<\/em> on September 25, 1953. The slogan urged peasants to strive \u201cfor lives of common prosperity.\u201d An article appeared in the People\u2019s Daily<\/em> on December 12,1953, titled \u201cThe Path of Socialism is the Path to Common Prosperity,\u201d clarifying that common prosperity required collective ownership of the resources of production. The following was cited as the goal for Chinese farmers:<\/p>\n Therefore, the development of mutual aid and cooperatives can only avoid division among peasants and avoid the path of capitalism, but can also enable peasants to achieve common prosperity step by step and finally reach a socialist society.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Recall then, that in the 1970s and 1980s, Deng Xiaoping promoted reform and opening or gaige kaifeng<\/em> and this meant \u201cletting some get rich first\u201d and others would be pulled along and enjoy common prosperity later. He said \u201cfrom many aspects, right now we are merely implementing what Mao Zedong already put out, but unable to do himself.\u201d In keeping with this admonition, Deng stressed that \u201cthe nature of socialism is to emancipate productive forces, develop productive forces, abolish exploitation, elimination, <\/b>polarization and finally achieve common prosperity.\u201d Continuity was there even though some Western China-watchers found it incongruous and chose to ignore it. In any event, Ken Hammond adroitly sums up three decades of reforms and opening to the outside as follows:<\/p>\n China had largely subordinated itself to the interests the global bourgeoisie, in order\u00a0 to gain access to state- of-the-art productive technologies, and to accumulate capital\u00a0through the production of export goods. The overall goal was to use mechanisms of the marketplace to develop the productive economy,with the CPC playing a guiding role\u00a0and with the ultimate goal of reaching a level of social wealth which allows for the\u00a0beginnings of new forms of social distribution, an initial step on the path to true socialism.\u00a01<\/a><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Simultaneously, expanding material wealth through state capitalism generated major structural contradictions that have yet to be resolved. As GNP grew 9.3 percent per year from 1979-1994, China also became one of the the most unequal societies on earth. In both 2003 and again in 2007, the CPC seemed determined to modify this course. But in 2012, private companies accounted for 70 percent of China\u2019s GNP and the top 20 percent of China\u2019s population owned 70 percent of the total wealth.<\/p>\n n 2017, Xi said that that a new era of common prosperity had begun and those \u201dleft behind\u201d would make solid progress by 2035 and become part of a \u201cgreat modern society 2050.\u201c Further, at that date, inequality should be \u201cnarrowed to a reasonable range\u201d although the gaps have not been fleshed out. At the 2002 <\/b>World Economic Forum, Xi spelled out that \u201cThe common prosperity we desire is not egalitarianism. To use an analogy, we will first make the pie bigger, and then divide it properly through reasonable institutional arrangements. As a rising tide lifts all boats, everyone will get a fair share of development, and development gains will benefit all our people in a more substantial and equitable way.\u201d Beyond that, little was spelled out although Xi warned against \u201dslipping into the trap of welfarism that feeds the lazy.\u201d\u00a02<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n China has admirably succeeded in eradicating extreme poverty among impoverished rural residents although some 600 million people still live on $154 a month. For example, there is a major disparity between rural and urban areas. Further, China has 607 billionaires, secondly only to the United States. This is 87 fewer than last year and Forbes<\/em> reports that China\u2019s billionaires are some $500 billion poorer than last year and worth $1.96 trillion to $2.5 trillion in 2021.3<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 A series of regulatory reforms wiped out over $1 trillion in market value for Chinese-linked firms, mostly in the high-tech sector. It\u2019s notable that outside investors are still looking for opportunities but shifting to the Chinese domestic business sector. For example, Goldman Sachs recently came up with a 50-stock \u201dcommon prosperity\u201d basket, presumably connected to domestic needs and demands.<\/p>\n A recent program on CGTN, a news channel based in Beijing and controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, may help in further discerning the future. The show\u2019s panelists opined that common prosperity was about providing a \u201clevel playing field\u201d and opportunities for poor people to \u201cget ahead.\u201d Echoing Xi, it\u2019s not about scaring rich people with a social engineering project that would retard growth and \u201ccreate common poverty.\u201d It\u2019s not a Robin Hood scheme of \u201crobbing the rich to give to the poor.\u201d Another important component is \u201cencouraging\u201d philanthropy, including the provision of tax incentives for rich people to donate money to common prosperity fund. TenCent\u2019s ponying up of 100 billion yuan was cited as an example.\u00a04<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n Another possibly more explicit clue about the future occurred in August of last year: Li Guangman, a little-known blogger and retired editor of a marginal state-owned newspaper, wrote an incendiary essay on the need for radical reform in China. Li had authored over a thousand mostly ignored pieces but this one, entitled \u201cEveryone Can Sense That A Profound Transformation Is Underway,\u201d was quickly picked up and embraced by neo-Maoists and then by at least eight major Central Party state media sites, including The People\u2019s Daily<\/em>, Xinhua News Agency<\/em>, and CCTV television broadcasting.<\/p>\n Li characterized the ongoing regulatory reforms as part of a \u201cprofound revolution\u201d that \u201cre-prioritizes socialism over capitalism.\u201d After <\/b>listing some of the punitive actions taken against tech executives and others, Li wrote \u201cThis change will wash away all the dust and the capital market will no longer be a paradise for capitalists to grow rich overnight. The red has returned, the heroes have returned, and the grit and valor have returned.\u201d And then this seemingly ominous warning: \u201cAll those who block this people-centered change will be discarded.\u201d I haven\u2019t seen recent references to Li\u2019s essay although I may have missed them. Was this a one-off by a frustrated, old school Maoist or a piece sanctioned by and\/or coordinated by elements with the party for their own purposes?\u00a05<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n In the past, when talk has arisen about income adjustments, pro-market types and liberals have come to the defense of markets and the need to reassure foreign investors who might be tempted to flee. It\u2019s also reasonable to assume there are powerful and privileged elements within China, including higher levels within the party \u2014 those advantaged by inequality \u2014 who are opposed to Xi\u2019s initiatives. Personally, I find it both baffling and dismaying that some \u201csocialist friends of China\u201d\u00a0are quick to label anyone raising this subject as a China-basher, someone doing Washington\u2019s dirty work. In response, this quote from Samir Amin <\/b>in 2013 remains acutely on point:<\/p>\n \u2026beginning in 1990 with the opening to private initiative, a new more powerful right began to make its appearance.\u00a0 It should not be reduced to \u201cbusinessmen\u201d who have <\/b>succeeded and made (sometimes colossal) fortunes, strengthened by their clientele \u2014 including state and party officials, who mix control with collusion, and even corruption. This success, as always, encourages support for rightist ideas in the educated middle classes. It is in this sense that growing inequality \u2014 even if it has nothing in common with inequality characteristic of other countries in the South \u2014 is a major political danger, the vehicle for the spread of rightist ideas, depoliticization and naive illusions.((Amin, op.cit.p. 28.))<\/p><\/blockquote>\n How this plays <\/b>out behind closed doors is impossible to detect although the outcome of the recent party congress would indicate a consensus regarding Xi\u2019s position.<\/p>\n Further, I would be remiss not mention one important caveat regarding the challenging context for realizing Xi\u2019s program: that is, the primary <\/b>existential threat to China is U.S.-led imperialist aggression and Washington\u2019s renewal of the Cold War. Emblematic of this behavior is Washington\u2019s sanctions program which aims to use \u201cchoke points\u201d to impede Chinese access to cutting edge chip capabilities. In his 2022 NPC report (not in the speech) Xi warned <\/b>of <\/b>external threats to \u201cblackmail, contain, blockade, and exert maximum pressure on China.\u201d The extent to which the need to prioritize national security may hobble progress toward realizing common prosperity cannot be discounted.<\/p>\n Finally, it\u2019s indisputable that what China has achieved on the long road to a possible socialist future is nothing short of spectacular and my reading of the available evidence suggests that from Mao to Xi continuity exists in the quest for common prosperity. Today, Xi is determined to correct the contradictions arising from using state capitalism to accumulate sufficient social wealth. The praxis of liberation is a continuing struggle with an uncertain future but it\u2019s reasonable to assume that serious efforts are underway to give further concrete meaning to social, economic and cultural \u201ccommon prosperity.\u201d<\/p>\n This post was originally published on Dissident Voice<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cCommon prosperity\u201d was mentioned at the 10th meeting of the Central Finance and Economic Committee of the Communist Party on August 17, 2021 where it was stated that it was common AND was an essential requirement of socialism and a key feature of China-style modernization. In that context, President Xi Jinping called for China to [\u2026]<\/p>\n The post Common Prosperity on the Road to Socialism with Chinese Characteristics<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":318,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,38275,2024],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859869"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/318"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=859869"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":859870,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859869\/revisions\/859870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}