The fate of a state where the ego of the leader comes in contradiction to the prosperity of the people becomes really pitiable. The Chinese Communist Party and Xi Jinping are targeting the business class and the very wealth generators which have taken China to the levels of economic affluence it boasts to the world. If it was not already hard enough for the Chinese billionaires to conduct their businesses with the regulatory authority standing over their heads, now they are being forced to donate large sums of money to build schools and alleviate poverty.
Deng Xiao ping must be disappointed in the heavens, watching how his successor Xi Jinping is undoing everything and is hellbent on dismantling the section of the society that are wealth creators. From what is transpiring, it looks like the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government have given up on their duties of taking care of their citizens and are now making the big businesses do these things in their stead.
This year, Chinese billionaires have gone on a humanitarian spree, but it is the Chinese government that is lurking behind the spike in private gift-giving. Chinese billionaires have recently been incredibly charitable. Wang Xing, the chairman and creator of food delivery giant Meituan, has donated roughly US$2.7 billion in stocks to his own foundation, which promotes scientific research and education, as well as several other big gifts, in recent months.
The Chinese government is facing an insurmountable economic downturn and is not able to keep up with the financing and economic upkeep of many of its projects in multiple domains. In such a scenario, Xi Jinping has found his cash cow in the Chinese business community and is leaving no opportunity to milk it. Chinese billionaires are being forced to donate money, and the amounts are so crazy that no one would believe the idea that the people are doing it themselves.
The list of generous donations goes on and on, with Chinese billionaires such as Zhang Yiming, creator of TikTok parent ByteDance, contributing roughly US$77 million to his birthplace of Longyan in Fujian province for education, and former Olympic diving champion Guo Jingjing donating US$10 million to Wuhan. However, the Chinese government is lurking behind this spike in private gift-giving and is acting on the levels which could be considered borderline extortion.
According to data from the 2021 Hurun Global Rich List issued earlier this year, China now has more billionaires than any other country on the planet, including the capitalist bulwark of the United States (US). With the increase in wealth, Beijing is becoming increasingly concerned that the wealth difference, whether in perception or fact or both, could pose a challenge for Communist Party rule. The concern has lately become more pronounced as the country is on an economic downturn.
Much to China’s dismay, the growth is now starting to level off. The signs are mixed. Exports remain strong but so has inflation. Rising costs are writing off all the profits for the major companies. Small companies are already suffering. The tech sector, which boosted the country’s economy throughout the past decade, is being ravaged by Chinese President Xi Jinping’s subversive economic policies. China also lags in the realm of research and development; it could severely impair China’s ability to sustain growth in the times to come.
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In such a precarious situation, the government is not able to find any other solution, and as an easy fix, they are forcing the ultra-wealthy and the wealth creators to finance the public projects and give their money to different organs of the CCP. This kind of extortion, taking money on the gunpoint from the Chinese billionaires who have brought China to the position it is at today will be very detrimental in the long run. Xi Jinping, in his efforts to circumvent the blame for the perils the Chinese people are facing, is trying to make the capitalist class the scapegoat. While it may help him in the short run, decades ahead, it will bring back China into the dark ages of Mao Zedong.