IN A move that can only be described as unprecedented and truly historic in the annals of human civilization, the Communist Party of China, under Pres. Xi Jin Ping, announced another bold move that has never been attempted before by any nation or empire then and now: bridging the yawning disparity in wealth in China under its new slogan, “common prosperity for all.”
The formal announcement of the new China policy made by Pres. Xi last month after a meeting of the CPC Central Committee for Economic and Financial Affairs came on the heel of China’s another milestone achievement that is also unparalleled in human history: the lifting of its remaining 600 million citizens from absolute poverty this year, a goal the CPC set for itself to celebrate the Party’s centenary last July.
Bridging the wealth and income gap in China for the next 28 years or by 2049, the centenary of the People’s Democratic Republic of China, clearly sends to the world two strong messages that we hope should be clearly understood by everyone, especially, the imperialist/capitalist West:
One, the CPC is focused in China’s domestic affairs and on the continued prosperity of its own citizens after centuries of exploitation by their domestic ruling classes and Western imperialist domination.
Second, in pursuit of common prosperity for all Chinese citizens, China, contrary to Western propaganda and defamation, particularly by US Imperialism, is not preparing for war or is planning to attack other countries.
Simply put, given the more ambitious goal of bridging the wealth and income gap in China, the CPC, at the same time, cannot throw away resources and its attention to military adventurism as was the habit of the capitalist/imperialist states.
Here, we only have to look at US Imperialism, which, in Afghanistan alone, admitted to throwing away more than US$1 trillion in the last 20 years instead of using this mind-boggling amount in addressing the domestic problems in America, such as the income gap there between the rich and the poor.
And here too, for every person on earth to see, is the huge, glaring difference between the Chinese-style of governance and that of the West.
When the CPC embraced the teachings of Karl Marx, Engels and Lenin, it embraced not only the theory and practice of class struggles and armed revolution. The CPC also embraced and now made it clear for everyone to see, the humanist aspects of Marx’s communism—to bring social upliftment and ‘common prosperity’ to all social classes by removing the wealth barrier in society.
As for the West, its total embrace of Adam Smith’s ‘laissez faire’ economic theory and practice has brought it to where it is now: societies marked by extreme poverty amidst abundance, class division, alienation and wars of aggression as a means to plaster over their own societal weaknesses.
That China’s billionaires are also ready to share their wealth to the rest of society, like Jack Ma, also showed the superiority of China’s socio-political system.
It is only in China that anyone can become a billionaire. But the accumulation of so much wealth does not mean that men like Jack Ma can lord it over the Chinese government or over the CPC. For in China, there is only one authority: the People’s Government of China.
Had any Western government announced that they, too, are pursuing ‘common prosperity’ for all their citizens, its own elite would have removed them in 24 hours.