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The China Private Wealth Report 2009, based on careful research and a rigorous statistical model, examined the investment attitudes and behavior of China’s wealthiest citizens. The results showed that China’s wealthy are living well in the face of the global financial tsunami.
At such a time, China’s tycoons as a group are both envied and admired. They are watched, studied and even worshipped. Many people with a special interest in them have been conducting various studies and analyses.
The China Private Wealth Report revealed statistics on the assets and the number of rich people, providing figures and information for those interested in China’s wealthy.
For example, this report revealed that about 320,000 Chinese are worth at least US$1.46 million each, and the total value of their assets exceeds US$1.3 trillion. These two stunning facts alone illustrate that this large group of wealthy Chinese is too powerful to be ignored. The increasing number of rich people also indicates China’s social progress to a certain extent, as this was inconceivable 30 years ago.
However, this report failed to elaborate on certain key issues, such as the identities of these rich people, the means by which they gained their wealth, whether they include rich officials and whether their models of success are worth copying.
Some scholars claim that the rich Chinese are mostly private entrepreneurs, scientists and technical personnel. Those are surely included. Their wealth is based more on human capital and a spirit of innovation. While they accumulate their own wealth, they are also creating wealth for society at the same time. Their paths to wealth embody fairness in terms of equal opportunity, as well.
Admittedly, if China’s rich obtain their wealth through honesty, diligence and lawful operations, others should not criticize or despise them. After all, for a society to develop in a healthy manner, it requires individuals who dedicate their intelligence and wisdom for the good of society. Their businesses will create jobs and additional taxes to be paid to the state, both huge benefits. From another angle, a society in which people compete to be poor, submit to poverty, and are forbidden to get rich would be unhealthy and detrimental.
However, the premise behind such an attitude to wealth is that it was acquired by lawful means.
In fact, a close look at China’s richest people will reveal not only those who legally earned their wealth through personal talent, in line with state policies and market rules, but also those who colluded with officials for unfair advantage in their businesses. Moreover, some rich Chinese are people who hold powerful positions, who obtained their wealth by abusing their power.
Chinese economist Zhao Xiao discovered through his own research that the fastest growing income earners in recent years are those related to people in power. If a powerful person were placed at the center of a circle, Zhao found that income distribution formed concentric circles around that center – the closer to the power, the higher and faster people’s incomes grew.
Therefore, it is necessary to classify the different types of Chinese multimillionaires. Those whose wealth was obtained through collusion with power or plunder are not respectable.
There is a saying in Chinese society that the citizens tend to be against the rich, but this is not really true. In fact, the Chinese people are anti-corruption rather than anti-rich. Take superstars like National Basketball Association player Yao Ming, or martial artist and actor Jet Li, for instance. Most Chinese don’t resent such people, rather they admire them for their effort and talent. What the people hate are those officials and businessmen who get rich through corruption and collusion with power.
Besides, there is another group of Chinese who became wealthy by managing state-owned monopolies, or top management of enterprises who gained high bonuses from state resources. They don’t deserve respect, either.
A society with no rich people would be awful; but a society in which rich people abnormally appear is also awful. A society where wealth is obtained through illegal means is terrible; a society where the corruption and wrongdoing of rich people are tolerated is also terrible.
Hence, behind the magnificent figure of 320,000 multimillionaires, the people should face up to the question of how these fortunes were made, and the government should clean up the soil from which problematic rich people generate. Then, the pursuit of wealth will gain positive momentum both for individuals and for the whole society.
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(Wang Shichuan is a media critic based in Beijing. This article is translated and edited from the Chinese by UPI Asia.com; the original can be found at http://blog.sina.com.cn/wangshichuan0813. ©Copyright Wang Shichuan.)
