The No.1 reason for success in China? Connections
People are starting to blame inequality on the system, not idleness
China’s ancient thinkers knew about the dangers of inequality. “Rulers need not worry about scarcity, but unevenness,” said the “Analects”, a collection of sayings attributed to Confucius, a philosopher of the 6th and 5th centuries BC. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, uses the language of Mao Zedong, but the message is the same. He calls for “common prosperity”, warning that in the West, wealth gaps have caused dangerous social divisions.
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This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “The big divide”
From the July 20th 2024 edition
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