No Russia-Style Oligarchs Will Be Permitted In China

Wall Street Journal: China Takes On Its New Tycoons

Fearing the rise of Russia-style oligarchs, Xi Jinping looks to remind China’s wealthy class of entrepreneurs who is really in charge

On the eve of his anointment by the Chinese Communist Party for a second five-year term as China’s leader, Xi Jinping seems to be the master of all he surveys. He has centralized economic and national-security policy in his office. The military and the police are firmly under control. Legions of corrupt officials—some of them political rivals, others caught brazenly on the take—are in jail. Dissidents and activists have been sidelined or locked up.

But Mr. Xi’s most consequential political battle today has received little attention. As he has tightened his grip on the party and the military, he now faces only one potential set of genuine rivals: China’s new class of wealthy entrepreneurs. China’s communist leaders have long been known to dread a Soviet-style collapse, but Mr. Xi and his senior colleagues are equally worried about replicating what came in its aftermath: the rise of the Russian oligarchs, who snatched control of state assets and turned themselves into billionaires and pushy political players. Mr. Xi is determined not to let that happen in China.

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WNU Editor: There has to be a balance because it is these people who are driving (and will drive) China's economy ....

.... From a near-standing start in the 1990s, entrepreneurs now account for three-quarters of China’s economic output and employ more than 80% of workers in its cities, according to Andy Rothman, an investment strategist with Matthews Asia in San Francisco. “The Chinese economy has been for the last decade—and will be forever into the future—driven by the private sector.

On a side note ... I love the following quote from this WSJ article because it is a quote that my father enjoyed using for years ....

.... “The Chinese economy has been for the last decade—and will be forever into the future—driven by the private sector. That’s not in dispute,” said Mr. Rothman. “There’s more people in Berkeley, where I live, who believe in Marxist-Leninist theory than in Beijing.”