I think it should be mentioned that the US has a higher Gini coefficient than China. The US and many other Western nations have rising inequality, while China seems to be headed in the right direction.
I also find it doubtful that Deng believed in trickle down economics. China has never followed the neoclassical economic doctrine, even in the early reform period.
I'm not sure what you mean by the "right direction". Inequality in China has risen significantly since the late 1970s.
On Deng, whatever you want to call it, but he did believe that reform and opening up means that some people and regions will get rich first, and others later.
It's true that inequality skyrocketed, but if you check China's gini coefficient over the last 10 or so years, you'll see that it has been lowering, mostly due to rural poverty alleviation efforts I would suggest. Inequality did increase in the last year due to covid but I expect the downward trend will continue and (hopefully) accelerate with these new reforms being implemented.
I don't think using neoclassical terminology is useful for analysing Deng's policies. He was still a Marxist and was an arch pragmatist unlike neoclassicals. He wanted China's economy to develop as fast as possible knowing there would be undesirable consequences like inequality. I take the quote to mean that he knew they would need to be addressed by his successors, and Xi seems to be acknowledging this by using the common prosperity term, as well using it to show he is building off prior theory as a way to counter criticism of his reforms.
I don't disagree with you on the issues you raised. To add to it...
David Bandurski at the China Media Project did a really good job looking at how "common prosperity" has historically been used in CCP discourse, including in debates around economic policy in the late 70s and 80s. Worth reading for contextualising the revival of the term under Xi.
He concludes:
"But what “common prosperity” really means for Xi Jinping and the current leadership of the CCP is a question that will have to remain open for now. There can be little doubt that the changes suggested by the leadership would require, at the very least, as Professor Pan Helin (盘和林), argues in today’s China Youth Daily, require “a change in people’s ideas of self-interest.” And in the absence of a vibrant civic space, such changes to the ideas that underpin society are a difficult, and potentially intrusive, proposition. As with the development of this phrase in the past, the meaning of “common prosperity” will become clearer in future rhetoric as well as in future practice."
I think it should be mentioned that the US has a higher Gini coefficient than China. The US and many other Western nations have rising inequality, while China seems to be headed in the right direction.
I also find it doubtful that Deng believed in trickle down economics. China has never followed the neoclassical economic doctrine, even in the early reform period.
I'm not sure what you mean by the "right direction". Inequality in China has risen significantly since the late 1970s.
On Deng, whatever you want to call it, but he did believe that reform and opening up means that some people and regions will get rich first, and others later.
It's true that inequality skyrocketed, but if you check China's gini coefficient over the last 10 or so years, you'll see that it has been lowering, mostly due to rural poverty alleviation efforts I would suggest. Inequality did increase in the last year due to covid but I expect the downward trend will continue and (hopefully) accelerate with these new reforms being implemented.
I don't think using neoclassical terminology is useful for analysing Deng's policies. He was still a Marxist and was an arch pragmatist unlike neoclassicals. He wanted China's economy to develop as fast as possible knowing there would be undesirable consequences like inequality. I take the quote to mean that he knew they would need to be addressed by his successors, and Xi seems to be acknowledging this by using the common prosperity term, as well using it to show he is building off prior theory as a way to counter criticism of his reforms.
I don't disagree with you on the issues you raised. To add to it...
David Bandurski at the China Media Project did a really good job looking at how "common prosperity" has historically been used in CCP discourse, including in debates around economic policy in the late 70s and 80s. Worth reading for contextualising the revival of the term under Xi.
He concludes:
"But what “common prosperity” really means for Xi Jinping and the current leadership of the CCP is a question that will have to remain open for now. There can be little doubt that the changes suggested by the leadership would require, at the very least, as Professor Pan Helin (盘和林), argues in today’s China Youth Daily, require “a change in people’s ideas of self-interest.” And in the absence of a vibrant civic space, such changes to the ideas that underpin society are a difficult, and potentially intrusive, proposition. As with the development of this phrase in the past, the meaning of “common prosperity” will become clearer in future rhetoric as well as in future practice."
https://chinamediaproject.org/2021/08/27/a-history-of-common-prosperity/