Shuli Ren, Columnist

What Xi Jinping Really Means by Common Prosperity

An essay by China’s president — who appears to feel he’s been misunderstood — lays out what his new socialist campaign is trying to accomplish.

October 18, 2021 at 6:30 PM UTC

By Shuli Ren

Shuli Ren is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asian markets. A former investment banker, she was a markets reporter for Barron’s. She is a CFA charterholder.

Xi Jinping
Photographer: Liu Weibing/Xinhua

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Since President Xi Jinping made his big push for “common prosperity” two months ago, there has been a lot of speculation on what it means. Implemented in the middle of a big tech crackdown, it wasn’t particularly warmly received by investors, who have lost billions of dollars. Is Xi’s campaign proof of the comeback of old-style Communism? Or is it a new-age Cultural Revolution? Or is China turning into a welfare state?

On Oct. 15, writing for Qiushi, a leading Communist Party journal, Xi for the first time spelled out in detail his view on common prosperity. It’s a must-read for those who still want to invest in China.