But does anybody in Washington DC understand China like Wang Huning understands America?
That is the question that an American academic asks in an article in Law and Liberty about Wang Huning who has served three Chinese presidents.
On October 30 2021, in an article entitled “What is going on in China?” I drew attention to an article in Palladium about Wang Huning.
I commented that Wang Huning was disturbed by what he learned of American society — homelessness, racism, violence, drug crime in poor black neighbourhoods, growing inequality, untramelled power of the big tech companies, oligarchic corporate power, a broken political system and class privilege. He came to the view that as China modernised and became more prosperous, it must avoid what he saw happening in American politics, society and economy.
It is these factors which are now driving the “Common Prosperity” campaign in China.
President Xi Jinping in January said: “We absolutely must not allow the gap between rich and poor to get wider”. He warned that “achieving common prosperity is not only an economic issue but also a major political issue related to the party’s governing foundations.”
Law and Liberty, which is a conservative legal blog, sheds more light on the Common Prosperity campaign which President Xi is driving and which Wang Huning is advocating.
John Menadue is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Pearls and Irritations. He was formerly Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, Ambassador to Japan, Secretary of the Department of Immigration and CEO of Qantas.
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