From Chinese Press

Stop the rich

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-28 08:19
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The migration of an increasing number of Chinese millionaires and billionaires abroad highlights the widening income gap in society and the lack of ethics among businesspeople, says an article in China Youth Daily. Excerpts:

Many of China's millionaires and billionaires have already migrated to other countries or are in the process of doing so. The number of Beijing residents alone who migrated to the United States doubled from 500 in 2008 to 1,000 last year. And mind you, the US is not the favorite choice for Chinese emigrants.

On one hand, many areas of investment are still fiercely protected or are off-limits for businesspeople, limiting their avenues of investment in order to increase their wealth. On the other, the widening wealth gap and rich people's nefarious activities are a cause of the growing anger among people and the deepening of social contradictions. These have placed rich people in an awkward position. They are blamed for the rampant corruption in governments because, in many cases, they are forced to keep the authorities happy to run their businesses. It's true, though, that the rich are indeed part of the corruption racket.

When rich people migrate they carry with them the wealth and knowledge, too. But the fact is that they have been able to accumulate that wealth and knowledge only because other people have made the great sacrifice of working for small salaries during the three decades of reform and opening up. So, the rich have no right to take that wealth and knowledge out of the country. It's high time that supervision on the government's public power and law enforcement was strengthened.

(China Daily 05/28/2010 page9)