Social unrest in China

Excerpts from an article this week in The Economist:

The term “three-generations-in-tobacco” has become a common shorthand in China. On social media it means a privileged elite whose members hand out coveted jobs (such as managerial roles in the state’s tobacco monopoly) to their own types, shutting out ordinary folk. Earlier this year a microblogger with more than 850,000 followers invoked the meme. “The result of this hereditary system is a closed circle of power that completely cuts off opportunities for people at the bottom to rise up!” he wrote. Hundreds expressed agreement. “The ruling class is solidifying,” one replied. Another fumed: “The children of the elite get ahead, and the children of the poor remain poor.”..

Many Chinese now talk of shehui guhua, or social stagnation. Among the less well-off, resentment is growing of what is seen as a self-replicating elite. Class enmity is on the rise...

Research led by two American scholars of China, Scott Rozelle and Martin Whyte, found that people in China once accepted glaring inequality, remaining optimistic that with hard work and ability they could still succeed. But now they are more likely to say that connections and growing up in a rich family are the keys to success, the academics found. This irks the Communist Party, which claims to have established a “people’s democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on an alliance of workers and peasants”, as the Chinese constitution puts it. In recent years China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has called for greater efforts to promote social mobility while stressing the need to attain “common prosperity”...

Such talk has had little obvious impact on the public mood, however, beyond spooking businesspeople and wealthier Chinese. In August one user of Weibo, a microblogging platform, used his account (with more than 100,000 followers) to rail against the big pensions enjoyed by the elite. “Common folk, do you get it now?” he wrote. “Vested interests are untouchable, you can’t even talk about them,” he said. “They’re all parasites,” one person responded. “Vampires,” said another. “Social stagnation is getting worse,” a third chimed in. Someone even ventured: “Without another revolution, it’s impossible to resolve these bizarre injustices.” But China’s internet is heavily censored. Within a few days, the thread disappeared...

China’s middle class has expanded rapidly, from almost non-existent in the 1990s to around 400m people today by official reckoning. But within this new class, resentments stir, too. Competition for advancement is intense. Parents pour money into helping their children get as good an education as possible. In 2021 the government tried to level the playing field by banning most for-profit tutoring services for school students. But this gave the richest an even bigger advantage: they could afford the sky-high prices that tutors began charging for their illicit work...

The party’s own elitism doesn’t help. Joining it requires a lengthy initiation, involving frequent attendance at meetings to study party literature. But for civil servants and white-collar workers in state-run firms—coveted types of work—membership is essential for advancement. The civil-service exam is highly regarded in China for its fairness, but who gets to join the party is at the whim of insiders. And within the state’s bastions, nepotism is rife...

Rampant and egregious inequality in assets and opportunities.  Elitism, nepotism, social stagnation.  The "common people" angry with their government.  Sounds like the United States...