The Chinese economy today
Economic growth has transformed China and lifted nearly 800 million Chinese people out of extreme poverty. In 2021, the value of stocks in China was $6.9 trillion, the third in the world.
The private sector in China has expanded rapidly in the last 30 years, with most of the population now working in the private sector (this includes those working in agriculture). However, the state continues to play a large role in industry. For example, the financial services, power and telecommunications industries are dominated by a handful of very large state-controlled companies.
Of China’s 500 biggest industries more than half are state-owned or are state stockholding enterprises.
Chinese Government 'common prosperity' policy
In August 2021, President Xi Jinping said that over the last decade, the CCP had ‘won the battle against poverty’ and ‘created favourable conditions for promoting common prosperity’.
Xi said that unconstrained economic growth causes excessive income inequality.
The CCP has cracked down on parts of the economy where it sees high profits, corruption and lack of regulation.
New rules have been added for finance and technology businesses, private education services have been limited or banned, and there has been a series of investigations and prosecutions for corruption in the health and medical sector.
Critics have accused the government of damaging the economy with these moves, which could result in the lower levels of funding across the government as a whole.
