The full text of #20PC report adds some important detail to my earlier thread. More signaling about institutional reforms needed for common prosperity. And, as expected, no detail about how these reforms will be achieved. Many of these reforms have been discussed for decades.1/8
Section 9 on people's welfare and livelihood is still the most important. Starts with some nice words about the party and the people 江山就是人民，人民就是江山。中国共产党领导人民打江. The next para on distribution is more fleshed out than in his speech. Mentions the need 2/8
to increase the household share of national income, the need to increase tax revenue. The para details the 3 kinds of redistribution needed: higher share of income to households (1), tax and social welfare reforms (2), and charitable donations/philantropy (3). Similar to other 3/
Common Prosperity speeches/reports. Following 2 paras flesh out employment/labor and social welfare goals. Important here that (un)employment concerns vastly outweigh concerns about labor conditions or rights. 4/8
The employment/labor para ends with a call to protect labor rights in "flexible" and new employment. This is the gig/platform economy that before Covid was creating a lot of new service sector jobs, but often without labor protections as employees. 5/8
Finally, basic social welfare should be pooled at the provincial level. That's a good goal, been a goal for quite some time. Hard to achieve when social welfare has been fragmented for so long. Rich places don't want to share with poor places. Most optimistic interpretation? 6/8
These reforms are so important and politically very difficult. They would redistribute wealth from companies and the wealthy down to households/ workers. Because they've been delayed, they need to be enacted when China has slower growth/higher debt. Maybe only Xi can achieve it?
Is Xi a populist strongman, delivering common prosperity through hard reforms? But the bootstrapping and working hard are also a big part of Xi's ethos. The report is a mishmash of bootstrapping and calls for redistribution. Trying to manage expectations of his reign. 8/8
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