By Aditeya Das
Utopia! A vague and ambiguous word in the English dictionary. Yet everyone has their own definition of it. To a kid, their utopia would be the dream of a chocolate fountain or an ice cream sundae on a hot summers day. To my father, Utopia would be a night filled with smooth jazz and crime thrillers on Netflix. However, to Xi Jinping, Utopia reaches beyond the realms of superficiality. It is a strive towards equality, away from the “horrors” of capitalism, it is the journey towards unity and prosperity shared by both his predecessors and himself. To Xi Jinping, “utopia” is synonymous with “common prosperity”, two words that are at the epicentre of the Chinese constitution and its respective amendments since 2018.
Since December 18, 1978, Deng Xiaoping's three reforms to make China an economic superpower, the rich became richer, while the poor, although experiencing some gains, were left far behind. Such changes showed a form of socio-economic inequality through a capitalist mindset against Chinese communist social values. Ideals of "freedom", "justice", the "rule of law", and most importantly ", equality" were critical pillars of the aforementioned "communist values". Due to this wealth gap, one of the essential facets of Chinese communism is not being fulfilled, and to fix this, Xi Jinping decided to create "Common prosperity". He has made plans to reduce this wealth gap and has made “Common Prosperity” the tagline.
Although it was announced in November of 2021, several steps have been taken towards this even before then. The primary example would be the education sector. In September of 2021, the Chinese government devised a policy that banned 'for-profit tutoring centres.' Education, being a lucrative business in China, allowed many learning centres to charge high prices. Due to these prices, many low-income households cannot afford the fees for these centres. This has seemingly decreased equality within China and strives away from the utopia that Xi Jinping wants to create. By banning the 'For Profit' centres, Xi Jinping gained much support from many low-income families, turning it into a significant first step to "common prosperity".
The private sector has also played its hand in this. Through motivation from the Chinese Government, Chinese eCommerce giant Alibaba decided to get involved. On September 2, 2021, Alibaba announced that it would invest 15.5 billion dollars into "Common Prosperity" over five years. Through this, they can give funds to low-income workers to bring them into the middle class. It is rather evident that Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party are striving to gain popularity in China.
Through careful, multi-step processes, Xi’s communist utopia is nearing fruition. Though the journey is long and arduous, the potential success of meeting the four Chinese Social values will provide a legacy for Xi’s rule and a deeply ingrained moral grounding for the nation. However, the future is still young there are still many steps left, it is left vulnerable to the winds of change and political evolution. Will this result in the birth of a real-life utopia, or will China plunder its resources in a fruitless dream.
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