ROWAN CALLICK | <\/p>\n\n\n\n
China\u2019s relentless leader Xi Jinping hates the idea of braking, let alone using reverse gear. So in the face of fierce economic headwinds, he is stepping on the gas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Communist Party he heads and personifies is in an exultant mood as it enters its second century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Xi no longer feels any strong compulsion to explain himself to an outside world which he believes to be adapting itself rapidly to his party\u2019s strength and vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AUKUS, the Quad, nothing that\u2019s happening outside China is now causing Xi to wake up nights in the well-secured leaders\u2019 compound of Zhongnanhai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Xi said recently: \u201cIn today\u2019s world, if you want to say which political party, which country, and which nation can be confident, then the Communist Party of China, the People\u2019s Republic of China, and the Chinese nation have the most reason to be confident!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What matters most now is that China follows Xi\u2019s clear directions for a glorious socialist future, especially as he is enlisting the party\u2019s full powers to pursue his boldest crusade yet \u2013 grappling the \u201canimal spirits\u201d of successful Chinese capitalism into submission to his form of socialism where \u201cpublic ownership is the mainstay\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Danger is lurking here, however. Restructuring the economy risks slashing the value of the real-estate investments on which the middle class has based its families\u2019 futures, and risks the jobs of Chinese battlers. Xi has an answer for that, as for everything \u2013 or believes he does. His new wave of propaganda is telling his countrymen that while the economy may be slowing overall, his \u201ccommon prosperity\u201d campaign \u2013 reviving a Mao Zedong 1950s slogan \u2013 will in time deliver ordinary folk with more rewards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The messaging indicates this will be achieved by redistributing wealth from the filthy rich who were lionised in Deng Xiaoping\u2019s greedy \u201cOld Era\u201d of \u201cto get rich is glorious\u201d, even though the core source of unequal access to everything in China is the privileging of the unaccountable party and its elite circles. China\u2019s wealth gap is about the same as the USA\u2019s. Xi says he wants to build \u201colive-shaped\u201d prosperity, with the middle class expanding into the majority. He says: \u201cWe have a complete solution to the problem of poverty, but we still have to explore \u2026 how to get rich.\u201d And he wants to \u201cdeal properly with the relationship between efficiency and fairness\u201d while avoiding \u201cthe trap of welfarism\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n