En Chine, le secteur privé craint une «chasse aux riches»

Face au débat provoqué par cette nouvelle campagne, Pékin multiplie les déclarations rassurantes. «Il ne s’agit pas de voler les riches pour donner aux pauvres», a assuré le 26 août Han Wenxiu, vice-directeur du bureau de la CCFEA. THOMAS PETER/REUTERS
LE FIGARO : DÉCRYPTAGE - Sans l’admettre explicitement, la montée des inégalités est prise très au sérieux par le Parti, perçue comme une menace à sa légitimité.

À Pékin
En Chine, la «prospérité commune», nouveau slogan du président Xi Jinping, donne des sueurs froides au secteur privé. Lors d’une réunion de la commission centrale des affaires financières et économiques du Parti (CCFEA) le 17 août, le chef d’État a promis d’«ajuster les revenus excessifs» de façon à créer une structure de redistribution des richesses«en forme d’olive». Le numéro un chinois a également appelé les plus fortunés et les entreprises à «rendre davantage à la société».

Dans la crainte que les riches ne deviennent la cible d’un nouveau tour de main de Pékin, les actions des groupes de luxe LVMH et Kering ont chuté d’environ 10 % la semaine suivant l’annonce du leader chinois. Les cours de Burberry et de Richemont se sont également érodés de 6 %. Une chute similaire a été enregistrée par les constructeurs automobiles Porsche et Ferrari. » | Par Joséphine Pasquier | mardi 14 septembre 2021

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Warning of Income Gap, Xi Tells China’s Tycoons to Share Wealth

THE NEW YORK TIMES: As the country’s leader prepares for a likely third term, he is promising “common prosperity” to lift farmers and working families into the middle class.

Xi Jinping has declared that China’s Communist Party will work toward “common prosperity,” and he has pressed businesses and entrepreneurs to give back more to society. .Ju Peng/Xinhua, via Associated Press
Four decades ago, Deng Xiaoping declared that China would “let some people get rich first” in its race for growth. Now, Xi Jinping has put China’s tycoons on notice that it is time for them to share more wealth with the rest of the country.

Mr. Xi says the Communist Party will pursue “common prosperity,” pressing businesses and entrepreneurs to help narrow the stubborn wealth gap that could hold back the country’s rise and erode public confidence in the leadership. Supporters say China’s next phase of growth demands the shift.

“A powerful China should also be a fair and just China,” Yao Yang, a professor of economics at Peking University who endorses the shift in priorities, said by email. “China is one of the worst countries in terms of redistribution, despite being a socialist country. Public spending is overly concentrated in cities, elite schools and so on.”

Officials are pledging to make schooling, housing and health care less costly and more evenly available outside big cities, and to lift incomes for workers, helping more people secure a place in the middle class. The “common prosperity” campaign has converged with a crackdown on the country’s tech giants to curb their dominance. Facing scrutiny, some of China’s biggest billionaires, like Jack Ma, have lined up to pledge billions of dollars to charity.

The pledges hold out the prospect, endorsed by Mr. Xi in a meeting last month, that China is now affluent enough to shift closer to the Communist Party’s longstanding ideal of wealth sharing. For Mr. Xi, the Communist Party’s long-term authority is at stake. » | By Chris Buckley, Alexandra Stevenson and Cao Li | Tuesday, September 7, 2021

On the NYT website, under the image, there are links of translations of this article into “Simplified” Chinese and “Traditional” Chinese for your ease and convenience.

La nouvelle donne afghane crée un facteur d’instabilité aux portes de la Chine

Un combattant taliban assiste à un rassemblement à Kaboul le 31 août 2021. HOSHANG HASHIMI/AFP
LE FIGARO : DÉCRYPTAGE - La propagande souligne la débâcle américaine à Kaboul, mais le retour des Talibans pose de lourds de défis pour la puissance chinoise, qui redoute une flambée d’attentats djihadistes contre ses intérêts au Pakistan.

«Échec total», jubile le Global Times. À Pékin, la presse officielle se délecte de la débâcle américaine en Afghanistan. «Les États-Unis sèment la destruction, pas la construction», a asséné Hua Chunying, porte-parole du ministère des Affaires étrangères. Les médias détaillent par le menu le chaos de l’évacuation occidentale et les ratés de l’armée américaine, accusée d’avoir tué des civils à l’aveugle. Ce retrait «terriblement embarrassant» devrait conduire à une amère «défaite» de Joe Biden et des démocrates aux élections à mi-mandat de 2022, prédit le Global Times, affilié au PC. Dimanche, lors d’une conversation téléphonique sans concession, le chef de la diplomatie Wang Yi a fait la leçon à son homologue américain, Antony Blinken, exigeant «des actes concrets» face au terrorisme et dénonçant un départ «hâtif». » | Par Sébastien Falletti | mardi 31 août 2021

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Biden's America against Xi's China: Struggle for Supremacy? | To the Point

Who can stop China's surge to global dominance? It's one huge question, and one huge challenge, that the new US president, Joe Biden, is already facing. Biden has inherited a divided and doubt-ridden America from his predecessor Donald Trump. Meanwhile, Xi Jinping 's China is both expansive and authoritarian. It's two rival systems apparently on collision course. So, on "To the Point" we ask: Biden's America against Xi's China: Struggle for supremacy?

Xi Jinping Calls on Trump to Improve US-China Relations amid Covid-19 Crisis

THE GUARDIAN: Phonecall between leaders came as China prepares to seal itself off from the world to stem ‘imported’ coronavirus cases

Chinese president Xi Jinping has called on Donald Trump to take “substantive actions” to improve relations between the two countries, as China prepared to shut its borders to foreign arrivals amid fears of infections coming from abroad.

On Friday, Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping held a phone call about the coronavirus outbreak in an attempt to repair strained relations, following weeks of traded barbs over the virus. According to state media, Xi told Trump in a phone call on Friday that US-China relations had reached an “important juncture”.

“Working together brings both sides benefits, fighting hurts both. Cooperation is the only choice,” he said. Xi said he hoped the US would take “substantive actions” to improve US-China relations to develop a relationship that is “without conflict and confrontation” but based on “mutual respect and mutually beneficial cooperation.”

Trump has continued to call the disease “the Chinese virus,” despite protestations from Beijing. Chinese diplomats have in turn pushed the idea that the virus, which emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, originated in the US.

Xi also said he hoped the US would take “effective measures” to safeguard the lives of Chinese citizens in the US, describing the pandemic as the “common enemy of mankind.” He said: “Only by united can the international community defeat it.” » | Lily Kuo in Shanghai | Friday, March 27, 2020

Saudi Crown Prince Defends China's Right to Put Uighur Muslims in Concentration Camps

THE TELEGRAPH: Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’’s crown prince, on Friday defended China’s use of concentration camps for Muslims, saying it was Beijing’s “right”.

"China has the right to carry out anti-terrorism and de-extremisation work for its national security,” Prince Mohammed, who has been in China signing multi-million trade deals much to the annoyance of his Western allies, was quoted as saying on Chinese state television.

Xi Jinping, China’s leader, told the crown prince the two countries must strengthen international cooperation on de-radicalisation to “prevent the infiltration and spread of extremist thinking”. » | Telegraph Reporters | Friday, February 22, 2019

China: North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un Is in Beijing for Talks with Xi Jinping