What it means to be a billionaire in China

Having reached the age of 88, after a period of forced rest that some consider another confinement (the second excluding the humiliation during the cultural revolution), Deng Xiaoping decides to leave for the Great Journey to the South. Accompanied by his daughter Deng Nan, it passes through Shenzhen and Zhuhai, in the special economic zones where the new social-capitalist model is being tested, to then arrive in Shanghai, the city led by Jiang Zemin who came to power in Beijing after the Tiananmen Square massacre. Deng, who had given the green light to the repression and cheered the reformist Zaho Ziyang, had then been sidelined even though he could maneuver behind the scenes thanks above all to the People’s Liberation Army. The tour begins on January 18, 1992 and lasts until February 21, is accompanied by a series of speeches that give a boost to the new head of the party, a prisoner of the conservative wing, and mark the future cycle. One in particular contains a very clear message against Maoist ideologues starting with the phrase that remains in history as its motto: “It doesn’t matter if the cat is black or white, as long as it catches the mice”. Interpreted as the pinnacle of pragmatism and utilitarianism, it actually comes after a theoretical revision (profit comes from observing human nature, regardless of what Karl Marx thought) and a warning intended for successors: the government would lose the support of the people if it punished entrepreneurs for their success. Jiang soon changes gears by launching the “socialist market economy” formula and Deng’s political testament is respected until Xi Jinping takes power ten years ago and consolidates it since 2018: with the split between the party and the “red capitalists”, now turns his back on the architect of the new China, the man who has created more well-being for his people and for the world, wrote Henry Kissinger, his great admirer. While in his foreign policy the axis with Moscow, “hard as a rock”, he disavows another key precept. Just late in his life the old leader of the Long March had written his instructions in 24 characters and his explanations in 12 characters, using the classical poetic style. Xi denies the two most significant: “Always keep a low profile and never claim to have too much power.”