Editor’s Note for Tuesday, Feb 8, 2022

My thoughts today:

How should communists deal with capital and capitalists? This is a key question for Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 and a major subject of the theories and rhetoric behind his slogan, “common prosperity.”

Today, the Communist Party’s house newspaper, the People’s Daily, expounds on the need to “correctly understand and grasp the characteristics and behavior laws of capital.” (The original Chinese article is here, or click here for translation and commentary from Tracking the People’s Daily newsletter.)

The People’s Daily is very careful to repeat a message that Xi and his Party and government have been repeatedly communicating: that “preventing the disorderly expansion of capital does not mean we don’t want capital. It just means ensuring the orderly development of capital.”

In other words, there is no problem with the growth of capital, as long as the Party is in charge.

Our word of the day is: It does not mean we don’t want capital (不是不要资本 bùshì bùyào zīběn).

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief